Idea #2 - Grandma's Day Care
The inspiration for the idea:
Being a single mother, it's been really hard to balance work and home. In Arizona, my daughter went to a day care provider before and after school every day. This was not your run of the mill Kinder Care facility - this lady took children in her home and created an environment that was basically like a second home to them. The other half of the inspiration came from reading Conversations with God. In it, "God" observes that we have our society very backwards in terms of day care... the younger people who have bodies physically capable of bringing life to Earth should still be having the children, but the children should be *raised* by the elders, who have more experience and can provide more wisdom. We have actually had societies already on Earth that lived this way, but of course the white man obliterated them seeing as they didnt match what the white man deemed as "right."
The idea:
Why not have day care centers that combine both of these things? Open the centers in houses - not "facilities." The houses should be in neighborhoods where the children can play safely outside with other children that may not be attending the center, just as they would in a home environment. There should be no fences, but there should, of course, employees to watch the children so they know where they are at all times. Hire ONLY senior citizens that truly have wisdom to offer children - or at least a whole lotta love. And for God's sake, pay them accordingly. Our children and our seniors are our most valuable resources on this planet. That's another thing we are SOOO backwards on in our current society, but that's a whole nother soapbox, so I wont get on it here.
Many people today complain that senior citizens dont contribute to society, yet us "younger" people are paying for their social security. Well first of all, we're paying for it because the government has dipped their hands into Social Security so many times that they're way in debt and have to "borrow" from the younger generation's contributions to cover their greedy selves. Our senior citizens paid their dues and are owed back their contributions - that the money they're actually receiving is coming from Generation X's paychecks is no fault of theirs. Second of all, if we would LET the senior citizens contribute to society, then they would. More often, Generation X tends to shove them into retirement homes and forget about them.
Grandma's Day Care Centers would give many seniors purpose in life again, and it would greatly benefit our children at the same time. The old teaches the young, and the young give purpose to the old. Everyone in between is busy discovering themselves, which is fine too. But we all need a little help while we're discovering ourselves and I believe this is the way to do it.
Idea #1 - The Baby Simulator
The inspiration for the idea:
I became a mother at age 20. A single mother at that. 20 is MUCH too young to be a mother. People tried to tell me that it was hard work, and I thought I knew what they were talking about, but I had NO IDEA. Now I realize there was no way I could have known how much work it was without the experience. My mother was a single parent most of her life too and she tried to tell me, but even after living on the kid end of it, I thought I could handle a baby. Boy was I WRONG!!! You have no concept of forever until you make a commitment like that. It has been a tough 9 years. We've muddled our way through it so far, but sometimes I feel like it would've been better for both me and my daughter if I had waited.
The idea:
All the major toy manufacturers in the world should get together and agree to make a doll that simulates a real baby. They make bi-lingual Furbies, Tamagatchies that run away or die if you dont "take care of them," dolls that talk to each other, eat, wet, get sick, laugh, crawl... you name it, it seems like they have a toy that does it. They should put all those features together into one doll and donate them to high schools nationwide - worldwide even - for part of their health education curriculum.
When my sister was in high school, their health class went through an exercise for a whole week where they each had to carry around a 5 pound sack of flour and treat it like a baby. I think this must be where toy makers got the idea for Tamagatchis, but they kinda missed the point. A five pound sack of flour is a lot more trouble than some beeping blinking piece of plastic on your keychain. They were not allowed to leave the sacks in their lockers, or in the car, or alone in another room. They had to treat it like it was a real baby and carry it everywhere. They also had to change its diaper, pretend to feed it and make sure it stayed warm and dry.
At first I'm sure it was fun... everyone laughing at everyone else carrying their flour around. No one really feels stupid because the whole school district does it, so everyone knows WHY you're carrying around this flour and talking to it like you're going mad. I'll bet it got old real fast though. Once you discover that you cant go to the local hangout until all hours of the night, you have to remember to pull this thing in and out of the car everywhere you go, and if you forget it, you're in big trouble, it gets to be a real pain in the petooty.
It's only a week though, so I'm sure it's not a whole lot of trouble. They make a point, but I feel they're still really missing a lot. A sack of flour doesnt cry two or three times a night... it doesnt require doctor visits or equipment that costs a fortune... even though you have to change its diaper, the diaper never smells so bad it makes you gag. You dont catch colds from it because it's been in day care, you dont have to pay a babysitter for it, and it doesnt talk back to you when it gets older. Certainly the principal never calls to inform you that your sack of flour got out of hand in class today and could you please come pick it up from the office? Okay, the principal wouldnt call you about a doll doing that either, but you get the idea...
In conclusion, even though you'll never get the idea of a true "forever commitment" across to anyone who has not experienced it themselves, I think a doll that eats real food, wets, poops, laughs, walks, gets into your things, cries at least twice a night and weighs more than 5 pounds would give a teenager more pause about having unprotected sex and risking getting pregnant than a sack of flour in a diaper.