When I asked Claire and Sean if they needed anything in particular as a present for the new arrival, Claire said I could get them a baby monitor. I thought,really? My recollections of baby monitors from when my kids were born in the 80s were of walkie talkie type gadgets that only really worked if you were in the same room, which rather defeated the purpose of having them in the first place.
But it appears technology has moved on. I believe they even have telephonic apparatus now that does not need to be plugged in to a wall socket and can be taken outside or even in the car with you. I understand they call them carry-about-with-you phones. Seemingly all the kids have them these days.
Anyway I digress, using my extremely limited IT skills I logged on to the Mothercare site in pursuit of a baby monitor and was met with a wondrous array of options that I could not have imagined even in my wildest dreams (I do confess that my wildest dreams do not normally revolve around baby monitors)
I finally settled on the BT Baby Monitor 150 (Mrs D of Derbyshire gave it 5 stars and said it was worth every penny, so that was good enough for me). The Product Information contained the following:
Digital frequency with High Definition Sound...no idea what this means but it sounds impressive
Portable Parent Unit....it's always preferable to have a portable parent
Nightlight....obviously eco friendly
Room Temperature Display...so Mum can have room at exact degree required
Sound Activated Light Display...always reassuring for baby to awake to flashing lights
Volume Control...unfortunately this applies only to the monitor not the baby
Lullaby Player...now we're talking, never mind Twinkle Twinkle, apparently you can plug in your own selection of music to soothe the restless youngster. I have my Born To Run album ready for when I babysit. You are never too young to hear Thunder Road for the first time
Out of Range Indicator....with a 300m maximum range, what size of house do they think we live in?
Rechargeable Batteries on Parent Unit...I think everyone needs those
2-Way Talk-Back to Baby.....Excellent, this means I can keep telling young Ben "Grandpa is the best" whilst still watching the footie in the other room
There were even more elaborate monitors with screens involved but Mrs M from London said she thought the image was very poor and kept changing colour (perhaps she was babysitting a chameleon) so I decided against them. I also had an image of young Ben having X Factor on his screen and and voting to insure Cher remained in the competition. Not sure why he would be watching X Factor when there was football on another channel
But it appears technology has moved on. I believe they even have telephonic apparatus now that does not need to be plugged in to a wall socket and can be taken outside or even in the car with you. I understand they call them carry-about-with-you phones. Seemingly all the kids have them these days.
Anyway I digress, using my extremely limited IT skills I logged on to the Mothercare site in pursuit of a baby monitor and was met with a wondrous array of options that I could not have imagined even in my wildest dreams (I do confess that my wildest dreams do not normally revolve around baby monitors)
I finally settled on the BT Baby Monitor 150 (Mrs D of Derbyshire gave it 5 stars and said it was worth every penny, so that was good enough for me). The Product Information contained the following:
Digital frequency with High Definition Sound...no idea what this means but it sounds impressive
Portable Parent Unit....it's always preferable to have a portable parent
Nightlight....obviously eco friendly
Room Temperature Display...so Mum can have room at exact degree required
Sound Activated Light Display...always reassuring for baby to awake to flashing lights
Volume Control...unfortunately this applies only to the monitor not the baby
Lullaby Player...now we're talking, never mind Twinkle Twinkle, apparently you can plug in your own selection of music to soothe the restless youngster. I have my Born To Run album ready for when I babysit. You are never too young to hear Thunder Road for the first time
Out of Range Indicator....with a 300m maximum range, what size of house do they think we live in?
Rechargeable Batteries on Parent Unit...I think everyone needs those
2-Way Talk-Back to Baby.....Excellent, this means I can keep telling young Ben "Grandpa is the best" whilst still watching the footie in the other room
There were even more elaborate monitors with screens involved but Mrs M from London said she thought the image was very poor and kept changing colour (perhaps she was babysitting a chameleon) so I decided against them. I also had an image of young Ben having X Factor on his screen and and voting to insure Cher remained in the competition. Not sure why he would be watching X Factor when there was football on another channel
Anyway, I need to go now and edit the lullaby tune...
"Twinkle, twinkle little star
Grandpa is the best by far"
...yes, that will do.
Happy monitoring!
Mr ronron (or may I call you doo?)
ReplyDeleteI think that you are under a slight misapprehension here.
What the lovely Claire would like as a gift (a baby monitor) is in fact a young lizard similar to the Komodo Dragon. Do not, repeat not, get the latter by mistake, as they are pretty damn huge and eat birds and small mammals for fun. I cannot imagine that young Ben's parents would be enamoured at him being lunch for the admittedly very lovable pet that you purchased in error. My advice is to tread very carefully here, and get advice from a lacertilian expert prior to purchase.
ps not sure that Mothercare is the way to go here