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It's the first time I've heard about these robot babies and it's the strangest thing I've heard in a long time. Why waste so much of the scarce money available

It's the first time I've heard about these robot babies and it's the strangest thing I've heard in a long time. Why waste so much of the scarce money available to schools on something that can be easily replaced by 1h of earnest talk and/or a teen mom coming into class? That aside data shows that the bigger problem is actually people getting their babies too late rather than too early: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db232.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db232.htm

derefr 10y ago
> people getting their babies too late rather than too early Summarizing a number of studies, it seems that the biologically-healthiest scenario—with the best and fastest recovery for the mother's body, the healthiest children, the least risk during [in-hospital] labor, etc.—comes from women having all their babies just after puberty. The problem with that is that teenagers don't know how to raise babies. But nobody ever said that the people having babies need to be the people raising them. "Teenage mother" is only a problem in Western culture because we lack multigenerational households with grandparents there to assist (or effectively take over) the raising of the grandchildren beget by their still-puberty-addled children. Heck, assuming the sort of compressed generations entailed by a culture following an early-birth strategy over decades/centuries, most "grandparents" would be 30-year-olds: exactly the age that seems to† puts people in the mood to raise babies. † judging by things like adoption-seeking statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_027.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_027.pdf
- wyager 10y ago
  Interesting. I wonder how much we could improve the physical and financial health of society if caretaking lagged a generation behind birthing. At this point, such a social policy would be extremely difficult to implement in the west as we've not just discouraged but morally proscribed teen pregnancy.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    That moral proscription is a feature of the Industrial Age. Prior to that, an unmarried 20 year old woman was an considered an old maid in many circles. Multigenerational families solve many problems but create others, especially if the woman is joining the husbands family. That said, in the the US today the model where you pay 25% of your income to have a 20-something watch your kid while you work is certainly not a sustainable model.
- Dove 10y ago
  That doesn't seem very practical to me. There is are deep emotional bonds with physical bases that begin in the womb - a baby learning his mother's voice and smell, the mysterious bonding that happens during the sacred hour after birth, such that months later mothers who went through it are more affectionate towards their children than those that didn't. The closeness of nursing, for which the mother's body is prepared. Sepatating child bearing from child rearing can be done, but it is hard on everyone. Denying people the joy of raising their own children is the sort of thing that people take desperate risks to circumvent. Other elements of the plan are impractical. Should the child have a loving, mature father in his life? Are we now marrying teenage girls to older men, or arranging marriages between teenagers, or simply using sperm banks? Men want to raise their own children, too. And this is an expensive proposal for the girls. Pregnancy and caring for an infant makes it hard to put a lot of effort into anything else - you spend most of your time resting, and in an emotionally turbulent state. Putting girls in this state for years on end, right as they are supposed to be ambitiously pursuing training in their chosen vacation is a great way to torpedo their odds of making it in their fields. And just as their children gain independence, you would have them begin helping with their grandchildren! Sounds to me like a recipe for never doing anything professionally. There is more to life than avoiding minor health risks. The joys of marrying for love in maturity, raising your own children, and fully developing your own interests while you are young and ambitious - these are worth a little statistical health risk.
ryandrake 10y ago
> Why waste so much of the scarce money available to schools on something that can be easily replaced by 1h of earnest talk 1h of earnest talk does not funnel taxpayer money into a vendor's pocket.

derefr 10y ago

> people getting their babies too late rather than too early Summarizing a number of studies, it seems that the biologically-healthiest scenario—with the best and fastest recovery for the mother's body, the healthiest children, the least risk during [in-hospital] labor, etc.—comes from women having all their babies just after puberty. The problem with that is that teenagers don't know how to raise babies. But nobody ever said that the people having babies need to be the people raising them. "Teenage mother" is only a problem in Western culture because we lack multigenerational households with grandparents there to assist (or effectively take over) the raising of the grandchildren beget by their still-puberty-addled children. Heck, assuming the sort of compressed generations entailed by a culture following an early-birth strategy over decades/centuries, most "grandparents" would be 30-year-olds: exactly the age that seems to† puts people in the mood to raise babies. † judging by things like adoption-seeking statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_027.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_027.pdf

wyager 10y ago
Interesting. I wonder how much we could improve the physical and financial health of society if caretaking lagged a generation behind birthing. At this point, such a social policy would be extremely difficult to implement in the west as we've not just discouraged but morally proscribed teen pregnancy.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  That moral proscription is a feature of the Industrial Age. Prior to that, an unmarried 20 year old woman was an considered an old maid in many circles. Multigenerational families solve many problems but create others, especially if the woman is joining the husbands family. That said, in the the US today the model where you pay 25% of your income to have a 20-something watch your kid while you work is certainly not a sustainable model.
Dove 10y ago
That doesn't seem very practical to me. There is are deep emotional bonds with physical bases that begin in the womb - a baby learning his mother's voice and smell, the mysterious bonding that happens during the sacred hour after birth, such that months later mothers who went through it are more affectionate towards their children than those that didn't. The closeness of nursing, for which the mother's body is prepared. Sepatating child bearing from child rearing can be done, but it is hard on everyone. Denying people the joy of raising their own children is the sort of thing that people take desperate risks to circumvent. Other elements of the plan are impractical. Should the child have a loving, mature father in his life? Are we now marrying teenage girls to older men, or arranging marriages between teenagers, or simply using sperm banks? Men want to raise their own children, too. And this is an expensive proposal for the girls. Pregnancy and caring for an infant makes it hard to put a lot of effort into anything else - you spend most of your time resting, and in an emotionally turbulent state. Putting girls in this state for years on end, right as they are supposed to be ambitiously pursuing training in their chosen vacation is a great way to torpedo their odds of making it in their fields. And just as their children gain independence, you would have them begin helping with their grandchildren! Sounds to me like a recipe for never doing anything professionally. There is more to life than avoiding minor health risks. The joys of marrying for love in maturity, raising your own children, and fully developing your own interests while you are young and ambitious - these are worth a little statistical health risk.

ryandrake 10y ago

> Why waste so much of the scarce money available to schools on something that can be easily replaced by 1h of earnest talk 1h of earnest talk does not funnel taxpayer money into a vendor's pocket.