Am I Daddy or Big Brother?

In the beginning, sleeping in caves, babies slept next to their parents, and the parents were able to ensure that they were warm and alive. Did the parents sleep? No, but they lived in caves. Expectations were pretty low.

Then came houses, and these houses had rooms. This meant that the parents could (if they chose) have a room for themselves, and a room for the baby. Oh, joy! Sleep at last! But wait! I can’t hear the baby. Oh no. Oh my. What will we do? How will we be good parents?

Evolution moves on, and soon the radio is invented. We can now send a human voice without wires! Of course, the radio has not reached its full potential until the baby monitor is invented. Now parents can hear every breath that their baby takes. If they’re lucky, they can also hear the phone conversations of the family next door, or perhaps another baby monitor down the street! (This actually happened to us – we got to hear the phone conversations of the single girl next door…and it was cheaper than those 900 numbers)

This new technology has some problems. You jump up at every single bubble and squeak. Finally, we’ve evolved back to caveman days. No sleep. OK, then let’s get the next generation – movement sensors! Perfect! Of course, if you’re like me, you forget to turn off the sensor when you get the baby up in the morning….man that alarm is LOUD.

My sister’s family bought us the ultimate – a video monitor system (with infrared! watch baby and give her a tan at the same time!). Now I’m hooked. If I hear the baby rustle, I just look at the video, and make sure she hasn’t started running around. I plan to use this until the girls are 18 or they get injunctions. Dad just wants them to be safe.