I am familiar with Baby Think It Over from my work with Soroptimist. A lot of our clubs pay to help schools buy the dolls, which are supposed to teach kids about the real world responsibilities of having a child. When Eden said she was going to bring home the doll, I was curious to see what it would entail. I have to say I thought it was a colossal waste of time, and curiously counterproductive. Each kid gets the doll for one evening. What lesson can be learned in one evening. One evening is a novelty, not a life-lesson. Secondly, the kids get to remove the batter pack at 10 p.m. Wow. Wouldn't it be great to turn off our parental responsibilities at 10 p.m.? But here's the most galling part. Kids who had sports responsibilities could hire a babysitter for their doll. The night after Eden watched her doll (who she named Magnolia), she watched her friend Juan's doll because he had a basketball game. From what I could gather, it was mostly boys who hired the babysitters. Meanwhile, my extremely nurturing and maternal daughter, was cuddling and rocking her baby all night and thought it was "fun." So let's see, what were the lessons learned: 1. Having a baby is "fun." 2. Taking care of babies is "women's work." 3. You can have a baby and continue to live your life as before, including playing sports. WHAT??? I don't know. Needless to say, eden heard about it from me and she agreed it was pretty lame. While I understand that Baby Think It Over is supposed to prevent teenage pregnancy, I don't think it's doing the job it was intended to do. At least not from my perspective.
