They say that new parents don’t get a full night’s sleep for up to SIX years after having a baby. Caring for a newborn means long sleepless nights, and a whole different kind of physical labor.
It’s a lesson that a Georgia teen learned this week in a most hilarious fashion, and her mom couldn’t help but to soak up every minute of it.
Lawren Galloway took to Facebook with a photo of her 14-year-old daughter, Olivia, and Olivia’s baby simulator, William. The electronic robot baby is part of an Early Childhood Education class in which students have to care for a simulated baby.
Meet William. He’s Olivia’s interactive baby assignment for her Early Childhood Education Class. Now, meet Olivia with…
Posted by Lawren Cole Galloway on Sunday, March 17, 2019
“Meet William. He’s Olivia’s interactive baby assignment for her Early Childhood Education Class,” Galloway wrote. “Now, meet Olivia with William. She’s had him since Friday night. She is absolutely exhausted and ready to quit the class and give William back. (Maybe even throw him back).”
The 34-year-old mother of four shared the moment when her oldest daughter finally hit her breaking point, begging her mom for some relief as she tried to care for the robot baby.
“My favorite moment so far is when she came into my room last night around 3 am. She was crying real tears while feeding him his bottle. She was begging me to help her because she just wanted to get some sleep.”
Galloway’s response?
“Yeah, no.”
She couldn’t help but be amused while Olivia struggled to care for the robot baby.
To make matters worse, there is also a real baby in the Galloway house: three week old Violet, Galloway’s youngest and newest addition with her husband Justin.
“The baby and the robot were crying in unison that night,” Galloway told TODAY Parents. “Then (Olivia) kept coming in the room and she had moments where she was crying out of exhaustion.”
Talk about a full house! Let’s just say it was a loooooong three days. But days that were not short on humor to say the least!
“It was horrible,” Olivia told TODAY. “Sometimes I would just be crying in the middle of the night because it would not stop (crying). It also would not burp!
“It takes like 40 minutes of just hitting it in the back to get it to burp. Then it finally burps, and then 10 minutes later it wants to do the whole thing over again. I’m so tired.”
When she returned William to her school on Monday, Olivia learned that she had failed the assignment because she didn’t rock the baby every time its sensors went off. She also had points deducted for an improper hold.
“It turns out I broke its neck seven times,” she said. “I have no clue how. I thought I did so well. I took care of that baby.”
Fortunately, Olivia was given a chance to redeem herself this past weekend with a new baby named John.
She was more prepared this time around, and had a better idea of what to expect — something Galloway says she was surprised by with the first robot baby.
“You would think that with all of her siblings that (Olivia) would have some kind of clue, but she was completely clueless,” Galloway said. “Just because a child grows up with siblings, it doesn’t mean they’re ready for parenthood at all.”
Galloway said she’s glad Olivia’s school offers the class, and feels that it’s something every teen should experience.
As for Olivia, let’s just say babies are not in her ten-year-plan.
“I don’t ever want to have kids because of that thing,” she said.