Apr
24
Submitted by dbillson on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 14:15
On the car ride in to work I designed the perfect parenting device, the Repeat-a-Tron 3000.
The concept is simple - an audio recording device with external speaker and a shoe-lace.
You tie the Repeat-a-Tron to the chlid and then speak a command into the Repeat-a-Tron. The device then repeats what you said every 1 minute until the parent enters a key which disables the repetition - and then the device will be available to accept a new command.
Future enhancements will include the ability to vary the repeat interval to be configurable by child - IE: for those loveable yet challenging ADHD children you can set it to repeat every 15 seconds, for those that need more gentle reminders, 2-3 minutes is probably fine.
The aim of this device is to avoid situations like this (names have been replaced to protect the innocent):
Frank, get dressed and come downstairs, it's time to go to school.
* 2 minutes pass while I'm downstairs; come back upstairs, Frank reading a book*
Frank! I said get dressed, come'on, you're going to be late!
* Back downstairs to make lunches - realize after 5 minutes Frank is still not downstairs. Frank is, of course, upstairs, reading the book again.*
Give me that book! Now I said GET DRESSED!
Anyway, you get the idea - it generally repeats at least 15 times. I will get each one of my children one of these devices - in the morning while they're all eating breakfast having 4 Repeat-a-Trons taking the workload off my shoulders saying, in order:
"Be quiet, the baby is sleeping",
"Shhhh",
"I said be quiet!"
"ARGH I SAID BE QUIET!!!" <- totally defeats the purpose of trying to keep people quiet
So I have two questions for the general public:
1) Is it morally wrong to include it to give a mild shock after the first 5 repetitions, just incase the kid has learned how to tune out the audio as well as they do their parents?
2) Any pre-orders?