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Oh, baby!
One by one, a select group of students at Mountain Home High School walked back into the classroom to mark the end of what many deemed a three-day ordeal they never want to repeat. Their bloodshot eyes and quiet demeanor did little to hide the fatigue, each student knowing their school day had just begun.
In their arms, they held the reason for their often sleepless weekend. Finally silent after three days of crying, fussing and at times screaming at all hours of the day and night, the babies each student returned to the school remained eerily quiet, marking the end of their assignment.
Starting Friday afternoon, each of these teens became parents "of a sort." They participated in the "Baby Think It Over" simulation as part of the school's teen living program.
Taught by Christy Lee for the past 14 years here, the project remains a pivotal part of her curriculum. This year also marked the first time the high school offered the class to freshman and sophomore students, which provided an effective lesson for teens in those age groups, Lee said.
"The purpose is to make them think about raising a baby in terms of all the responsibilities that go with them," Lee said. With Mountain Home's fairly high teen pregnancy rates, the class seeks to arm teens with the harsh reality of being a young mother or father in hopes of curbing the trend of children having children.
Despite dealing with the stresses of a newborn under more controlled conditions over just three days, the project does put a lot of stress on these teens, Lee said.
"It frustrates these kids. I've seen instances where children were crying" before the three days had passed, Lee added.
In previous years, students were assigned their temporary "wards" during the school week. In some instances, fatigue-ridden teens often fell asleep in class, prompting the school to make some needed changes. Since students can't bring actual babies to school, Lee felt it best to turn the assignment into a weekend-long experience to reduce its impact on actual school work.
Computerized devices inside each child seek to accurately replicate the unpredictability associated with newborns. Like actual babies, each of these "pseudo-children" are programmed to breathe, coo and, of course, cry -- usually often and often at the worst possible time. It tested each student's ability to deal with the stresses associated with being a teen parent.
Before the assignment, Lee had a stern warning to her "parents." Each baby could, in a sense, feel pain. For instance, anyone that forgot to brace their newborn's neck -- allowing the head to snap back -- dealt with a blood-curdling scream from their newborn. In addition, they lost points from their overall grade.
Those unwise enough not to care for their child in a timely manner faced additional consequences. In this "game," there were no time outs; only a growing stack of penalties for making wrong choices.
Even before the assignment began, students like Elizabeth Orban cringed as the clock ticked down to the 2 p.m. start time when each baby's onboard program switched on. The freshman felt she was stepping on egg shells waiting for the first time her daughter would cry.
"I feel like I'm holding a time bomb," Orban said while cradling her daughter, facing the realization that her baby could start crying at any time.
Other students like Dani Reed remained cautiously optimistic Friday afternoon. A sister of an older brother and two sisters, the sophomore sees the challenges new parents face every day. Reed's mother runs a home daycare, so the home remains filled with young children.
"I still think it's going to be kind of hard," said Reed as she cradled her temporary newborn. "I have to work after school, and I know I will not be getting enough sleep this weekend."
Sophomore Joy Collins faced something else she didn't expect -- the fact each child weighs in at eight pounds, adding to the realism and subsequent parental fatigue.
"It's going to be really different and time consuming," Collins said. "(However) I thought it would be interesting to be a parent for a weekend to see what it's like."
The class assignment placed an equal burden on the male students, like freshman Tyler Rios.
"I'm not planning on having any kids, but I wanted to see what it's like being a parent for just the weekend," Rios said. The teen hopes to wait until he's much older to even consider being a parent, "since life's too short," and he wants to enjoy what he can before he considers becoming a dad, he said.
Three days later, Friday's optimism typically turned to pessimism for many of Lee's students. It's a typical reaction, she added. At least 13 percent of them return to school with tears in their eyes, each of them physically and emotionally broken by the experience.
"I ... never ... want ... to ... do this again," stammered freshman Kyra Merrill as she walked into the classroom Monday morning with her baby in tow. "I'm not taking care of another baby. I swear, this kid screamed for five minutes straight. I lost count how many times it woke me up last night."
Merrill remains convinced to wait until she's much older before she even thinks about having children.
"I'd rather have a baby when I'm 10 years older; maybe when I'm something like 47," she added.
"I'm never having kids," said sophomore Kalynne Mecklin. "It was quiet at times, but most times all it would do is scream."
After taking a minute to calm down, Mecklin was "OK" with the overall experience. "I just don't like not having any sleep," she said.
Others like Brieanna Willis, a junior, admitted the experience proved frustrating but found ways to compensate the best she could.
"Real babies are easier," Willis said. "I like taking care of kids, so it's easier for me when they scream. You can't freak out over it."
Willis realized the best solution to succeeded over the past three days involved working around the baby's schedule. It doesn't work the other way around, she admitted.