Egg Baby

In a span of a few days, I have been reminded twice of the 'egg baby' I had back in school. So, I have decided to blog about it.

As part of home economics back in St Nicks, we were taught how to take care of a baby, e.g. bathe the thing. In order to simulate the fragility and responsibilty involved in taking care of a baby, we were each given a hen's egg to carry around for x no. of weeks.

Sounds easy enough?

It was a disaster for me!

The rules were simple. This is your egg. It is your child, your baby. You may decorate it, make a cot for it, give it a name, whatever, but you must carry it with you at all times, this includes bringing it to and from home/school, during recess, going to the loo etc. Hence, you may not park the egg under your desk, hide it in the class cabinet, or tie it up in a plastic bag as your baby needs to breathe. Spot-checks will be carried out. If you break your egg, you have to declare the tragedy to your home econs teacher and exchange its remains for a new one.

As the extremely agreeable child that I was, I was totally excited about this exercise.

I carried the damn egg EVERYWHERE, made a cot for it out of a tissue box (probably destroyed a nice new box of tissues for that) filled with cotton wool, bathed it, gave it a name (though I can't remember the name), and talked to it constantly. Come to think of it, I was a little creepy. O_o

I thought I was doing very well because everyone else was killing her baby. I took such great care of it. *beam*

That fateful morning, I boarded Bus No. 76 as usual, placed my file on the seat next to me, then the 'baby cot' on top of it, so as to free my hands to remove my bag from my back. At the moment, the bus jerked. The baby cot was violently flung to the bus floor, my baby rolled out of his cot (check out the gender preference at such an early age) and was smashed into a million pieces and a sticky mess. It had happened so fast that all I could do was to say,"Shiiiiiiiiiite!"

At the moment and for the first time in my life, I confirmed that I was such an irresponsible mother. I swiftly decided that since my baby was oredi dead, there was nothing I could do about it. And so, there was no need for me to touch it. YHEW?! So, I looked the other way for the rest of the 45-minute bus trip.

Sheepishly, I made my way to the home econs room during recess time that day to declare the death of my baby. If I remember correctly, my teacher made a mark beside my name on the list, and asked me what happened. After listening to my story, she gave me a look and said,"See? You must always carry it. Not place it on a bus seat. Would you place a real baby on the bus seat or on the NTUC check out counter?" Though I felt damn guilty, the little voice in me went,"How I know? I would put my hamster on the bus seat."

Upon receiving my second baby, I felt like I'd just gone through rebirth. I held it closely, and perhaps even kissed it. "Donch worry! I will take care of you! You will not die a terrible death like Baby 1!" I declared confidently.

I can't remember whether it was that same afternoon or the next. I was to clear out some stuff from the Girl Guides' den (I was the Quartermaster), and needed my hands to be free. So I checked if the teacher was in sight, then placed the egg in the pocket of my pinafore before getting to work. Just as I got into the groove of moving the stuff out of the den, my body turned and that swung the fragile baby right into the door frame. Instantly, I heard that familiar and fatal crack, then started to feel something wet against my thigh. Nabeh! This motherhood shite is really tough! My friend laughed at me. =_=

Even if your school or your child's school doesn't practise this, perhaps it's useful to try it out. It's definitely an unforgettable experience.

When I told 'Good Fren' about this, his immediate response was how to 'beat the game'. E.g. Build a reinforced carrier/container for the egg, tape the egg to your arm, no need to declare egg death to teacher, just replace with another egg etc. I was like... But that's not the point, you boys' school product!!!