The demon baby is an atrocity. The Baby Think It Over, is a robot baby that is programmed to make your life absolutely miserable for a weekend. It’s like a roller coaster that you instantly regret getting on after you get buckled in – and from October 9 to 12 of this year, I rode that roller coaster. When I was young, I loved going in the nursery at church to help with the little kids, so I was shocked when I brought the baby home because it was nothing like I expected. With the soaring highs of anticipation, the dark lows of sleep deprivation, I finally slowed to the bright light of realization that a weekend with the robot baby was actually a good thing. 

The robot baby is part of a summative assignment in Infant Development, one of the classes offered at East. Every student in the class is expected to take the baby home. It turns on Friday at 4 p.m. and turns off on Monday morning. I was supposed to take the baby home last March, but with COVID-19 suspending classes last year, I had to wait until the fall. When the time came to take the baby home, I was so excited to share the experience with my friends and take the baby places, proving that I could take care of it on my own. 

But the baby, who I named Jamal,  turned on just as I was leaving to go work the sidelines of a football game as a manager. I immediately had to find a babysitter that would be able to take care of a robot baby which is programmed to act like a real baby, needing to be fed by a bottle, burped, rocked, and have its diaper changed, especially at the worst times. Also, the robot baby is recording your every move, telling your teacher how quickly you responded to its needs and whether you cared for it carefully, versus letting its neck slip or shaking it out of frustration.

The first night, I got 3 hours of sleep, but not all at once. And that’s when my excitement about my time with the robot baby quickly turned to pain, annoyance, anger, sadness and back to pain. My parents didn’t want me to go out after the football game, only because they were watching him and were sick of it. So I was stuck at home with the baby. Apparently, having a baby limits your freedom. And, Jamal wanted to eat constantly and when he wasn’t eating he wanted to be rocked. 

On Saturday, I took Jamal to Freddy’s to eat and then to Orange Leaf, where I ran into a cute boy who didn’t give me a second look because I had a car seat and a baby. That night, I laid in bed and watched Netflix and tried not to wake him up. However, I realized my mistake was that I should have been sleeping when he was sleeping because he was up all night feeding and fussing. 

Sunday morning came and I stormed downstairs and begged my older sister to take the baby for a few hours, even though it was her birthday. I was desperate. The day dragged on. We had an outside birthday dinner at home for my sister and the baby cried and we took turns trying to quiet him. Fun. That night, exhausted and over it, I went to bed. Jamal woke up every hour and at 3 a.m., I finally had it. I emergency shut down the baby and went back to sleep. Sadly, while sleeping, I kept dreaming that I heard the baby crying and woke up. 

I am not proud of turning the baby off and not finishing the last 4 hours. But I did receive a 100% because of the good report the baby gave of my responsiveness and care. More than the grade, though, the experience of having the robot baby for the weekend showed me how hard it is to have a baby, how time consuming it is, how much struggle there is to get help with it, and how it disrupts your social life, too. I think every high schooler who plans to become a parent should take a robot baby home for a weekend. It’s a wild, unforgettable (think PTSD), scary ride.