Claire Dips Her Toes in the Waters of Blogdom

Well, here goes. I feel sort of propelled into this because Brad has set this up and I want to take a stab at it...because to be honest, it does intrigue me. But on the other hand, I feel like writing this is a form of egocentric narcissism ( is that redundant)... like the world must come to me and hear what profundities I have to offer. Ha. But I won't actually say that because the majority of people who will read this will be other bloggers and to say that would be to insult them. So...back to square one. ( This is not to say that I haven't enjoyed the blogs of others - because I have.)

Should I write about my job? Of course, I would have to use false names to protect the innocent. Or maybe no names at all. I don't know if I can write about the girls...I don't know what the Shelter's policy is on blogs. They probably don't have one. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to mention that there is a girl there who has one of those "Baby Think It Over" dolls and has to carry it around with her all day...supposedly for a class? or something at her last school. It's a device used to simulate what it would be like to have a real baby so that young girls can see how difficult it is and use this information in their decisions about having children. The doll has this little detachable box embedded in the back with batteries and you can set it on different things like "normal" where the baby cries every ninety minutes or so. And then there is the "crabby" setting where the baby cries every three minutes. Oh my word. I almost laughed. I was called upon to insert the battery and re-set it b/c one of the second shift people had removed the battery so the baby wouldn't wake up all the girls at night. ( The first sign that this "training device" was being used at less than its full potential.) The first time i heard that unearthly wail, I almost dropped the thing. The only thing that makes it realistic is the fact that it has an approximately accurate weight...and makes noise...but as for producing smells ( and corresponding matter), being floppy ( the doll has no moving parts and is permanently sitting up), becoming sick, smiling, requiring food and needing changes of clothes, it is sadly lacking in realism. The mother decided that it was a girl and had named it something reminiscent of a product with which women wash their faces. It was interesting to watch the "mother" deal with things like carrying a diaper bag and other accoutrements (I like that word) around...and note how she felt the inconvenience of it all...Yet, she actually asked that the setting be changed so that the baby cry more often, because as it was, it was" not teaching her much." I inwardly groaned with wordless frustration. She failed to grasp the fact that most mothers do not take their infants to class with them and attempt to raise them with 11 other teenage girls....Needless to say, the baby's cries were very disruptive to the class. I think it's been a teaching tool for more than one girl. There are more parts of the story I could tell but for the fact that I don't know what the policy is on this kind of thing...I will remain discretely vague. Ah...just another day at the Antrim Girls' Shelter.