(Lamoine) — It’s 2:00 AM “Honey, the baby’s crying. She probably needs feeding”. Mom to Dad? Nope—that’s pretty much the conversation from parent to 8th grader during the Baby Think It Over weekend.

The babies are high tech dolls, programmed to cry at various intervals. The student they’re assigned to have to either feed them, change the diaper, or just give them a little lovin’.

The purpose of the program is to introduce a little bit of reality about parenting to young teen-agers who’ve started to notice things about the opposite gender, so to speak. It’s hoped that impression the babies make on how hard it is to be a good parent will influence future decisions of the students to wait until its an appropriate time to start parenting. It seems to be pretty effective, as several of this year’s 8th grade class said they really are not ready for the commitment it takes to be a mom or dad.

The babies are provided by Downeast Health Services and school nurse Jackie Grohoski programs the crying times into them. The weekend’s no picnic for her, either. If a baby malfunctions, she’s on call to fix it.