I’ll never forget the moment I realized that spill-proof snack cups existed.
I was well into life as a mom of two by that point and I felt like I had missed out on some crucial piece of parental information that would have drastically affected my life for the better. Why don’t they tell you that there is a snack cup that your toddler can cart Cheerios around in without you following them around like a human vacuum cleaner?
Shouldn’t that have come in that little binder of “things you need to know” that they sent us home from the hospital with and I actually (stupidly) read cover-to-cover? And don’t even get me started on the fact that I never knew full-sleeved bibs were a thing and spent five years of my life stripping my babies down for meals because they seem to have no concept of actually getting food into their mouths without splattering it across their bodies in the process.
But my point is, I am fully behind parenting products and technologies that improve our lives, help protect our children, or frankly, just give me a few minutes of peace and quiet. Which is why I’m really looking forward to incorporating a few of these too-good-to-be true parenting products into my motherhood game.
1. This DNA test that will tell you what to feed your kid.
Put that rice cereal down, folks. The future is here and it’s a DNA test to tell you what exactly your baby should eat based on his or her unique genetic makeup. Crazy or cool?
2. These long-sleeved bibs that make clean up a breeze.
I’m pretty much the worst about putting bibs on my kids because they hate them and, honestly, they don’t seem to do that much good anyway. But if they had one of these full-length, super-snazzy bibs? Who knows what could happen!
3. These child-friendly food scissors for easy meal prep.
How many times have I forgone the polite knife and fork route and literally just ripped my children’s food to shreds with my fingers? Too many to count. Which is why perhaps it would have just made total sense to whip out a pair of food scissors instead.
4. This awesome Keurig for making formula.
This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. The Diluo, developed and produced in Sweden, is basically a Keurig for formula. And it even connects to WiFi so if you’re upstairs with a fussy baby and want a bottle at the perfect temperature ready by the time you walk downstairs, you can totally do that from your phone.
5. These super easy water bottle adaptors.
So you’re out and about in public and you need to mix up a bottle for your baby, but all you have is a water bottle. What do you do? And GO. Innovator Nache Thompson decided to create a water bottle adaptor that simply screws on to any water bottle to convert it into an automatic formula bottle.
6. This app-controlled bouncy seat.
The MamaRoo is apparently the world’s first app-controlled bouncy seat for all of those times you want to comfort your child without actually, er, touching your child. Hey, it happens. You can control the bouncy seat from your phone while you try to whip up dinner (Sorry, dinner not included.)
7. This stroller that charges your phone.
Stroller + phone = parenting in a nutshell. Honestly, what will they think of next?
8. This onesie that tracks your child’s sleep.
This is the world’s first baby sleep monitor that is built right into a wearable onesie. It’s customizable and sends an alert to your phone (the one we know you’re sleeping with anyways) when your baby’s breathing changes.
9. This wearable thermometer.
This neat device is good for 24 hours and sticks directly onto your child like a bandage to monitor a feverish baby without you disturbing him or her.
10. This personal pregnancy monitor that tracks everything you (and your baby) do.
I just don’t know how I feel about this one (because worrying as a mother is pretty much 24/7) but the makers of the Moodoo hope to give expectant moms a little more peace of mind with a wearable pregnancy monitor that tracks their baby’s heartbeat, how they sleep, everything they eat, and what they do.
11. This car seat that talks to you.
This car seat by Evenflo has a special wireless adaptor that you plug into your car when you get in. Then when you get to your destination, it will alert you that your baby is still buckled in, preventing a distracted and overtired parent from leaving a baby in a car.
12. The world’s smartest alarm clock.
It looks cute and kid-friendly, but it’s also adult-friendly. The REMI claims to help train your child to sleep and lets you set faces and colors to teach your child when it’s OK to get out of bed … and when they need to let a pair of exhausted parents keep sleeping. Oh, and it’s also a sleep diary and monitor that allows you to talk to your kids from another room.
