Parenthood

Last week in Kenzie's Skills For Living Class, they were all 'made' parents and were given the assignment to care for an egg baby for one week. They were to take their eggs everywhere with them and treat them just like real babies. They were only allotted 4 hours of free babysitting and then had to pay 50 cents an hour for someone else to care for their baby.

I told Kenzie I thought it would be cute to use a fresh chicken egg a neighbor had given us because it was brown. It was unique and I assured her that no one else would have a baby like hers. Even after enduring a week of comments about her 'inter-racial' baby, Kenzie faired just fine. She had a friend who went through three or four egg babies in the course of the week. However, Kenzie managed to keep her baby safe [despite it being used as a hacky sack during science one day by a couple of guys in the class].

I'm not sure how much of an impression the assignment made on the kids. Did it even make a dent in what it's really like to be a parent? If you want them to give them a real experience, give them a 20 pound sack of flour (in a car seat) to haul around the store for a couple of hours while they do the grocery shopping. Throw in a diaper bag or two and a couple more children (one of them whining and/or screaming of course) and that would be a little more realistic. How hard is it to tote around a tiny egg all day? What about getting up several times a night...the diaper changing? How about the constant wondering if you are raising them right, or the worry that they will turn out to be good people? ........By the way, where can I sign up for babysitting that's 50 cents an hour?