A Georgia teen learned how difficult it is to care for a newborn baby after she took him an electronic robotic infant for an Early Childhood Education parenting class.
“Meet William. He’s Olivia’s interactive baby assignment for her Early Childhood Education Class. Now, meet Olivia with William,” her mother, Lawren Galloway, wrote on Facebook, showing the 14-year-old girl with the baby.
“She’s had him since Friday night. She is absolutely exhausted and ready to quit the class and give William back. (Maybe even throw him back) It’s definitely been a learning experience,” Galloway, 38, wrote.
At one point, Oliva asked her at around 3 a.m. to help her.
When she approached her mother, Oliva “was crying real tears while feeding him his bottle. She was begging me to help her because she just wanted to get some sleep,” she wrote, adding “yeah, no.”
Galloway said she couldn’t help but laugh.
Oliva also said she had to take baths instead of showers, describing the whole faux baby-raising experience as “horrible.”
“Sometimes I would just be crying in the middle of the night because it would not stop (crying). It also would not burp,” she added. ”It takes like 40 minutes of just hitting it in the back to get it to burp. Then it finally burps, and then 10 minutes later it wants to do the whole thing over again. I’m so tired.”
According to the Today.com report, she was given a failing grade because she didn’t rock the fake baby when needed, and points were taken away for not holding it properly. The robotic child has sensors.
“It turns out I broke its neck seven times,'' she told the news outlet. ”I have no clue how. I thought I did so well. I took care of that baby.”
Oliva ended up redeeming herself when she took care of a second robot baby, named John, according to Today.com.
“She took it a bit more seriously this time,'' Galloway said. ”She got used to how often it wants to eat, and she was ready with the diapers.”
Galloway said she’s happy that students are taking the class, saying that both girls and boys should do it.
“You would think that with all of her siblings that (Olivia) would have some kind of clue, but she was completely clueless,'' she added. ”Just because a child grows up with siblings, it doesn’t mean they’re ready for parenthood at all.”
Galloway said her daughter can hold her 1-year-old, Violet, for 10 minutes at a time.
“I might have trusted her more before this,'' she told Today.com. ”But I am proud of her. She did come through the second time around.”
