At Elm Street School some children have been crying, but not all about homework assignments. The eighth graders currently in health class are taking on the role of being young mothers and fathers. The idea of this activity is to teach teens the responsibility of having a child and to understand how hard tending to a baby really is.

These babies that are being cared for by the teens come from a company called RealCare Parenting Program. This company offers a great experience for teens everywhere.

When the teen receives their child, it is for a one month stage. The student will either receive a Caucasian baby, an African-American baby, a Hispanic baby, or even an Asian baby. The babies are randomly given to each student with the following materials; a diaper bag that carries one bottle, one blanket, and two diapers, (one diaper on the baby and one in the bag used to change the baby when necessary). The student will also be given an ID bracelet that will be used to ‘scan’ his/her baby when it cries. This tells the baby that its mother or father is caring for the baby rather than someone else.

Like any baby, these babies also need to be fed, changed, burped, and even rocked. The student will know when they have attended to the baby’s needs when it makes a coo noise sensing happiness and satisfaction. But, as I mentioned earlier, the student must always remember to ‘scan’ their baby before trying to attend to one of the needs.

It is so unbelievable how realistic the babies are. Even when they’re sleeping they make noises such as light or heavy breathing. One’s baby may even cough at times. Even though the babies can be fun and interesting, there’s a lot of hard work that comes with them. I know, because I tended to one of the babies, that one may even lose sleep while caring for it. The baby can have a want or need at any hour of the night Whether it may cry every 45 minutes or every two hours the baby’s needs always need to be met. When the baby first needs something it will start off with somewhat of a whimper. Then, as the baby becomes more upset, the cry will get louder and louder. If the student does not tend to the baby or accomplish its needs, the baby will record what time the need was wanted and what need it was.

So, as the baby is being taken care of by the student, it is also recording how well the student is doing. One need that has to be met every second of caring for the baby is supporting its neck. For if the student does not support, the neck the baby will experience a head trauma and shriek very loudly; then it will need to be rocked for a matter of minutes.

While I was taking care of the baby, I was assigned with a lot of emotions running through me. At times, I would feel attached to the baby and really fall in love with it. But at other times I would feel stressed and under pressure when I could sometimes not figure out why my baby was crying. I know I learned a lot from this experience and I now know how much maturity and responsibility is needed to handle a child. I also realized that at 13 I am definitely not ‘mommy material.’