When I had Xene, our eldest back in 1998 (which to me is only yesterday, but according to the younger children it’s SO long ago!) the most modern appliance you could get for a baby was a monitor, you literally plugged it in next to the cot and you had the other part downstairs that you could attach to your belt buckle because it was ‘mobile’.
When Xene was born we didn’t even have the internet and the mobile phones still resembled a brick! Fast forward nearly 20 years and it’s a completely different story, your mobile phone can control pretty much anything, from underfloor heating to cooking the dinner.
My washing machine can be set by my phone, but I still find myself doing the cycle manually, so I guess I am not as up with technology as i’m meant to be!
But for new parents, the idea that everything can be done remotely must be fabulous, imagine being able to turn the dinner on whilst you are out, and come home to a fully cooked meal, alternatively stopping the meal from burning if you get stuck in traffic. I look at the video monitors that parents have now, and the ones we used to have, seem like antiques.
I love the technology that allows you to see who is at your front door, regardless of where you are, especially useful for delivery drivers!
One of my favourite TV programmes currently, is the Last Leg, it’s the perfect Friday evening entertainment show, and I love hearing about Alex’s exploits as a new dad, so I was very pleased when I saw that he was involved in a show about Home Tech Takeover, if you haven’t heard about it, check out this video.
The first episode sees Alex visiting a family whose life is dominated by Smart Technology, particularly with regards to their young children. The fridge featured is fantastic, and I would definitely like one of those! (I am dreadful with food going out of date!)
It does make me wonder what the technology will be like by the time my children become parents, and will I approach it like my parents do with smart phones and social media (it’s not pretty!), or will it just be second nature.
But if everything is controlled by your phone, what happens if we have a power cut that lasts for more than a few hours, does everything become unable to function, will we be so reliant on having everything at the touch of a button, that we will forget the basics, and what about obesity, the amount of ground I cover every day, walking between the rooms, switching appliances on and off, adjusting the heating, cooking meals, will it just make us totally and utterly lazy in every task we do?
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