For Child Development class every year, the Baby Think It Over dolls torment its victims for a sleepless weekend of crying and wailing. It can actually be argued that the dolls are an effective means of birth control for teens who don’t want to repeat the experience.

     The process of getting a doll for the weekend requires only parental permission and free time.

     “Students get a permission form signed by parents. The select a weekend and take a doll home from Friday to Monday,” Child Development teacher Jamie Cantrell said.

     The necessities of the weekend require near constant attention because the babies need the same things that real babies need.

“They cry for four things: food, diaper, [and when they need to be] rocked or burped. They also make breathing noises when they sleep, which is sometimes creepy. And they coo when they are happy. If you tilt its head back it screams for a while,” junior Emily Strassner said.

Each doll is meant to represent the hardships of having a real baby at home. It isn’t quite as pressuring, because this doll can’t get hurt or die, but the dolls are supposed to make each “parent” feel like he or she has a legitimate responsibility.

“”The company, Baby Think It Over, programmed fifteen ‘real’ babies’ schedules into these dolls. The amount of care and time the students have to spend caring for these dolls is pretty accurate. The only things they don’t have to do are prepare formula, dirty diapers, and etcetera. Real babies are a lot harder,” Cantrell said.

It is argued that this project is an effective way to keep teens in school from accidentally having kids of their own; it shows how difficult it is to have such a big responsibility..

“Students who think they can handle a child before taking the doll home come back with a different perspective. In order to prevent teen pregnancies the dolls are an excellent tool; however, educating students on reproduction also needs to occur,” Cantrell said.

The babies teach a lesson of how difficult it can be, even for just a weekend, to have a child of his or her own. Still, people make bad choices and accidents may happen. The best way to keep from accidental pregnancy is to abstain.

“Nationwide, teen pregnancies are decreasing. Abstinence, monogamy and safe sex are being practiced by millions of teens. Some students think everyone is having sex — they aren’t,” Cantrell said.