THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9408150121
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
She's no Betsy Wetsy doll, that's for sure.
She weighs 8 pounds instead of the plastic lightweights I had as a kid.
The doll cries, nothing new in the toy world, but this one wails when you least expect her to. Midnight. Two in the morning. Four. Just as you're drifting off into the dream cycle.
And rather than a wind-up doll's gentle ``waa, waa,'' this sweet doll baby shrieks.
She'll only pipe down if you hold a key in her back for 20 minutes, the usual time it takes to feed a baby.
Isn't this neat? Just like a real one.
But don't expect this doll to turn up on any Christmas lists.
This doll is no toy. And it isn't for toddlers, it's for teens. A fellow in San Diego named Richard Jurmain wanted to give them a taste of what it's like to be a parent.
And at $220 a pop, sex educators all over the country are snatching up Baby Think It Over to teach a lesson that hits home.
Reality. The frustration of a child who won't stop crying. The demand that never ends. The exhaustion that leaves you running on empty.
Baby Think It Over doll doesn't teach teens values. It doesn't whisper ``Just say no'' in a girl's ear, or compete with those revolting pictures of aborted fetuses.
It teaches sleeplessness.
Let's face it, young people aren't absorbing our finger-shaking lectures on the subject of teen pregnancy.
For all the talk about values - that hazy buzz word that's supposed to cure the ails of society - they're not exactly stopping sex in the backseat. Or the bedroom of that empty suburban house for that matter.
Even sex educators, with their anatomically correct pictures and stories about when Susie meets Joey, have trouble making teens relate the lesson to their own lives.
Girls don't get pregnant because they don't know where babies come from. Sometimes they want a baby. They're not stupid, they're lonely.
Values are great, but reality makes teens think before they act. Teens need to know babies aren't convenient. They don't go away when you have to study for a test. And they don't give a hoot - or a wail in this case - about whether you have a date tonight.
The usual sex ed assignments to carry an egg wherever you go, or lug around a sack of flour begin to instill that idea. Baby Think It Over takes it a step further. You can't ignore Baby. A gadget inside tracks how long she cries, how roughly she's handled. There's no stuffing her in a shoebox.
Reality. I'm all for it. And if a regular newborn isn't gripping enough, try Jurmain's ``preemie'' version. The doll has the high-pitched cry of a crack baby. She cries more frequently than the other doll, and trembles when you pick her up.
And we thought Betsy Wetsy was lifelike.
A girl could learn a lot carrying around one of these dolls. But to really drive home the point, make the boys take home Baby Think It Over for a week.
I guarantee you there'd be a lot more thinking going on. by CNB