How to Use Your Safety 1st HD WiFi Baby Monitor to Communicate with Big Kids

This post is sponsored by Safety 1st

With the start of high school on the horizon for our oldest and our youngest solidly embedded in his middle school years, it’s been a long time since I thought about baby monitors. Fourteen years ago the three piece system that we used to listen in on our kids was state of the art. Two parent units could be placed around the house while the transmitter sent audio from the baby’s room. Rotating a little wheel on the side not only turned it on but adjusted the volume and a green light let us know it was on.

As new parents, we slept soundly listening to silence on the monitor and then delighted in hearing our daughter babble and coo as she got older. There was joy in the simplicity of those audio monitors but time has passed and technology has improved. Today’s monitors include features that we only dreamed about in an era of flip phones.

Today’s generation of parents who love the convenience that apps bring to everyday life have the luxury of monitoring their baby with Safety 1^st’s HD WiFi Baby Monitor. This system connects with your smartphone and detects sound and movement through an audio unit so you can see and hear right from your mobile device.

One-way communication is a thing of the past as parents can use the Smart Audio Unit to communicate with their baby and provide comfort from afar. If we had a little one, my husband would be using this feature to say things like, “Hello baby. Come in baby” like he jokingly did when our baby monitor had one way communication.

Safety 1^st’s HD WiFi Baby Monitor allows you to access a 130 degree live feed of your baby’s room through a HD camera that lets you zoom in on the action. It also connects families so everyone can feel like they’re a part of your child’s life, even if they live far away. Family members, friends, and caregivers can be granted access to the camera to watch high quality images live from the feed or you can elect to send them 30 second clips directly from the app via text, email, or on social channels.

HD camera technology means the images you see are in high definition and with a 130 degree wide angle view, friends and loved ones can view the entire room so they never miss a moment during the day or using the monitor’s night vision capabilities.

But what happens when you baby grows up and you no longer need the baby monitor you invested in when they were little? Fortunately the features of the Safety 1^st HD WiFi Baby Monitor can grow with your child, even into their tween years.

No one wants to be the helicopter parent to their tween but in the name fostering independence, here’s how you can use the Safety 1^st ‘s HD WiFi Baby Monitor to foster communication and connections in unobtrusive ways as your child gets older.

4 Ways to Use Your Safety 1^st HD WiFi Baby Monitor to Communicate with Your Big Kids 

With a wealth of features, smartphone connectivity, and an amazing camera, Safety 1^st ‘s HD WiFi Baby Monitor is a fabulous tool for monitoring your baby but as they grow, the technology doesn’t have to become obsolete. Here are some ideas of how you can use your investment to communicate with your big kids.

Call Them to Dinner

Give your voice a rest thanks to the Smart Audio Unit. Instead of shouting up the stairs that dinner is ready, use the 2 Way Sound to let them know dinner is ready even though they should already be downstairs and helping to set the table!

Discuss Nightly Homework

While the Smart Audio Unit was once used to comfort your child as an infant, you can use the same technology to comfort them about homework they don’t understand when you’re away on a business trip. Have them position the camera at the homework and use the Smart Audio Unit to discuss it so they feel successful. It may be tempting to pull up the feed on your phone and check to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do while you’re gone but that borders on creepy! Use technology to build capacity and independence instead of helicopter parenting them!

Make the Grandparents Happy

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and close family friends love keeping in touch and staying up to date on what your kids are up to. The app is a great way to share all the cool things they’re doing in 30 second increments so go ahead and send a short video of your child practicing their new song on their instrument, a clip featuring them narrating a class project, or a brief video message to just say hi. 

Issue Lights Out Reminders from the Comfort of the Couch

Empower your kids to be mindful of the time and take charge of their own bedtime with gentle nudges. Use your phone to check on their progress towards bedtime from the comfort of your couch, a neighbor’s house, or covertly during a dinner meeting. They can communicate back to you via the Smart Audio Unit to say goodnight when you’re not at home but don’t forget that the human component of tucking your kids and bedtime snuggles in is also very important!

Safety 1^st compensated me for this post and video and provided me with a HD WiFi Baby Monitor for review purposes. All opinions are my own.