I met my greatgrandmother on several occasions. She was an elderly woman then, the mother of my grandfather. I am not sure when she died but she didn't figure very largely in my life, or so it seemed to me. My grandfather and my grandmother, on the other hand, were very big presences in my life. I liked them both very much and still hold them in my heart.
Thinking of vertical relatives, after my mother, comes me. Then, my daughter, her daughters and their children.
If you count carefully, you can see that I have listed seven generations of people, including me, that I have known personally. The other day, I met a member of a new generation. My greatgrandson attends a junior high school that offers students a chance to experience parenthood. The modern way of doing that is to temporarily give a student a baby. We can step over many difficulties and questions by giving the student a mechanical baby, a robot newborn, an advanced doll.
I have never been that interested in dolls but I do know that a simple stuffed doll has been a possibility for years and years. As I grew up, I saw dolls whose eyes opened when held in a upright position and closed when put down in a crib. I remember learning as time on went of dolls that could be fed and that needed their diapers changed. But today's special training baby dolls are much more sophisticated, and expensive. I looked up "practicing parenthood with special dolls" in Google and found dolls, including some with "special needs" that can cost $445.
I wouldn't be surprised if such a doll is sophisticated enough to sue me if it is badly handled.
My greatgrandson only had to care for this baby for a few days, instead of the usual decades of parenting. He seemed to enjoy the work and he beamed with faux-fatherly pride when he introduced me. I heard that the baby began crying while the young dad was changing a load in the washing machine and was out of hearing range. The little dear got more and more upset and needed to be soothed and jollied, much like you and I once did.
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