After Taking Robotic Baby Home For School Assignment, Teen Endures Strenuous Weekend

Dec 14, 2022 by apost team

High school electives are traditionally supposed to educate teenagers about things they'll need to know in adult life. While home economics, metal shop, and woodshop have somewhat gone by the wayside in most curricula, some schools still have classes designed to teach students some of life's harder lessons.

One notoriously frustrating course, which comes couched in broader lessons about health, the body, and child development, is the interactive baby. Different school systems have different language to refer to what is essentially a robotic baby dolled out to unsuspecting teenagers, most of whom only have a conceptual sense of what it takes to care for a newborn baby.

The assignment lives on as one of the most emotionally challenging the students will face, given most go into it assuming they'll merely need to offer the robo baby a bottle every now and again in order to receive a passing grade. However, the baby's robotics are a bit more advanced than that and can judge not only when the infant is not being fed or burped or changed in time but can also report on physical mishandling and other aspects of its care. All this makes the elusive A for the assignment all the more difficult to grasp. 

While many students experience some level of distress while caring for their needy robot, the near breakdown of a freshman, as retold by her mother, in 2019 captured the attention of parents and high schoolers everywhere. She detailed her daughter's experience with her robotic baby, William, and her slow descent into tears, earning empathy from other students and laughs from anyone who's had to deal with a real-life newborn. Like most freshmen, she must've assumed childcare would be easy and yet the dramatic pictures showed a different story. 

Mother Lawren posted a picture of the doll that her daughter, Olivia, brought home. She wrote, “Meet William. He’s Olivia’s interactive baby assignment for her Early Childhood Education Class. Now, meet Olivia with William. She’s had him since Friday night." They followed the post with a picture of her 14-year-old in tears. 

Normally, Friday would be relaxing, but the assignment required that the freshman care for the baby. Lawren reported that “Olivia had to warm her plate up 3 times. (William's) feedings were taking nearly 20 minutes, he required a burp, diaper change and about 12 minutes of rocking." Things only got worse. Lawren relayed, "After a disastrous dinner, Olivia went to take a shower. She loaded William up in his car seat and took him in the bathroom with her.” Unconventional, but it could work. 

While Olivia managed up to that point, she was far from mastering the task of motherhood. The night dissolved, and soon Olivia was "absolutely exhausted and ready to quit the class and give William back. (Maybe even throw him back).”

Remembering her own late nights burping babies, Lawren wrote, "My favorite moment so far (was) when she came into my room last night around 3 am crying real tears while feeding him his bottle. She was begging me to help her because she just wanted to get some sleep." Unsympathetic, her mother declined. While it was a rough night for Olivia, who ultimately failed the class, she can at least take comfort in knowing that she gave many parents a laugh.

apost.com

Did you have a similar assignment at your school? Let us know — and be sure to pass this article on to friends, family, as well as anyone similarly frustrated by robotic babies!