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.
Posted by Lawren Cole Galloway on Sunday, March 17, 2019
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.
"She was crying real tears while feeding him his bottle. She was begging me to help her because she just wanted to get some sleep. Yeah, no.”
Posted by Today Show on Tuesday, March 26, 2019
“On Sunday I made a big Southern-style dinner, and as soon as I set the table, the robot baby started crying,” Galloway told Today.com. “I’m telling you, it’s like it knew that Olivia was sitting down to have her dinner. She had to microwave her dinner three or four times because she had to feed the baby or burp the baby or rock the baby.”
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.
When 14-year-old Olivia brought an interactive baby home from school, her mom promised to play no part in the trials she…
Posted by Sharing is Caring on Friday, March 29, 2019
“Olivia failed her assignment. Having siblings in NO way prepared her for what it might be like to have her own child. This assignment should be mandatory for both boys and girls in high school,” Galloway said.
“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.”
Mum leaves daughter, 14, in charge of robot baby – with disastrous results https://t.co/nglP7wJCQS pic.twitter.com/8WlXQ7gMts
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) April 6, 2019
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.”
