Being a parent is among the hardest jobs in the world, and what better way to teach that tough lesson to young people than by throwing them headfirst into the chaos? That’s what happened to a group of 11th-graders in a class called Raising Healthy Children at the Chippewa Secondary School in Ontario, Canada. The kids had to take home a lifelike baby doll and “parent” it over a weekend, and their teacher Andrea Lefebvre recently shared some hilarious text messages they sent that prove this parenting gig is not for the faint of heart.
“The babies are back,” reads a post about the assignment on the Chippewa Secondary School Facebook page. “Looking forward to class discussions about the experiential learning that happened this weekend. ? Everyone is looking a tad tired this Monday morning.”
Along with a photo of the dolls students used, the post also included several screenshots of text messages that show kids’ confusion, agony and exhaustion. One student, worried about taking the baby into the cold weather, asks, “Can I put the child in my bag?”
Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019
Another sends the question pretty much every new parent has: “Do I wait for it to make noise to touch the baby, or should I be constantly holding it?”
Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019
You can tell things are getting rough when one student writes, “I really need a quiet time because he won’t stop [whimpering], and I’ve tried everything, and it’s been going on for an hour.”
Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019
Finally, one student begs, “Can you shut off my baby? Hello, Miss Lefebvre, can you please shut [off] the child?”
Posted by Chippewa Secondary School on Monday, November 18, 2019
The students’ reactions to the assignment felt like a bit of poetic justice for parents who read the post. Of the 3,000 comments the post has gotten since it was shared, many are poking fun at the kids for not being able to handle the tough job of caring for a newborn.
“Welcome to parenting! Best birth control everrrr,” one commenter writes. “Wish all high school students had to experience this for a whole weekend!”
Others thought the assignment could have been even harder.
“I am a mom of twins,” one commenter adds. You should do a random twin parenting once in a while just to keep it interesting.”
Another writes, “Nah, that’s the easy stage. Make a robot toddler that destroys your entire house and all your belongings every single day like it’s his life’s mission. No shut off button included.”
Of course, there were some who had an assignment like this when they were in school and ended up realizing they were born to be parents.
“Waaaaay back our home ec class was the first in the state to get these dolls,” one person shares. “I was THRILLED. I got the preemie [baby], and had the best week of my life. At the end of the week the paper came out to interview us. All the other kids whined through the interview and talked about how they had essentially been scared straight and never wanted sex or babies. I said I loved it and I would grow up to have 6 kids!!! (I am now the mother of 9).”
According to a 2016 feature published on Bloomberg.com, infant simulators have been used by more than 6 million students at 17,000 U.S. schools since their invention in 1992. The original purpose of the simulators was to help prevent teen pregnancy, but the jury is still out on whether or not they are actually effective in doing that.
A 2016 study published in the journal Lancet followed about 2,800 Australian female students from 2003 to 2006 to see if caring for an infant simulator actually led to them delaying pregnancy. About 1,200 of the girls cared for the simulators while the rest took normal classes. In the end, 8% of the girls in the simulator classes got pregnant before age 20 while only 4% of girls who took normal classes did.
More research is likely needed to determine the true benefits of these fake babies, but they do serve the important purpose of showing teens the magnitude of stress and exhaustion that can come with caring for a child. And, as this teacher’s post proves, they also serve the purpose of giving grownups a good laugh as they watch teens struggle to get control over a screaming baby robot.
