Three Boys and a Baby

It seems a very very long time ago since I was in high school and in that time a lot has changed. I'm sure there will be many more changes to come by the time Abby gets there. Over the course of my high school career I took several home ec/family studies/sociology type classes. One of those classes had a parenting project that was meant to simulate having child(ren) of your own. So everyone in the class put their hand in a basket and pulled out a sheet of paper that were "birth certificates" for our little bundles of joy. I ended up with a baby girl who I named Jasmyne Elizabeth. Spelt with a "y" because, well it was the 80's. Thank God I waited until I was almost 30 to have kids. My tastes have definitley matured.

I think it goes without saying that Jasmyne was the cutest little chicken egg you ever did see. Yes, along with our birth certificates we each got a raw egg that was to help us simulate the parenting experience. I think we had to care for these "children" for a week. So everywhere I went along came Jasmyne in the little pink basket I had for her. Being a parent now I feel I can safely tell you that carrying around an egg in no way simulates having a child to take care of. Little Jasmyne couldn't cry, wet herself, throw up, scream, laugh or even smile. She just sat there in her basket, happy (I think) to be carried along to wherever I was going. I currently have a similar relationship going with my purse.

As I mentioned earlier high school has changed, a lot. As I was getting ready to leave work yesterday afternoon 3 employees arrived to start their shifts after school. They are your typical teenaged boys with all the appropriate teenaged boy acessories like various facial piercings and large baggy pants. Imagine my surprise when I realized they were also carrying a baby. Mike thought it was an actual baby, but no. It was a "computerized" baby. It is programmed to act like an actual newborn. It also records every thing you do or don't do with the baby. Things like how long you allowed the child to cry before responding or if you kept the head supported at all times.

It was an interesting little scene I had before me, so I hung around to watch for a moment. All three of them needed to start work at the same time which was in a few minutes. The problem being the baby was hungry. So one of the guys was sitting feeding the baby while the others changed. This led to a discussion about supporting the head and the best way to pick up a baby. I continued to watch as they carefully placed the baby in it's car seat tried to find a way to prop the bottle up while they finished gettting ready. Now they were discussing the best way to set the child up with it's bottle for a minute or two. Now the "Dad" had to bring the baby to work with him because he hadn't been able to find a sitter for the little guy. Of course that isn't something that's likely at most of our jobs so it's not a perfect project, but it's a lot more realistic than Jasmyne was. Listening to the guys talk I could tell they were obviously getting at least an inkling to what it was like to look after a baby. I hope they follow it up with a lot of discussion in class afterwards. It would be the perfect opportunity to go over a lot of the common issues and stresses that go with adding another very dependent person to your life.

A little baby poll to close this one up..... Which name to you prefer:
Boy: Aiden or Lucas
Girl: Jenna or Emma or Sarah

Drop me a note and let me know!