One of my friends had one of these babies last year and it was a unmitigated disaster, he got a D and was miserable. I laughed. (Sorry Kathy) Jaden did not phase my overachieving 12 year old. She took care of him without incident. She was tired, she was annoyed, she called him names once in a while and told him to be quiet, but overall she was fine...my 15 year old son on the other hand was over it by about 8pm Friday...typical conversation overheard in my house:
Curtis - "can you shut that thing up?"
Sammi - "why don't you shut up and leave him alone"
Curtis - "he is plastic, are you kidding me, shut it up before I put him in the shed."
Sammi - "I will put you in the shed"
It was lovely to witness the love between the siblings over the plastic baby.
What it did do however was give them an opportunity to ask me a million questions about when they were little. It was a great walk down memory lane for me to tell them all about when they came home, when they slept all night (never for my daughter), how much they ate, all that kind of stuff.
So, if you have an opportunity to bring home the baby with your middle school student, go for it. It has some annoying moments but overall was worth the few blips we had.



