# Practice Babies **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 24, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512 "2011-02-24T22:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/21 "2011-02-25T20:02:03Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I have a hard time believing that a houseful of attentive coeds would really be worse than an orphanage of the era. I would have to agree with this! ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/22 "2011-02-25T20:03:49Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > The book is fiction, but the practice was not. The reason the book was made into a fictional work was because the author couldn’t find out what happened to the babies after adoption - adoption records from back then are generally sealed. Yes, I hope I wasn’t unclear in my post. The story itself is fiction, but I think does a fairly decent job of examing issues of attachment. ANything else I might say about it is probably better suited to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/23 "2011-02-25T20:05:48Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > This thread is hilarious. No way could an inanimate object truly simulate the willfulness of an actual human baby. No, the hilarious part is how many people think the OP is about [this](http://ewpopwatch.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/90210_l.jpg), when it’s really about [this](http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/9apartments/bobby.html). ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/24 "2011-02-25T20:33:10Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > This thread is hilarious. No way could an inanimate object truly simulate the willfulness of an actual human baby. You don’t say. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/25 "2011-02-25T20:34:01Z")
I read that article a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting. I think the home economics movement was fascinating. We had a couple of the dolls that mimic babies at my high school. My Home Ec teacher said she’d had many young students who thought that getting pregnant by sixteen would be terrific because it would be a fun toy who’d love you!! and all that garbage. The dolls were called Baby Think-it-Over and the teacher could change the settings from easy baby (still wakes every four hours) to Horrible Hell Child. And the things record abuse (shaking, shouting at them) as well as time taken before its ‘needs’ are addressed. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/26 "2011-02-25T20:51:07Z")
Did _everyone_ just assume the link was about egg/plastic babies/flour babies without actually reading it? ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/27 "2011-02-25T21:19:55Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Did _everyone_ just assume the link was about egg/plastic babies/flour babies without actually reading it? Not that I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/28 "2011-02-25T21:30:10Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Did _everyone_ just assume the link was about egg/plastic babies/flour babies without actually reading it? No I caught that it was about real babies, and actually read the linked page which was interesting. But when the topic drifted to the fake babies I went with it, just for the cheap laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/29 "2011-02-25T21:33:50Z")
> [@Hedda\_Rosa](#): > > No I caught that it was about real babies, and actually read the linked page which was interesting. But when the topic drifted to the fake babies I went with it, just for the cheap laugh. Well, I suppose I exaggerated a bit. Though I didn’t read your post as thinking it was about fake babies. And for what it’s worth, it elicited a giggle from me as well! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/30 "2011-02-25T21:58:31Z")
BTW, in the classes that used practice babies, did they bring in babies of different ages (a three-month-old, a nine-month-old, etc.), since they change so much so quickly? ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/31 "2011-02-26T00:15:10Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > You don’t say. > > :rolleyes: Whoops, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/32 "2011-02-26T00:29:19Z")
Last year, as I was watching a field trip by our local high school, I noticed quite a few young mothers with babies snoozing in hand-held carriers. None of the students made any special fuss about them. I thought, “School sure has changed. Not only are high schoolers frequently pregnant, but they bring their babies to class and it seems all quite ordinary.” Then I noticed that the “babies” were some kind of robot or doll, and the students were “caring” for them as a learning exercise in a class project. That sounds like a practice baby to me. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512/33 "2011-02-26T15:04:56Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Whoops, sorry. Sorry for the snark. My bad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practice-babies/572512.md?page=1)