How does it feel to be a parent of an infant? The Child Development Classes at Morton West High School were given  fake babies to take care of over a weekend as a class activity. This opportunity gave the students the experience of taking care of an infant and how it would affect their life in multiple ways.

“The feelings I had with the baby over the weekend were stress, tired, and panicked.” Victor Velez ’18 said about his experience with ‘his baby’. Velez’s fake baby would cry at random moments and also needed attention all day except when the baby was sleeping. Velez feels like he is definitely not ready to be a father at this time because of the costs of having a baby. Velez states, “I’m not working right now so money is something I don’t have and I wouldn’t want to rely on my parents to pay for everything.” Velez also believes that having a baby would affect his overall school life. Velez states, “School is something that I need to finish. I’m already this far and so close to graduating that if I were to have a baby right now it would ruin the course of my future.”

Joanna Andrade, ’18, also believes that after this experience, she is not ready to be a mother any time soon. Andrade states, “When I had the baby over the weekend, I felt how tired I was and how much time I had to give up.” Andrade is usually taking care of her brother and sister already so adding a baby to the equation would make things even more stressful. Andrade states, “I usually take care of babies but it’s always a relief that after I’m done I can just go lay down in my bed and not worry about anyone but myself.” Additionally, Andrade wouldn’t have support from her family at all. Andrade states, “If I were to have a baby, my parent’s would treat me as if the baby is a punishment and leave me to take care of it to learn my own lesson.”

Erik Gomez, ’18, feels like having a baby right now would be troublesome to his family and himself. During this experience Gomez noticed that both of his parent’s were upset and annoyed with the baby constantly crying. Gomez states, “Since the baby cried at random times throughout the day, my parent’s would always tell me to make it stop.” Along with the others, Gomez feels he isn’t ready to be a father yet. Gomez states, “I feel like I cannot take care of the baby just because I need to give it attention all the time in order for me to take care of it properly. With work and school, I couldn’t give up all of my time.”

Due to this experience, many students realized the difficulty of having a baby at this age. Being a teen parent is hard, stressful, and definitely worrisome. As hard as it may be, it’s definitely possible to take care of a baby and teenagers do get through it. Using contraception will minimize possibility however, abstinence will ensure there is no pregnancy.