Being woken by the sound of frantic, robotic cries in the middle of the night is out of the ordinary; and certainly not something you’d expect to deal with for a school project. But sophomore Apollo Brown was in that exact predicament. 

Brown is in the Human Growth & Development class, the course is known for the infamous “robot baby” which gives students the opportunity to take care of a robotic baby for a weekend. Taking care of the baby counts as a mastery grade for the class and spans for the majority of the school year. Students are provided with a wristband that tracks the amount of times they care for the baby. In turn, this helps determine their final grade for the assignment. Students are given the option to opt-out, but most don’t.

“It’s such a funny memory to look back on and say you did it,” Brown said. “While it was definitely a handful, I went in on Friday expecting it to be so bad. My feelings toward the baby were really just amused at first, I thought it was really funny. But by the end of the weekend I was so tired and ready for peace and quiet.”

The weekend started off with Brown being supplied with all the necessities to care for a baby. This included a car seat, diaper bag, extra changes of clothes, a baby bottle, and the wristband. Additionally, Brown also got a short recap of how to care for the baby and got to set the “quiet hours” where the baby would be silent. 

“My baby’s name was Jeongyeon,” Brown said. “She came home on Friday and was pretty easy at the beginning. It stays on the same ‘difficulty mode’ but I swear night two was the worst. I was so done by Sunday.”

The baby had to stay by Brown’s side all weekend, 24/7; and he had to be ready to take care of Jeongyeon whenever she required attention. 

“Two of my friends came over to visit her at one point,” Brown said. “We were all so entertained by her. Like it genuinely behaves and acts like a real baby. I had to scan the wristband and feed it, burp it, and change it while we were hanging out. It was so funny.”

The weekend wasn’t all laughs however. Brown quickly realized the challenges that the wristband posed to being able to care for the baby.

“I did actually face a challenge of showering because the baby kept crying during it,” Brown said. “My mom had to come help take care of her while I was doing it. So that was a little annoying, but I got over it in the end. It was so annoying when the baby woke me up in the middle of the night,” Brown said. “Like I’d be sleeping so peacefully, and then she just woke me up. Girl, I’m trying to sleep. The two hour shut off time was so nice though.” 

Regardless of the occasional annoyances and challenges baby Jeongyeon posed, Brown is able to appreciate the experience and the joy that the baby brought for the weekend.

“I was lowkey tired and kind of annoyed with her at the time,” Brown said. “But looking back now it was actually so fun. Like it’s so fun to be like ‘oh yeah I took care of the robot baby for a weekend,’ plus it makes for fun stories to tell people.”