Mexico’s “Just Say No To Babies” Initiative

Why didn't we think of this? High School students in the Mexican state of Chihuahua are being forced to care for screaming, hiccuping baby dolls that run on computer chips! This is an effort to bring down the state's soaring teenage pregnancy rate. According to this press release, pairs of boys and girls ages 13 thru 17 are required to spend 2 or 3 days caring for the computerized babies. The babies are programmed to cry for food, burp and wake up screaming for no apparent reason until they are rocked back to sleep.

“You have to change their diapers, feed them and slap them on the back so they burp. They laugh, they get colic. They simulate the behavior of a real baby,” said state education official Pilar Huidobro, who is in charge of the program.

The method to the madness is to get teenagers to be more conscious of the risks of becoming Dad's or Mom's at such a young age. The Northern state of Chihuahua suffers from the highest rate of teen-age pregnancy in Mexico, with 20 percent of babies being born to mothers 19 or younger.

Some of the high tech curtain climbers can even show symptoms of withdrawal from alcohol or drugs as if they were the offspring of addicts. The life like dolls are called “RealCare” babies and are also used in programs in the US and the UK. Huidobro says that the teens are mostly horrified at the amount of work necessary to care for the babies, which they have to take home with them from school and care for at home.

What can I tell you folks? I remember the teenagers back in my day (BC) doing exactly the same thing right here in the USA, only the babies were not computerized. I wish my first wife would have paid more attention! Somehow the atmosphere at the drive in tends to make one forget the all day “fake baby” care giving. In my day the highway would have strewn with plastic baby carcasses and Dad would have had to fork over $20 for a new “baby no-no”, because everyone back then was into yes-yes.

I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but come on! I expect this is really just some scheme by the Mexican government to supply computerized welfare recipients for the next wave of 10,000 illegal alien moms preparing to cross the border. Don't get me wrong, some of the nicest people I know are from Mexico and places south of Texas. I just think Mexico could perhaps do something to help their people actually be educated beyond methods used for training primates.

I have an idea, let Mexico participate in the One Laptop per Child, since the US version of this doll costs $100 more than the XO laptop. Then teens in the program could read on the Internet about teenage pregnancy. That way the computer chips won't go to waste and the teens might actually learn something about the world around them, rather than look at more screaming babies. I get this image of a mother in Mexico with maybe 4 kids and her daughter brings home another one!