OH NO! My 13 Year Old has a Baby

[tarcone]

No, she wasnt pregnant. She is in FACs this semester and gets to bring home a robotic baby. It is supposed to simulate having a baby. Trying to scare teens away from getting pregnant.
A couple years ago my older daughter brought it home. The FACs teacher put it on hard. It woke my daughter up every 2 hours. And my wife. My daughter was eating breakfast the next morning, and the baby started crying. My daughter was yelling "that stupid baby wont shut up!" She was done. For which I was happy.

Well, this time, the baby has been quiet. It was turned on at 5 pm. And I just heard it cry for the first time.

Could be a long night for some people in my house.

[flere-imsaho]

Time to get earplugs, my friend.

[Danny]

That's cool.

[PilotMan]

I bet my mid twenties, still living at home, BIL wished he had learned this lesson before he moved in, and knocked up a teen addict.

[cuervo72]

A robot? Yiikes. My daughter had a sack of sugar inside a stocking (I did it in Jr. High with an egg). She lugged it around school, but by the weekend it pretty much stayed up in her room.

I'm not quite sure what the value in the exercise is. It's not going to succeed as a deterrent against having sex (which fwiw my daughter has shown no interest in) and it didn't adequately represent the responsibility required of a [good] parent (a robot...ok, that at least gets some of the annoyance factor). Pretty sure my daughter has no interest in having one any time soon anyway. So I didn't really get the point.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

I'm not quite sure what the value in the exercise is. It's not going to succeed as a deterrent against having sex (which fwiw my daughter has shown no interest in) and it didn't adequately represent the responsibility required of a [good] parent (a robot...ok, that at least gets some of the annoyance factor). Pretty sure my daughter has no interest in having one any time soon anyway. So I didn't really get the point.

short answer is that the attitudes your daughter has or has not evinced are not necessarily representative of her peers.

slightly longer answer is that it's not meant to deter them from having sex but rather to illustrate the consequences of unprotected sex. Boogie down without birth control and/or condoms? You, too, can have 2 am feeding wake-up calls.

It's less about scaring kids away from sex and more about making them think about more than 2 seconds in their future.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'd have to agree that at the very least it can't hurt (other than the parents nerves).

The most effective & motivational form of birth control I've encountered to date is the existence of Child #1.

[cuervo72]

I guess I really overestimate the typical kid.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

I guess I really overestimate the typical kid.

Don't feel too bad.

I had to Google to figure out what a FACS teacher was.

[flere-imsaho]

OK, I googled it too. Home Ec, right?

I feel Home Ec was a total missed opportunity when I was a kid. All I can recall doing was sewing and baking. Thankfully it was only a quarter, in rotation with Shop, Health and Art.

It could be done right and be pretty helpful. Like instead of sewing, teach how to actually use a washer & dryer, and maybe some basic ironing skills. Instead of baking, some basics of actual cooking. I mean, there's a ton of actually fun cooking classes that people pay actual money for, why not do a fundamentals skills section so you learn how to make a few basic meals?

And also teach kids how to use Quicken or something. Hell, get Intuit to sponsor it.

[tarcone]

They do a lot of what you guys are talking about now.

It was a miserable night. That stupid baby was up every 2 hours. Im exhausted and didn't do anything. My daughter was a mess all night. She couldn't get the baby to stop crying, so she started crying. My wife went in to help. Of course, all this commotion woke me up.

Going to be a long day at work.

[cougarfreak]

When I was in the classroom teaching about 15 years ago a student had one for a parenting class in our school. It started crying in the middle of a test I was giving. I put it in a file cabinet drawer when she couldn't get it to stop. You could still hear it. I tossed it out my door. That didn't sit too well with the other teacher, or principal.

[Dutch]

Congratulations, you have earned a FOFC Click-bait of the year nomination.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

OK, I googled it too. Home Ec, right?

I feel Home Ec was a total missed opportunity when I was a kid. All I can recall doing was sewing and baking. Thankfully it was only a quarter, in rotation with Shop, Health and Art.

It could be done right and be pretty helpful. Like instead of sewing, teach how to actually use a washer & dryer, and maybe some basic ironing skills. Instead of baking, some basics of actual cooking. I mean, there's a ton of actually fun cooking classes that people pay actual money for, why not do a fundamentals skills section so you learn how to make a few basic meals?

And also teach kids how to use Quicken or something. Hell, get Intuit to sponsor it.

We had a mandatory rotation of wood shop, metal shop, sewing, and cooking. I remember doing two projects in each of the first three, so we may have even had it twice. I learned how to do breakfast foods in cooking, which has been pretty handy (yay, French toast!) My kids had something similar. My daughter is taking "Life Skills" now as an elective (not sure why) and the baby was part of that. At the high school there is a mandatory class which deals with finances.

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

When I was in the classroom teaching about 15 years ago a student had one for a parenting class in our school. It started crying in the middle of a test I was giving. I put it in a file cabinet drawer when she couldn't get it to stop. You could still hear it. I tossed it out my door. That didn't sit too well with the other teacher, or principal.

This was one of my issues with it too. Just having to cart it around is a distraction added to the rest of the school day. Bad enough getting to and from class with the right stuff - the kids are not allowed to carry bags/backpacks - without adding a 5lb weight to that. And then having to do something with it during class.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

We had a mandatory rotation of wood shop, metal shop, sewing, and cooking.

Ours was a mandatory rotation of 2 out of 4 in 8th grade (metal shop, wood shop,home ec, typing). After that you only had to pick one for another couple of years(thank God) so I can type my ass off

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by tarcone

They do a lot of what you guys are talking about now.

It was a miserable night. That stupid baby was up every 2 hours. Im exhausted and didn't do anything. My daughter was a mess all night. She couldn't get the baby to stop crying, so she started crying. My wife went in to help. Of course, all this commotion woke me up.

Going to be a long day at work.

I'll just be honest: the f'n robot would have been in the garage shortly after midnight & a teacher would have been told to shove it into an uncomfortable orifice if they had a problem with that.

It's an over-the-line intrusion on an entire family afaic.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Ours was a mandatory rotation of 2 out of 4 in 8th grade (metal shop, wood shop,home ec, typing). After that you only had to pick one for another couple of years(thank God) so I can type my ass off

Typing was a completely different elective for us - one which I took. I don't think our schools offer it, but I really wish they did. Hunting and pecking drives me nuts.

[flere-imsaho]

Typing was an elective for me as well, and I am so, so happy I took it.

However, playing piano definitely helped.

[tarcone]

I took typing. I was terrible and still am. Luckily my Mom was a secretary at the school and the typing teacher liked her.

We also had Drafting as an elective. I took that, small engines, sewing and foods. Those were the 4.
We had to take a small engine apart and put it back together. Not my cup of tea.
Still not.

[stevew]

This exercise is ridiculous. So glad my daughters didn't get stuck with a robot baby.

[Butter]

Yeah, I had to take Home Ec, Wood Shop, and Typing.

Typing may well have been the most useful class I took in high school. Saves so much time.