History Main / EggSitting

-->-- '''Teacher''', ''WesternAnimation/{{DC Super Hero Girls|2019}}'', "[[Recap/DCSuperHeroGirls2019S1E31ScrambledEggs #ScrambledEggs]]"

Generally, the kids are totally irresponsible, and will either play catch with the egg, fight over it, [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles lose it among several hundred other eggs,]] or otherwise risk flunking. HilarityEnsues. Often, when the students are paired, the main character will have to work together with someone he or she doesn't like -- or [[UnresolvedSexualTension may have another kind of tension with]] -- to get themselves out of the mess they put themselves in.

* ''Series/EightSimpleRules'' used the 'Bag of flour' version: Everyone uses the flour for baking, leaving the "baby" deflated.
* ''Series/OneHundredThingsToDoBeforeHighSchool'': In "Adopt A Flour Baby Thing!", CJ agrees to adopt a flour bag baby for 24 hours to prove she is responsible enough to own a Guinea pig. A spirit of competitiveness cause Crispo, Fenwick and CJ's dad to join the contest. Because he is allergic to wheat, Fenwick has to parent a bag of potato chips. HilarityEnsues.

* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': Alexis and her friend Paige do this with an egg ('Feggin'), asking Castle to egg-sit while she and the friend go to a party. Surprisingly, both Castle and Beckett manage to keep the egg safe. However, [[spoiler:after Paige gets drunk at a party and Castle calls her parents, she "accidentally" destroys the egg.]]

* In one episode of ''Series/Charmed1998'', Paige rents a doll for expectant parents Piper and Leo to care for to see what it will be like to raise a child while constantly battling demons. HilarityEnsues when the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Demon of the Week]] shows up and the doll predictably doesn't survive in one piece. Thankfully their real kid is GooGooGodlike.
* Played with in an season 5 episode of ''Series/CobraKai''. Chozen gives each of the students an egg and tells them to protect it, as he will be coming for it. After he breaks all their eggs, he makes them try again. This time, they put all their eggs together in one place, and surround them in a defensive position. When Chozen came to attack, they were able to fend him off, as the lesson he was trying to impart was the value of working together vs. individually. This would help them in the season finale, [[spoiler: when "the egg" was a tablet that was uploading video proof of Terry Silver admitting he paid off the referee at the All Valley tournament. Miguel even says "protect the egg".]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AllHailKingJulien'', while Julien is playing daddy, ActionGirl Clover begins to feel she is poorly suited to be a mother, and attends a motherhood class where she is tasked with Egg Sitting as an assignment. She takes this very seriously, as when villains threaten her with the chance to either save King Julien's life or save her egg's life, she takes this as an actual SadisticChoice, going out of her way to prioritize saving ''both''.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' had Jake trying to protect a griffin's egg from the Huntsman and Huntsgirl, with Fu Dog's help. In the same episode, his class is given an egg-sitting assignment, which makes for a hilarious (but convenient) mix-up.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'''s sister, D.W. has a Tamagotchi-like (though on-line) "Net Kitten" that is imperiled when the family computer breaks down. She asks her friend Emily to take care of it, then becomes jealous when Emily does a better job than she did.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': In place of a real egg, Terry's Family Studies class uses a baby-sized artificial egg that's AI-enabled to cry, get "hungry" and generally respond like a real kid. Unable to get anyone to babysit his electronic egg, Terry has no choice but to take it along crime-fighting with him. Not only does {{Hilarity Ensue|s}}, he ends up getting the highest grade in the class, as only his egg was properly "stimulated" (it had the most fun). The teacher says this is a sign that Terry is excellent father material, which pleases his girlfriend. (Notably, this is the episode of the series that won an Emmy, and the commentary on the DVD explains that they intentionally wrote a funny episode for their otherwise serious show as deliberate award bait.) Also, an interesting take happens with one couple:
-->'''Max:''' Here's the bio and civics.
-->'''Nelson:''' Thanks, hon. How about the math?
-->'''Max:''' It's coming, stop nagging.
-->'''Terry:''' I get it. You're doing his homework so you don't have to take care of the baby.
-->'''Max:''' We opted for the traditional marriage: one breadwinner, one homemaker.
-->'''Nelson:''' Beats algebra.

--> '''Beavis''': You killed it, dude!
--> '''Butt-head''': Now we'll never get to see it grow up. ''(throws the bag on the ground with a splat, then strums out the melody of Black Sabbath's Iron Man on AirGuitar)''
* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': In "O.T.: The Outside Toilet", Gene's class has this exercise with sacks of flour. Gene manages to destroy ''three'' of them [[EpicFail inside of a minute]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' has Danny (secretly a half ghost) and Valerie, a fellow student, (secretly a HunterOfMonsters, trying to capture Danny) take care of a microchipped sack of flour that can simulate crying and defecation. Tucker had the idea of "babysitting" other students' projects for money, but his mother used all the flour for baking cookies, forcing him to pay everyone back with interest. Sam (originally partnered with Tucker), however, passes with an A, while Danny and Valerie (whose flour sack got destroyed in a ghost fight) get a C for their cooperation since they are the only other students whose flour sack had not been used for baking.

** In the episode "[=#ScrambledEggs=]", the class is split into duos so that they can take care of eggs. The substitute teacher admits to not knowing about home economics, so he just looked it up online and used eggs because they were the first example that came up. None of the eggs survive because the duos bicker too much to pay attention to them, while Pamela Isley doesn't care and simply eats hers. When the main teacher comes back, she redoes the assignment with the ClassPet hamster's new babies.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Detentionaire}}'': Students have to take care of robot babies. This leads to some rather unusual pairings having to take care of a child together, such as Chaz and Tina (who [[TeethClenchedTeamwork bicker the whole time]]), Brandy and Irwin (who end up getting along [[OddCouple surprisingly well]]), and [[HoYay Cam and Holger]]. And then there's Biffy, who gets unlucky and has to be a single dad with twins. At the end of the episode, we find out that the babies' real purpose is [[spoiler:planting bugs in the students' homes as a part of Cassandra's plot. Turns out [[TheCuckooLanderWasRight Holger wasn't really wrong]] calling them "evil robot babies".]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' subverts this by giving Toot an actual baby (from Nicaragua) for the experiment. [[spoiler:She gets pregnant. ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice And we don't mean Toot.]]'']]
* Kuzco on ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'' has to do a class assignment with the others, each taking care of their own individual kitten. At his first attempt to care for it he throws it into his school locker (thinking it'll be fine on its own) and names it "Homework". Later, Yzma turns it into a full-grown jaguar.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' episode "Two and a Half Babies" has Poof and Foop being paired to take care of an egg for a school assignment.

* The trope was featured in the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Egg Story". Arnold and Helga get paired together and spend the entire assignment arguing, losing the egg in the process twice. The second time they find it, they put aside their differences to work together -- and then the egg hatches into a baby chick. The progress of the other students is also followed. Harold and Rhonda are paired together, for example, and she paints their egg to look like it has a baby's face and hair. She leaves to go shopping and Harold, [[Myth/ClassicalMythology who is apparently channeling Cronos at the time]], gets very hungry and eats it. They ultimately turn in the egg shell, taped together.
* A ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' episode plays on this (and a really bad MeaningfulName joke/pun). Ron is entrusted with a sack of flour, which he's repeatedly forced to replace after a series of slapsticky mishaps. While he lavishes attention on "Sacky I" through "Sacky MCMXXXIIII", (Ron doesn't know his Roman numerals,) he ignores and deplores his new adopted baby sister Hana, whose name happens to mean "flower" in Japanese. In the end, he gets a failing grade because the sack he tries to pass as the one he was supposed to babysit is a sack of ''sugar''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "Shell Shocked" has Lincoln and [[TheLadette Ronnie Anne]] assigned to take care of an egg, with Lincoln trying to keep the egg away from Ronnie Anne, believing she will smash it.
* Subverted on ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey''. The students of Charles Darwin Middle School are given eggs to take care of. The eggs hatch into exotic bird chicks which must then be cared for.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' had an episode where the gang found an egg and tried to care for it until it hatched. Skipper was initially against it (though as Kowalski correctly points out, incubation of eggs ''is'' a guy thing for penguins.'') However, between Skipper's military perspective, Kowalski being a mad scientist and Rico being... Rico, Private was mainly the one who knew what he was doing, though they all did their best. Eventually, the baby was returned to its rightful mother. And then the duckling they hatched showed he had somehow [[AllYourPowersCombined absorbed the traits of the penguins]] while they were taking care of it.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "Perry Lays an Egg", the boys find an egg (that they accidentally knocked out of a tree) that they believe to be Perry's. When Perry disappears, they decide to care for it... to the horror of Candace, whose maternal instincts have been awakened by a nature documentary. She tries to teach them the right way to care for an egg, which apparently involves dressing up in a platypus costume.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Bart gets himself emancipated and moves out due to Homer's behavior. Homer does not take this well and tries to learn to be a better parent by caring for a bag of sugar. Somehow, the bag of sugar gets switched with a real baby (specifically, Cletus and Brandine Spuckler's baby daughter Rubella Scabies Spuckler).
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', "Follow that Egg!": In order to spite her former lover, Mr. Slave, Ms. Garrison puts Stan and Kyle together for egg-sitting, expecting them to break their egg -- and thus provide evidence against the legalization of gay marriage. When they don't break it, she hires a hit man to kill the egg.
* ''Series/StrangeHillHigh'': In "Mitchell Junior". Mr Garden decides to teach the class a lesson in responsibility by getting them to look after electronic babies. Becky's keeps falling to pieces. Mitchell, who is late to class, gets an older model that turns out to be demonically possessed.
* Cody on ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRescueBots'' is given a robot baby to care for, which ends up having to be saved by the Bots.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}}'': In "Just Add Water", Jim and his friends have to babysit sacks of flour for a school assignment while also dealing with the MonsterOfTheWeek. All the students give their flour-sack babies {{Punny Name}}s like "Dwight D. Eisenflour", "Sir Isaac Gluten", and the more subtle "Petunia". [[EpicFail All the pairs except for one manage to get their baby killed by the next day]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WhatsWithAndy'' has the episode "Daddy" where [[ThePrankster Andy]] and his class get paired up and each pair has to look after a robot baby. [[TheBully Lik and Leech]] get paired up and are very irresponsible "dads", and Andy is paired with [[RichJerk Jervis Coltrane]], who is actually a pretty decent father despite his smug personality.

->''"Let's see what Mr. Chapin had you do while I was gone. Oh, dear, not the "egg" thing. That is so outdated! I mean, who can't take care of a simple egg?"''
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls2019''

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': In "Double N''egg''-ative," Billy is assigned a school project taking care of an egg. Grim is taking care of a very delicate one--the Cosmic Egg. If it breaks then it's the end of everything as we know it. Mandy secretly steals the Cosmic Egg and makes Grim think Billy took it. A wild chase through Endsville takes place for the egg, which Mandy has hidden in her dress pocket--and on the last panel, [[OhCrap she breaks it.]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* The [[https://cad-comic.com/comic/it-could-still-make-a-cake/ "It Could Still Make a Cake"]] strip in ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' manages this whole trope in four panels, wherein [[spoiler: Ethan is fooled into dropping the "baby" when Lucas tells him that flour can be full of bees]]. (There's also discussion of egg-sitting in TheRant.)
* ''Webcomic/OlympicDames'' - this is the strategy used by the god Pan as a cover story to explain how four high school girls all became very visibly pregnant overnight, one ludicrously so. He implants this into the minds of everyone they meet so as to make them think the pregnancy bulges are just fat suits and the bulges are part of an Egg Sitting assignment.
* ''Webcomic/ASkewedParadise'' has this as on ongoing plotline.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the ''WebVideo/HardlyWorking'' episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPzRXUER-_c "The Egg" ]], Sarah announces that she's pregnant after [[NoodleIncident everyone in the office had a huge orgy]] (which we naturally don't see). Since she doesn't know who the father is, she gives each of the guys an egg, telling them that whoever keeps theirs intact for her whole pregnancy will be the dad; [[ButtMonkey Dan]] is the odd man out, as he has to care for a fully-grown nude guy because Sarah runs out of eggs. After a montage, all of the guys but Dan end up breaking their eggs--then things get even weirder when the nude guy turns out to be an egg, too. Sarah then realizes how stupid the plan was and decides to a get a DNA test instead, much to the chagrin of the poor cameraman who had edit ''six thousand hours'' of footage into a minute-long clip. While Sarah and the guys pull an EverybodyLaughsEnding, the cameraman [[DrivenToSuicide pulls a gun on himself]], making this a literal case of ShootTheShaggyDog.

* The ''WebVideo/{{QSMP}}'' server makes a unique twist where the Federation, hosted by the Duckling in the Egg Adoption Event, forces ''everyone'' to take care of the egg they adopted after the Dragon supposedly woke up and disappeared. And since the eggs are actually ''[[EggFolk alive]]'', the guests are forced to protect them at all costs, causing a [[SinkOrSwimFatherhood sink-or-swim situation]] for many guests. A majority of the guests were formed in pairs, while others either took care of their eggs as single parents, or in groups.
* ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'': In ''The Baby Project!'', Junior and Jeffy are tasked with taking care of a baby doll for a whole day. [[spoiler:However, it takes a dark subversion when it's revealed at the end that their actual task is ''[[WouldHurtAChild killing the baby]]''.]]

* ''Fanfic.AreYouThereGodItsMeShouta'': [[Franchise/MyHeroAcademia Class 1-A]] takes care of robot babies in pairs, and it goes about as well as you might expect; Aoyama puts a chemical foot peel on his and Tenya’s baby, Tokoyami dresses up his and Shoji’s goth-style, Hakagure and Ojiro tape theirs to the wall, Ejirou pushes his and Bakugo’s down the stairs in a laundry basket, Ashido and Sero have theirs too close a new joint attack they are trying and melt theirs, and Uraraka uses her quirk on hers and Asui’s and it’s floating on a leash.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31299935 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Shouta]]'': [[Franchise/MyHeroAcademia Class 1-A]] takes care of robot babies in pairs, and it goes about as well as you might expect; Aoyama puts a chemical foot peel on his and Tenya’s baby, Tokoyami dresses up his and Shoji’s goth-style, Hakagure and Ojiro tape theirs to the wall, Ejirou pushes his and Bakugo’s down the stairs in a laundry basket, Ashido and Sero have theirs too close a new joint attack they are trying and melt theirs, and Uraraka uses her quirk on hers and Asui’s and it’s floating on a leash.

* In the ''Literature/GirlTalk'' series, they had an egg-sitting episode, mostly for a "Not So Different" set up between [[TotallyRadical Zek]] and a quiet pianist. Though it's notable for the fact the AlphaBitch tried to cheat by boiling hers, and a guy accidentally sat on his.

--->'''Max:''' Here's the bio and civics.
--->'''Nelson:''' Thanks, hon. How about the math?
--->'''Max:''' It's coming, stop nagging.
--->'''Terry:''' I get it. You're doing his homework so you don't have to take care of the baby.
--->'''Max:''' We opted for the traditional marriage: one breadwinner, one homemaker.
--->'''Nelson:''' Beats algebra.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
** In place of a real egg, Terry's Family Studies class uses a baby-sized artificial egg that's AI-enabled to cry, get "hungry" and generally respond like a real kid. Unable to get anyone to babysit his electronic egg, Terry has no choice but to take it along crime-fighting with him. Not only does {{Hilarity Ensue|s}}, he ends up getting the highest grade in the class, as only his egg was properly "stimulated" (it had the most fun). The teacher says this is a sign that Terry is excellent father material, which pleases his girlfriend. (Notably, this is the episode of the series that won an Emmy, and the commentary on the DVD explains that they intentionally wrote a funny episode for their otherwise serious show as deliberate award bait.)
** Also an interesting take happens with one couple:

* Done more than once by [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Daffy Duck]].

* In "[=#ScrambledEggs=]" from ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls2019'', the class is split into duos so that they can take care of eggs. The substitute teacher admits to not knowing about home economics, so he just looked it up online and used eggs because they were the first example that came up. None of the eggs survive because the duos bicker too much to pay attention to them, while Pamela Isley doesn't care and simply eats hers. When the main teacher comes back, she redoes the assignment with the ClassPet hamster's new babies.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31299935 Are You There, God, It’s Me, Shouta]]'': [[Franchise/MyHeroAcademia Class 1-A]] takes care of robot babies in pairs, and it goes about as well as you might expect; Aoyama puts a chemical foot peel on his and Tenya’s baby, Tokoyami dresses up his and Shoji’s goth-style, Hakagure and Ojiro tape theirs to the wall, Ejirou pushes his and Bakugo’s down the stairs in a laundry basket, Ashido and Sero have theirs too close a new joint attack they are trying and melt theirs, and Uraraka uses her quirk on hers and Asui’s and it’s floating on a leash.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/31299935 Are You There, God, It’s Me, Shouta]]'': ''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia]]'' Class 1-A takes care of robot babies in pairs. It goes about as well as you might expect. Aoyama puts a chemical foot peel on his and Tenya’s baby. Tokoyami dresses up his and Shoji’s goth-style. Hakagure and Ojiro tape theirs to the wall. Ejirou pushes his and Bakugo’s down the stairs in a laundry basket. Ashido and Sero have theirs too close a new joint attack they are trying and melt theirs. And Uraraka uses her quirk on hers and Asui’s and it’s floating on a leash.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Alexis and her friend Paige do this with an egg ('Feggin'), asking Castle to egg-sit while she and the friend go to a party. Surprisingly, both Castle and Beckett manage to keep the egg safe. However, [[spoiler: after Paige gets drunk at a party and Castle calls her parents, she "accidentally" destroys the egg.]]

In the real world, the eggs have mostly been displaced by lifelike dolls, equipped with features to make them even more annoying, like a battery-powered chip which makes the baby scream. Only some EggSitting episodes have made the switch. Occasionally a third option is used, such as a bag of flour or sugar, which more properly imitates the weight of a baby (and, for comedic purposes, will certainly make a huge mess if dropped or destroyed).

Note that this is a very specific trope to the US (and perhaps Canada) and when it is encountered by others in American-made media, a common response is to think it an example of AluminumChristmasTrees.

* The ''WebVideo/{{QSMP}}'' makes a unique twist where the Federation, hosted by the Duckling in the Egg Adoption Event, forces ''everyone'' to take care of the egg they adopted after the Dragon supposedly woke up and disappeared. And since the eggs are actually ''[[EggFolk alive]]'', the guests are forced to protect them at all costs, causing a [[SinkOrSwimFatherhood sink-or-swim situation]] for many guests. A majority of the guests were formed in pairs, while others either took care of their eggs as single parents, or in groups.

* Parodied by ''Website/TheOnion'' [[https://local.theonion.com/high-school-teaches-parenting-skills-by-having-students-1819579714 here]] - the parenting assignment is focused solely on posting photos of the egg on social media.

* ''WebVideo/{{QSMP}}'' makes a unique twist where the Federation, hosted by the Duckling in the Egg Adoption Event forces ''everyone'' to take care of the egg they adopted after the Dragon supposedly woke up and disappeared. And since the eggs are actually ''[[EggFolk alive]]'', they are forced to protect them at all costs, causing a [[SinkOrSwimFatherhood sink-or-swim situation]] for many guests. A majority of the guests were formed in pairs, while others either took care of their eggs as single parents, or in groups.

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27540919 Parenting 101]]'': After a delivery mission goes horribly wrong, Bucciarati tries to get the team to be more responsible by having them take care of flour sack babies for a week. Only Mista's makes it to the end of the week; Narancia's lasts ten minutes, Giorno turns his into a frog while trying to hide it and it hops away, Purple Haze drops Fugo's while playing with it (and in the ensuing chaos, Narancia trips over a rock and drops Trish's), and Abbacchio turns his into pancakes.

In the real world, the eggs have mostly been displaced by lifelike dolls, equipped with features to make them even more annoying, like a battery-powered chip which makes the baby scream. Only some EggSitting episodes have made the switch. Occasionally a third option is used, such as a bag of flour or sugar, which more properly imitates the weight of a baby.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Lillie in ''Sun and Moon'' is assigned to watch over a Pokemon egg early in the Alola arc (which has a school setting and is is in Alola, an American-based region). A few episodes later, it hatches into an [[UndergroundMonkey Alolan]] [[AnIcePerson Vulpix]], which becomes her first Pokemon.
** Ash and Goh have to do this with a Riolu egg in ''Pokémon Journeys''. [[HilariousInHindsight Funnily enough]], the idea of Ash and Goh taking care of a Pokémon egg together had become popular on tumblr some weeks before this episode was announced.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* Life-like dolls instead of egg example: Happened during the "Death of a Goblin" storyline in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', with Peter awkwardly paired up with X-Girlfriend Kitty Pryde. Pun intended.
** And then when she got fed up and passed it on to him, he ended up [[spoiler:accidentally blowing it up when bad guy Omega Red attacked the ''Daily Bugle'']].
--->'''Kitty Pryde:''' ''[[spoiler:He killed our baby!]]''
** Fortunately, after Peter proves he works at the ''Bugle'', and provides the paper's front page describing the attack, the teacher is relatively understanding of the situation and gives them a decent if not outstanding passing grade.

[[folder: Comic Strips]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* ''FanFic/{{Coyote}}'': Hound Dog has Izuku carry around an egg filled with blue glycerin; in order to pass, he needs to be able to care for it three full days without breaking it. In addition to helping him learn how to better control his SuperStrength, this exercise is also meant to teach him to defend himself, as [[TheBully Bakugou]] is perfectly willing to smash the egg just to spite him. The second time Izuku reaches a RageBreakingPoint with Bakugou in the story (although it's more of a "so fed up [[DisappointedInYou that he feels disappointment]] and stops caring about him" point) is when Izuku has to fend off Bakugou trying to smash the egg for the nth-time during the visit to the USJ and firmly points out that even for Bakugou [[EvilIsPetty this has crossed into the realm of the extremely petty]].

[[folder: Film -- Live Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', "Bad Eggs": The eggs turn out to have {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s inside them. Most of the students get taken over, but Buffy kills hers when it hatches, and Xander tried to cheat by boiling his egg. (He was still going to ''eat it,'' however, which is how he discovered the parasite.)

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', Paige rents a doll for expectant parents Piper and Leo to care for to see what it will be like to raise a child while constantly battling demons. HilarityEnsues when the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Demon of the Week]] shows up and the doll predictably doesn't survive in one piece. Thankfully their real kid is GooGooGodlike.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]
* A Canadian radio show once had the hosts adopt one of those lifelike electronic dolls when they were still brand new technology. "Baby Rocko" was dead within the week.

* 'Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': In "Bassholes", Frankie loses a bet to Korsak and is forced to take care of a bag of flour and carry it as a baby for a day. Every time he screws up, Korsak adds a day to the time he has to care for it.

* Long before [[UnbuiltTrope this trope developed]], the C.M. Kornbluth story "The Education of Tigress [=McArdle=]" (1957), set ExtyYearsFromPublication, has a robot Toddler that works like this for adults as part of the [[PopulationControl Parental Qualifications Program]] [[spoiler: which is actually a YellowPeril plot; the Toddler is so obnoxious that it persuades a generation or two of Americans to ''get sterilized.'' The Chinese then move in to the aging and low-populated country.]]

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27540919 Parenting 101]]'': After a delivery mission goes horribly wrong, Bucciarati tries to get the team to be more responsible by having them take care of flour sack babies for a week. Narancia’s lasts ten minutes, Giorno turns his into a frog while trying to hide it and it hops away, Purple Haze drops Fugo’s while playing with it (and in the ensuing chaos, Narancia trips over a rock and drops Trish’s), and Abbacchio turns his into pancakes.