Doll Babies
Last week the students in the child development class I teach took care of dolls as though they were real live babies. They did this from class time on Tuesday to class time on Wednesday. Obviously not all was totally realistic since these babies could not really cry or soil their diaper. Some of them couldn't even close their eyes, which greatly disturbed some of the onlookers who were told the baby was sleeping at certain times--when the schedule said it was time--but sleeping with open eyes???
Ahead of time we dutifully recorded the babies' names and ages, and mapped out feedings, diaper changes, awake times, and sleeping times. There was to be at least one night feeding, and one bathing time. The youngest baby was a newborn (no cord in evidence, however, but she was very small), and the oldest was three months old. One had apparently begun teething, as evidenced by the only bottle the mother could locate. It had the tip of the nipple bitten off.
So Sophie and Bridget and the other babies went along to class, to the lunch table, or to the nursery for naps. In the car they were to be strapped in (although they did this in a makeshift way). In the evening one of them went to Applebee, and another to the youth Bible study. Babysitters were willing to fill in, and the babies got passed around quite a lot.
By Thursday the girls in the class had hatched a plan for the guys at school to take a turn with this baby parenting thing. Wes (principal) had made a comment earlier that made us all think he would be in favor, so the first part of Thursday's class was spent in creating child care schedules to pass off to the guys, along with the babies. We divided the guys and the babies into two groups, and assigned the first group to the Thursday noon to Friday morning baby sitting schedule. The switch to the second group was to happen on Friday morning and continue till dismissal time on Friday.
Most of the guys were fairly good sports, although Jacob's initial comment was, "I think this is a bad idea." They all gathered around for the diaper changing lesson Euni gave Seth. The pinning was a bit of a struggle (Wes provided the "ouching" sound effects.), and there was some concern about the cloth diaper and the cloth body of the doll having ended up pinned together. "Stays on better that way," was Seth's matter-of-fact explanation.
Seth gave me another chuckle when he was busily burping his baby during comp class. This baby was quite small, and threatened to overbalance on his shoulder, with the eyes able to see right down Seth's back. Then Seth said, "It smells like . . . " and I forgot to listen to how he finished it--I was that worried about how he was going to finish that sentence with the diaper several inches away from his nose as it was. (He was actually talking about a very different subject.)
Seth was also the one who thought to pull the cap down over his baby's eyes when she was supposed to be sleeping, and her eyes stayed wide open. This was the baby who went along to Bible study.
I hope a few things become a little more obvious before any of the guys actually become parents. A one-handed grip around the neck for transfer, and using a baby's arm as a handle are two things I witnessed that would definitely have to go. I saw one baby being given a bottle by this method: 1) Stand the baby on your lap, facing away from you. 2) Take the bottle and stab the nipple into the baby's mouth. 3) Hold the bottle there with one hand. 4) With the other hand, get on with your comp tasks. I also hope that no baby 3-months old or younger ever gets thrown up into the air as some of these babies did.
Rumor has it that one baby received hardly any care at all during the evening and overnight when she went home with her male babysitter. Hey, we're not getting a grade or any credit for this, right? That's another thing that's gotta go.
*************************
Several weeks ago after church Wanda gave me the idea that resulted in this "baby" activity at school. She spent part of her childhood in an orphanage in Georgia, and attended public schools and had various interventions for troubled young people. One of the activities she had to participate in was to care for an egg. Every student drew a face on an egg and gave it a name. The egg had to go everywhere with the class member for a period of time--one week maybe?
The eggs were not hardboiled, and they didn't all survive the caregiving experiment.
I reasoned that dolls would be a closer approximation to a real baby, although I understand that the care required to keep an egg intact would have added a dimension that dolls didn't provide.
I had prayed for an idea to liven up the child development class a bit, and I loved seeing how God provided what we needed--through Wanda's long ago experience as a troubled teen in Georgia.
Wanda is now a loving, responsible parent of three young children. Someday my students will be like that--caring and capable, and with a good high school memory to tell others about.
Ahead of time we dutifully recorded the babies' names and ages, and mapped out feedings, diaper changes, awake times, and sleeping times. There was to be at least one night feeding, and one bathing time. The youngest baby was a newborn (no cord in evidence, however, but she was very small), and the oldest was three months old. One had apparently begun teething, as evidenced by the only bottle the mother could locate. It had the tip of the nipple bitten off.
So Sophie and Bridget and the other babies went along to class, to the lunch table, or to the nursery for naps. In the car they were to be strapped in (although they did this in a makeshift way). In the evening one of them went to Applebee, and another to the youth Bible study. Babysitters were willing to fill in, and the babies got passed around quite a lot.
By Thursday the girls in the class had hatched a plan for the guys at school to take a turn with this baby parenting thing. Wes (principal) had made a comment earlier that made us all think he would be in favor, so the first part of Thursday's class was spent in creating child care schedules to pass off to the guys, along with the babies. We divided the guys and the babies into two groups, and assigned the first group to the Thursday noon to Friday morning baby sitting schedule. The switch to the second group was to happen on Friday morning and continue till dismissal time on Friday.
Most of the guys were fairly good sports, although Jacob's initial comment was, "I think this is a bad idea." They all gathered around for the diaper changing lesson Euni gave Seth. The pinning was a bit of a struggle (Wes provided the "ouching" sound effects.), and there was some concern about the cloth diaper and the cloth body of the doll having ended up pinned together. "Stays on better that way," was Seth's matter-of-fact explanation.
Seth gave me another chuckle when he was busily burping his baby during comp class. This baby was quite small, and threatened to overbalance on his shoulder, with the eyes able to see right down Seth's back. Then Seth said, "It smells like . . . " and I forgot to listen to how he finished it--I was that worried about how he was going to finish that sentence with the diaper several inches away from his nose as it was. (He was actually talking about a very different subject.)
Seth was also the one who thought to pull the cap down over his baby's eyes when she was supposed to be sleeping, and her eyes stayed wide open. This was the baby who went along to Bible study.
I hope a few things become a little more obvious before any of the guys actually become parents. A one-handed grip around the neck for transfer, and using a baby's arm as a handle are two things I witnessed that would definitely have to go. I saw one baby being given a bottle by this method: 1) Stand the baby on your lap, facing away from you. 2) Take the bottle and stab the nipple into the baby's mouth. 3) Hold the bottle there with one hand. 4) With the other hand, get on with your comp tasks. I also hope that no baby 3-months old or younger ever gets thrown up into the air as some of these babies did.
Rumor has it that one baby received hardly any care at all during the evening and overnight when she went home with her male babysitter. Hey, we're not getting a grade or any credit for this, right? That's another thing that's gotta go.
*************************
Several weeks ago after church Wanda gave me the idea that resulted in this "baby" activity at school. She spent part of her childhood in an orphanage in Georgia, and attended public schools and had various interventions for troubled young people. One of the activities she had to participate in was to care for an egg. Every student drew a face on an egg and gave it a name. The egg had to go everywhere with the class member for a period of time--one week maybe?
The eggs were not hardboiled, and they didn't all survive the caregiving experiment.
I reasoned that dolls would be a closer approximation to a real baby, although I understand that the care required to keep an egg intact would have added a dimension that dolls didn't provide.
I had prayed for an idea to liven up the child development class a bit, and I loved seeing how God provided what we needed--through Wanda's long ago experience as a troubled teen in Georgia.
Wanda is now a loving, responsible parent of three young children. Someday my students will be like that--caring and capable, and with a good high school memory to tell others about.
posted by Mrs. I at
4:28 AM
2 Comments:
One thing my dau-in-laws have pointed out: when the children are left in the care of the Daddy, that dad is NOT babysitting! (You don't "babysit" your own children.)
By
Mary A. Miller, at 11/14/2009
That was funny!! I wonder what people thought when a teenager walked into Applebees with a doll?
By
Dorcas Byler, at 11/15/2009
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