High schoolers learn parental lessons by caring for sock babies

Amiya Barton and her family took a weekend trip to Orlando, and she decided to bring her sock babies, Dave and Daisy. 

Barton, a senior at Lakewood Ranch High School, was tasked with a school assignment to treat sock babies as actual children. Although it wasn’t required, she decided to make twins because, after all, why split a pair of socks?

While in Orlando, Barton took Dave and Daisy everywhere, pushing them around in a stroller. 

“It was funny because people would come up thinking it’s an actual baby, and I’m like, ‘Nope, it’s just socks,’” Barton said. 

The trip to Orlando was one of the activities documented in Barton’s baby book as part of her Advanced Placement Psychology assignment. 

Dozens of other AP Psychology students also handled the assignment in their own way. They would carry the sock babies around school, bring them to meals, go to wellness checks or take them to family activities.

Sock babies are born

Most of the students were excited about caring for a sock baby.

Nicole Majewski, a junior, was thrilled because she loves children and babysits. 

She had fun finding the right sock that “didn’t look too dirty” to use for her sock baby. She also created a green sweatshirt for it, which resulted in him getting the nickname Pickles as opposed to his birth name, Jimmy. 

Majewski described Jimmy as chaotic but friendly. 

“I was raised as outgoing and chaotic, I guess,” Majewski said. “I assumed that my child would be the same way, especially with the people I had around. My friends are good people, but they’re chaotic.”

Junior Autumn Nix’s sock baby reminded her of the beloved doll from Disney’s “Lilo and Stitch,” so she named him Scrump after the doll in the movie. He was made using a blue sock, sewed on buttons for eyes and a sewed on smile. Using other pieces of fabrics, Nix kept her sock baby warm and swaddled with a gray hat and pink blanket.

Although she had twins, Barton said Dave and Daisy were opposites. Dave slept all the time while Daisy was the wild child. 

Each student also was required to make a carrier for their babies. Nix and Majewski decided to use tissue boxes. 

Majewski’s carrier became Jimmy’s crib. She put a few towels in the box and made a pillow using another sock.

Watch out for child services

Nix could sum up taking care of her sock baby in one word: Stressful. 

“It’s been stressful just remembering every morning that I have to take the baby to school, making sure in all of my classes that it’s there next to me,” Nix said. “Any time I had to go to the bathroom, I had to ask someone to watch it.”

The sock baby assignment left students questioning whom they could trust. 

Heather Selens, the AP Psychology teacher, warned her students that all teachers and staff were notified students would be caring for their sock babies throughout the school day. One mistake and the students could be reported to Selens who was acting as child services. Any sign of abuse meant points were deducted from their grades.

Selens told her students a tale of horror where a student made the mistake of trusting a friend to care for his sock baby as he went to get lunch in the cafeteria. When he returned, his sock baby was being passed around like a hot potato. The student was reported to child services. 

Majewski had a close call with her son, Jimmy. 

She walked out of anatomy class as usual. She was halfway to her next class when she realized Jimmy was not with her. Panic ensued and she ran back to her anatomy class.

Majewski was lucky. Jimmy just wanted to stay back to help her finish her anatomy work, so she wasn’t reported to child services. 

Barton took her twins to an escape room in Orlando. She said her twins were great at finding clues to help the family escape. Barton was having so much fun, it wasn’t until she reached the lobby that she realized she had left Dave and Daisy in one of the escape rooms. 

“I ran back in and I grabbed them,” Barton said. 

Nix only trusted other AP Psychology students to care for Scrump because they knew how important the assignment was to their final grade. 

Every so often Nix would check the carrier to make sure Scrump was there. She became overly aware of his presence and he was always on her mind.

Picture-perfect moments

The sock baby assignment wasn’t all stress though.

Each of the students have fond memories of doing activities with their sock babies. 

Nix loved having playdates at lunch with other sock babies. She would sit Scrump against her water bottle and feed him fruit or a sandwich. Then she and the other “moms” would play with them like dolls and pretend they were talking. 

She also took Scrump to the park and had him go down the slide and try out the swings. 

“It was kind of silly because you realize this isn’t an actual baby,” Nix said. “It’s just a sock filled with another sock that I’m taking around, but it was fun pretending it was a real baby.”

The introduction between Nix’s sock baby and her dog didn’t go as smoothly as she would have liked. She held Scrump up to her dog, and her dog freaked out. 

“He kept trying to bite the top of (the sock baby),” Nix said. “I got one picture. The rest of the time it was in my dog’s mouth and me trying to get it out.”

Majewski took Jimmy to the gym. He couldn’t wait to lift weights to build muscle. He had to have spotters, of course. 

One of Majewski’s favorite memories with Jimmy was his first playdate he had with a sock baby named May. Majewski and her friend Matthew Boudreau put Jimmy and Boudreau’s sock baby, May, in one of the carriers and walked around school. 

“It was a big moment for Jimmy,” Majewski said. “It was his first playdate. They seemed to get along a lot and she became his best friend throughout his adventures at school.”

Junior Lionel Marines and his sock baby, Joaquin, had a touching moment together watching the sunset.

“We were able to share a connection,” Marines said. “It felt like an attachment to a little me.”

Junior Julia Magno brought her sock baby, Mango IV, to soccer practice to try out for the Lakewood Ranch High School girls soccer team. 

“She was the best player on the team,” Magno said. “Everyone wanted to pass her the ball because she was so good.”

The memories were captured for the students’ baby books they had to create to show the cognitive, social and motor development of their sock babies. They had to use terms and theories they learned in class to describe the development of their babies. 

“It was exciting, but it was also kind of sad to see (Jimmy grow up),” Majewski said. “He grew up pretty fast, but it was interesting to go through and see how exactly (children) change in their lives.”

From fantasy to reality

Caring for the sock babies gave students a glimpse into what it’s like to be a parent. 

Nix said it was an eye-opening experience at times. 

“I woke up one morning and was like, ‘I really don’t want to take my baby to school. I wish I could just not deal with it right now,’” Nix said. “Then I realized, yeah, that’s probably how parents feel when they have an actual baby.”

Majewski said the assignment was fun but could be annoying at times. 

“You’re in the middle of something and you realize you have what’s essentially supposed to be a kid with you,” she said. “You don’t realize how much children actually affect your life because we don’t have them at this age. It was interesting to see what our parents deal with and how we actually had to deal with it ourselves.”

The assignment made some students excited for their future as actual parents.

Marines learned the value of spending time with your child and being able to connect with the child and sharing memories.