Posted on 01/18/2020 5:39:25 AM PST by daniel1212
Today, the RealCare Baby 3 infant simulator is a fantastically sophisticated, computer-programmed doll that costs up to $1,000 to replace if you lose it. (I know because I had to sign a waiver; Anna’s school has six of them, provided through a grant from a local education foundation.) The student wears a corresponding wristband that logs his or her responses to the baby through a radio frequency identification tag. Then she — and most of the caregivers are female — has to determine what the baby needs, based on distinctly different cries. “Just like a real baby, you eventually kind of can tell — that’s a fussy, I-just-need-to-be-rocked cry or that’s a really hungry cry,” says Samantha Forehand, marketing communications manager for Realityworks, the small Wisconsin company that makes them.
The fake baby must be fed, burped, changed, and soothed, and though its needs may seem random, its patterns are real. The programming is based on the habits of real babies, logged by real parents. There are 14 different programs with easy, medium, or hard settings selected or randomized by a teacher before the baby is sent off with its caretaker on a Friday night. A weekend immersion program is recommended; by Sunday, the students are usually crying, too
The RealCare Baby has a patented neck with sensors that can detect if its head is not supported properly, prompting a unique cry that issues an ominous warning. It also registers three other “abuses” — shaking the baby, holding it upside down, or physical abuse — and records neglect if the student doesn’t tend to it. Unlike an egg or a sack of flour, this baby gives reports on how it has been treated. And it resists baby-sitting by a willing relative: the doll only responds to the wristband worn by the student who brought it home. That’s the genius and the curse of it. If she fails, everyone will know — the maternal guilt is built right in.
My daughter was infinitely patient with the baby, named Lila, but she quickly adopted the habits of a harried mom...By the third day, she was frustrated that she couldn’t find time to take a shower...I watched the stress creeping up on my daughter and tried to be a good grandmother.
I remembered that pressure — there was no escape. I hated that she felt it, already. ...This baby never had a dirty diaper. Unlike real babies, RealCare Babies are fluid-free. They don’t consume, spill, spit, or emit anything, let alone shoot it across the room in projectile fashion. Yes, Lila took a long time to burp, I granted. But at least she didn’t spit up all over herself afterward and need a complete wardrobe change “every single time, even in the middle of the night,” ...
Anna has always been a natural with children — she’s just like my mother in that way — and her devotion to a fake baby was remarkable. As a bonus, she suddenly seemed to recognize all the things I was doing for her. My independent, chronically dissatisfied teenager was being appreciative.
The RealCare Baby is used in 67 percent of school districts in the country...Whether this endeavor actually deters teen pregnancies is an open question.
Good to see you’re still around! Come by gd.com once in a while and say hi!
Real Care Joe Biden, for families who don’t have a creepy uncle, but want one.
Proud moment.
Hi, Tax-chick-!
“ It’s a little sling-chair on a metal frame with a battery-powered motor that makes it vibrate while the baby sleeps peacefully for hours and hours. “
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The first time I saw that on a clip I almost fell out of my chair! It allows the baby to look around if it’s a ‘watcher,’ and that is such a plus!
My older son was such a ‘watcher,’ and we purchased multiple baby seats to get the one he was happy with as he watched the actions of those around him.
My first rational thought was to wonder if they make those for adults!
RealCare Babies are fluid-free. They don’t consume, spill, spit, or emit anything, let alone shoot it across the room in projectile fashion.
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Thereby eliminating a significant percentage of infant care.
Sadly, that would be a unit programmed by demons. May God grant her "repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." (2 Timothy 2:25)
It's not real!
This is all just BS nonsense. Let kids be kids.
An old picture or a wax figure of your dad or President Regan may not be "real" either, but such represent something, and treating a representation of something precious like it was a dog bone - which is how liberals often treat patriotic representations - inculcates disrespect.
Once kids begin to treat representations as trash than it is easier to do so in real life.
I can say if I developed the product I would have it screaming bloody murder, and have a camera in it watching those kids pee their.
Digital isn’t real.
Yes, but it remains that abusing a life-like representation, which is there to train you how to treat a real one, does not say much for the one who does it, and can actually reveal some negative aspects of a person.
I did plenty of bad stuff myself, but when we played tackle football, in T-shirts and jeans it meant there was a consequence to force (except when we pushed the 300lb kid from behind) to gain yardage:).
Digital isn’t real.
Sadly it seems some kids does not fully recognize the distinction, and suppose you can act real life is like it was a video game, or that characters in the former are like those of the latter. But trying to run like Gale Sayers will wake you up.
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