Using the RealCare experience as a time for introspection and goal setting

All students in the 8th grade Health classes at Tower Heights Middle School in Centerville, Ohio, are required to write a paper to express their thoughts about what's important to them, their goals, some of the consequences of using drugs and alcohol, and some of the consequences of sexual activity, especially at their age. We call this assignment "Choices" as they most importantly express their thoughts on how their choices could affect their lives. They also write about what they believe the best choices they can make now and throughout high school. My goal is that they take time to reflect upon these issues. I am often impressed by their ideas and how they write from the heart. Many students this age have given serious thought to the kind of person they want to be. I encourage them to keep these papers and to get them out in a few years when they have more freedom and may find themselves in situations where they are confronted with making the right choice. Many of my students opt to take care of the RealCare Baby for a few days to experience a tiny taste of what it's like to care for an infant. I'd like to share these words from Fernanda from her paper concerning her experience from taking care of the simulator. The experience really opened her eyes as you can see from her comments:

"If I did get pregnant, this would affect my life tremendously. I would have to make a very hard decision about what to do with the baby . . . if I would have kept the baby I would have gone crazy! It was a life-changing experience. It has taught me so much about being a single, teen mother. I would have to drop everything I was doing and have to take care of this other human, while I still have to take care of myself. Financially, I wouldn't be able to support the baby and me by myself. I could care for it and love it but that wouldn't be enough to get me through. You have to be patient and be ready to not get any sleep.

“You have to be ready for the unexpected. I would probably need a lot of help and support from my family and friends. I would be emotionally unstable. Having to take care of myself and the baby would be difficult. When the baby cries and I don't know what to do it would be scary. I would be upset and angry at myself for having a baby that young. Of course I would love the baby . . . but I would still wish I could go all back to my life before the baby. The kids at school could also not be supportive and be mean and hateful. The father of my baby could break up with me or be with me through it all but he could be just as nervous and scared as me. It would be difficult for me to go back to school and do what I always wanted to do. It would also be hard to date again, because it would be hard to find a guy who would accept me and my kid and be fine with the fact that I have a kid. And dating me would kind of be like dating my kid, too. The best choice for me to make about being sexually active is to not start until I am older and emotionally stable or married. It is best to wait because I could get a disease and spread it to other people or I  could get pregnant and face tough decisions and I personally don't want any of that to happen, especially now."

Lori Mayo, 8th Grade Teacher
Tower Heights Middle School
Centerville, Ohio

Integrating family and cultural values into the RealCare experience

I worked in a school that had a high number of Native American students.  When one of my girls took the Baby home for the weekend, she was greeted at the door by her aunt who took her to a special “family meeting.”  In this meeting, the girl’s mother, aunts, grandmothers and older cousins presented her with clothing items for the baby and advice on how to care for the child. This helped to foster a sense of realism and responsibility in caring for the infant simulator much as she would need later in life for her real child. 

Marilyn Bennett, FACS Teacher
Palmer High School
Colorado Springs, Colorado

The social impact of carrying an infant simulator

This is a true story of what happened several years ago with the Baby Think It Over simulators (the first models that we had). It was near the winter holidays here in Michigan and one of my students (parents for the weekend) had to work. She gave her care key (see how old this story is) to a friend along with her Baby and all the gear. We were just getting started in the program so we fell short in the area of clothing for the dolls. So every "parent" left our school with the baby, a diaper bag, car seat and one or two receiving blankets. Ironically, the “babysitting” friend decided that she needed to get some holiday shopping done and proceeded to take the baby to a very busy, well known indoor mall. Evidently, several of the patrons at the mall noticed this young “mom” and baby who was not appropriately dressed for the weather outside. They reported her to mall security. Security was keeping an eye on her, and when she left the mall without dressing the baby properly, they called the police. The young lady was pulled over, and told to get out of the car and get the baby out of the car. She told the officers that it was a simulator and they firmly asked that she remove the baby from the car. She complied, and to their surprise, she was telling the truth.

The babies are so lifelike that it fooled shoppers at the mall, mall security and the local police. I always tell my students this story, to let them know that people are watching them, to see how they are treating their babies. I want them to take this assignment as seriously as they can.

Joette Morden, Life Management Teacher
Harrison High School
Farmington Mills, MI

Two years ago, I had a student who was very "into" taking care of her baby. She and a friend took the baby to Babies ‘R Us store and were trying on baby clothes and baby shoes on the simulator in the store. Apparently a woman was observing her from a bit of a distance. She approached my student and gently told her that she felt called to pray for my student and her baby!  My student did not know what to say, so she simply thanked the lady, never explaining that it was an infant simulator.

Kay Carter, FACS Teacher
Kalamazoo High School
Kalamazoo, MI

Interesting (and entertaining) true-to-life moments with RealCare Baby

This year our school received 12 older models of Realityworks infant simulators (Editors note: early models of the original Baby Think It Over infant simulators required the user to insert a key in the back of the Baby). I had 250 students take these babies home and 90 percent of them all said the same thing. “I now really appreciate all of what my parents did for me.” 

They now can value the sacrifices their parents made to raise them. The stories of the trials and tribulations just made me laugh. The looks they received when taking their child to the mall, dinner or church were priceless. And the lessons learn will last a LONG time. My favorite story was when a student had to sing in a chorus program at school the first night she had her “daughter.” During the show the mother of the student was to “babysit” while “mom” was on stage. Naturally the baby began crying right in the middle of the program. Out came the brown key so the baby could be fed. The mother stuck the key in and it broke off. Now she didn’t know what to do, and her daughter’s eyeballs were become the size of golf balls as she looked on from the stage. The mother got up and apologized to the audience, telling them it was her daughter’s school project and it wasn’t a real Baby, of course. With that, soft laugher and smiles were everywhere. 

The next morning the mother came in and she was still shaking trying to explain it wasn’t her daughter’s fault. The student was nervous with what was going to happen to her grade and the cost of replacing the baby, fearing my reactions. Needless to say, the night was exciting and as the choral director said, he was expecting a child to cry, but got a real laugh out of knowing it wasn’t a real child. 

This is a great program that parents and students all agree is a well worth while experience leaving a lasting impression about the importance of proper timing for having children.

Pat Szrejter, Life Choice Teacher
Don Estridge High Tech Middle School
Boca Raton, Florida

Taking the program to the next level for future motherhood issues

We use the RealCare infant simulator with our 8th grade inner city middle school students. This year we tried something different and that was to have a classroom of strictly girls, versus the usual mixed group of girls and boys. We were able to work closely with girls, especially when it came to integrating the Baby with teenage parenting, breastfeeding concerns and other important issues that personally affect females. Here's a beautiful photo of our girls last Friday before they took the babies home for the weekend!  

Sandy Fraioli & Denise Genest, FACS teachers
Roosevelt Middle School
New Britain, Connecticut

A lesson in diversity and acceptance to widen students’ view of the world

In our district, a teacher can request a student as a Teacher Assist to help with daily tasks. This past year, one of my teacher assists, Emily, was responsible for preparing our infant simulators to go home with students. She would check to assure contents of the diaper bag were correct, match wristbands and Baby IDs, dress the Babies for departure, and then check them and the diaper bag contents back in upon return. As Emily never had a chance to take a Baby home during her high school year, she requested that she carry the baby for her study hall time to ‘try it out.” Emily tried out a couple of the babies and upon her return stated, “I hate to say it, but I did not feel the same about carrying the African American baby as I did the Caucasian or Japanese baby. I never thought that I was prejudiced, but I guess I am. I am not sure how I feel about that. It sort of bothers me!”

As a teacher who grew up in a larger city, I guess I never gave much thought to the race of the Babies as they were distributed to students.  Because of Emily’s discovery, I have decided that I need to use some journaling experiences that allow students to be more aware of their feelings toward babies of different races and their ability to provide appropriate care for the infant.

DeLaine Stendahl, teacher
Whitehall Memorial High School
Whitehall, Wisconsin

Real-life proof that young people are taking the lessons seriously

I just had to tell this story!

Each morning as our FACS classes' two Real Care Babies are returned to the classroom, I unpack the diaper bags and toss the clothing and blankets into the washing machine. Recently, as I got to the bottom of one of the bags, there was an unopened condom in the bottom of the bag.  I was so shocked, I let out a strange noise when I saw it which drew the attention of my class as they were coming into the room. I am guessing this student took the RealCare Baby experience seriously enough that she wants to make SURE she doesn't get pregnant. I teach abstinence, but apparently this student is preparing for the worst case scenario!

I will never forget that morning when I discovered the little prize in the bottom of the "Cracker Jack" diaper bag!!