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Gazette, The (Cedar RapidsIowa City, IA)
Fake babies teach teens lesson Dorothy de Souza Guedes The Gazette Published: October 10, 2005CEDAR RAPIDS It was a bit unusual that the phone rang three times before my son answered my call on a recentschool day afternoon. For a few seconds after he answered, all I could hear was an infant crying screaming,actually in the background. I started giggling. "Not now," my eighth grader shouted, abruptly hanging up the phone.
I still was laughing a few minutes later when he called me back. It seemed Connor's experience with Baby Think ItOver, a parenting exercise involving programmable "babies" and designed to teach teens the consequences ofbecoming parents too early, had gotten off to a rocky start. His baby, "Adam," was fussy.
"Not a word," my stressedout 13yearold ordered.
The whole experience was hilarious until I got to thinking about having a teen parent and screaming infant asroomies. Not so funny.
Census figures from 2000 noted that nearly 19,000 Iowa households reported grandparents living with grandchildrenand 42 percent of those households had no parents present.
Iowa's teen pregnancy rate births, miscarriages and abortions went from 67 per 1,000 in 1992 to 55 per 1,000 in2000. During that time, rates dropped in all 50 states, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute in February 2004.Still, thousands of teens become parents each year.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District has been using the Baby Think It Over program for eight years to
BABY, PAGE 6A
Baby/Students learn about responsibility
From 1A
teach its eighth graders the responsibilities of raising a child. The students are among the thousands of teensnationwide who get to test their parenting skills with a RealCare Baby.
Lee Rose, Connor's wellness and consumer science teacher at Harding Middle School, 801 Golf St. NE, said parentscan opt out of the program, but most don't.
Harding students check out supplies at the end of one school day then turn in the baby the next morning. Manyhardly can keep their eyes open the next morning and are desperate to get rid of the baby, Rose said.
The babies record information that program coordinators can read later.
Magnetic bracelets students wear fit into a special hole in the baby's back when the student holds the baby. Thestudent cannot remove the bracelet without cutting it off. Thus, teachers can know whether a student has begged,bribed or paid someone else to take over.
Removing the bracelet is an option for temporary parents too stressed out to deal with the experience. "That tells methey realize they are too frustrated to take care of this baby, which in our program is designed to be a cry for help,"Rose said.
Unlike real babies, the electronic ones babies come with instruction booklets. Harding students watch an
instructional video twice and practice in class before getting a RealCare Baby for a night at home. They also view avideo on a real baby's first year of development, including how babies communicate.
Which often is by crying, I might add.
Connor had to put down the Game Cube controller and turn up the volume on the TV to hear his shows over thebaby's cries when "Adam" demanded to be fed, changed or burped the night our household expanded by one. Iparticipated by rocking the little guy Adam, not Connor for about 30 minutes during "Oprah."
Adam cried at 1 a.m., 4 a.m., 6 a.m. then again for 30 minutes starting at 7 a.m. just when Connor was getting readyfor school. Connor was in charge for all of it.
Will the program have a lasting effect on Connor?
"I'm never having a kid. It's murder just carrying this around," Connor said as he put the baby, in its car seat,backward into the car for the trip to school the next morning.
"Was parenting harder than you thought it would be?" I asked.
"Not so much hard as aggravating," he answered.
I hear ya.
Contact the writer: (319) 3988318 or [email protected]
Illustration: COLOR PHOTO
Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette
These are some of the Baby Think It Over dolls that Lee Rose, wellness and consumer science teacher at HardingMiddle School, uses in her class. The dolls can be programmed to cry or demand attention from the student whotakes the doll home for the night.
These are some of the Baby Think It Over dolls that Lee Rose, wellness and consumer science teacher at HardingMiddle School, uses in her class. The dolls can be programmed to cry or demand attention from the student whotakes the doll home for the night.
Copyright (c) 2005, Gazette Communications, Inc.
