Students in Amador’s child growth and development class have recently taken home an animatronic baby for four days. For this annual project, the students take care of the baby all day, which requires them to wake up in the middle of the night and look after of the baby during class. 

“I didn’t expect that it would wake me up frequently in the middle of the night and sometimes the baby would cry while feeding so I had to rock it, the practice we had wasn’t actually like the real thing, it was much more difficult,” said Ellie Grant (‘22).

The long term substitute for the class, Steve Dady, prepared students by having the baby cry during class and having the students figure out how to stop the crying. Even with the preparation though, the class realized nothing could prepare them for constant care. 

“When I took care of the baby myself it lasted about 15 to 20 minutes which was a lot longer than the practice,” said Grant.

During their four days the students had to take the baby to all their classes, which taught them how difficult it would be to have a child while being in high school. Though the baby was plastic, injuries still caused damage and influenced the students’ grades since they were being tracked by the teacher. It was necessary for the students to protect it from head and neck trauma. 

“The biggest challenge was other students in my classes trying to hit the baby,” said Anastasia Wharton (‘24). 

This project gives them a realistic representation and more understanding on what taking care of a baby truly entails. 

“The biggest thing that I learned is that it’s just insane. Mothers have to bring their children everywhere even if they want to go take a shower or go to the bathroom or go to the grocery store. It’s just a lot more difficult to take a child. It will cry in the middle of the public,” said Grant.