Babies are Expensive!

As part of the SMART Moves curriculum, Rob & Natalie took the LITs to Target (one of our favorite places to visit!) to send them on a quest to price out baby supplies. Our goal was to help the youth understand just how expensive it is to care for a baby--and hopefully this knowledge will help them in remaining abstinent until they are ready to support a family. First, youth priced out items such as diapers, clothing, strollers, car seats and more. Of course we didn't just send the youth out to look for supplies and wait for them...instead, we spied on them to see who of the pairs was really working and who wasn't taking the task as seriously. Then, the youth who didn't put as much effort into the first exercise received an emergency list: "Your Baby is Sick!" They had to go back to through the store with a 10 minute time limit to find other random items that a sick baby might need, pronto!





















Read on to enjoy their comments about shopping for babies:

"This trip to Target was fun because we got to go walk around Target learning about how much you spend on babies. During our walk we had a list of things and we had to find out how much they cost. With all the items added up, the price was a total of $980--and that wasn't even everything! So we learned that babies cost a lot to have and to take care of." ~Shantae D.

"I've learned that when your baby is born your wife will tell you to buy all these certain things for the babies but sometimes it's so expensive! But it's gonna take a lot of work and it's gonna be very hard to take care of a baby." ~Justice M.

"What I learned is that you have to buy a lot of items for your baby and you also need a lot of money in order to pay for that. I also learned that some people might not want to help you if you have a baby as a teenager." ~Huni P.

"I learned that people use a lot of money for babies even though the price tags don't seem to be that much. I also learned that some stuff isn't in the same place. You will be busy when you have a baby!" ~Alvin M.

"It's hard to search for medicine and other things. Also this teaches me that babies require a lot of money and attention. Also, this will effect my life with my friends and girlfriend." ~Kevin C.

"Something that surprised me was how tiring the task was with the time limit. It was hard going back and forth through the store." ~Bradley S.

"I've learned that getting all the things you need for a baby is expensive and you need to have it all the time. It was a lot of work!" ~Gabby C.