Published on: 16 Mar 01:01

Jean-Marie answers

Some schools had an interesting method to prevent teenage pregnancies — they were giving teenage girls baby dolls that were hyper realistic, baby simulators. The idea was that by simulating the effects of teenage motherhood, the young girls would be less likely to want to be teenage mothers themselves.

The dolls had built-in sensors and would require “feeding” and diaper changes regularly, they would cry and even wake up the “mothers” at night. As the program went on, many of the girls got mighty attached to the dolls, having taken care of them as if they were real. And studies found that in the areas that used the program, more instead of less girls fell pregnant. A higher-than-average percentage of teenage pregancies occurred in these schools. And the girls that did get pregnant were also less likely to abort their pregnancies, having had a taste of “motherhood” and a sense of attachment to infants they would not have otherwise had.

One paper mentioned in research suggested that girls already at risk of becoming pregnant enjoyed the attention they received while looking after their doll, which then reinforced their desire to have a baby of their own. Baby simulators don’t prevent teenage pregnancies — they only increase the likelihood of them happening.

My comment

I’ve encountered more than a few parents happy to shout from every rooftop that parenthood, overall, is 49% agonising pain and frustration, and 51% sublime, joyous bliss.

Could we not construct a doll that channels only this 49%? No upsides whatsoever? It’ll wake five times a night and demand endless feedings, go into full-on cigar cutter mode on your nipples, then barf your milk back up on your best blouse. It’ll monitor your sleeping patterns and scream in your ear the instant you ever achieve REM sleep. It’ll never smile at you or look cherubic or gurgle photogenically, instead scowl and wail at exactly the right pitch to shatter your wine glass or eardrums or both. On public outings, it’ll hurl itself from its pushchair at tremendous velocity, impact the ground head-first, then scream to its vast and growing audience that you’re an incompetent parent at best and a child-trafficker at worst. It’ll produce enough poo to fill even a jumbo nappy every eight minutes, but not nice fertile poo to nourish the roses, no, it’s horrid toxic sludge that blights sequoias and enrages gorse. No nearby power plug shall remain unforked. No pet tail shall remain unyanked. No bathtub shall remain un-toastered.

I bet we could halve the birth rate overnight.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-epic-ex...