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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To get walkie talkies?

25 replies

vvviola · 18/09/2012 23:53

Having just been laughed at and called daft by my Mum, I'm going to take the risk of the same happening here...

We're moving from a house where bedrooms are within shouting distance of the sitting room, to a more 'traditional' layout where they are upstairs. DD (aged 5) is suffering a bit from anxiety and hates being alone (we're working on it).

She's got into the habit of yelling for us wherever she is in our (small) house. It's driving me nuts, and in the new house for us to hear her she'll have to yell pretty loud. With accompanying risk of waking her baby sister who will have the room next to her.

I thought it might be an idea to give her a walkie talkie at night time. That was she can call for us if she needs us, she'll know she's not "alone" when she's trying to get to sleep, and there's a chance she won't yell and wake up DD2.

DH's alternative was to get another monitor, but the idea of getting a monitor for a 5 year old...

AIBtotallyU to consider this?

OP posts:

Socknickingpixie · 18/09/2012 23:56

i think its a very good idea,it wont make her feel like a baby (a moniter may) its a fun thing well at least to me (im rather fond of talking to my brother in stupid voices when i cant be arsed to yell out of the window at him.

and when shes not using them you and dh can do so from different rooms role play you are strangers having phone sex so bonus all round

yanbu

UniS · 18/09/2012 23:59

good things radios. We use them on days out on teh moor and at festivals. DS likes having one , I can call him, he can call me. He took a radio with him on his first solo walk home from the park the other week. We use them as room monitor when we are staying away in places we won't hear him after bedtime otherwise.

Original poster

vvviola · 19/09/2012 08:02

socknicking I might give your last suggestion a miss, I'd be terrified the neighbours might pick up the transmission or something

OP posts:

Lilicat1013 · 19/09/2012 08:39

I just wanted to warn you there is a downside to having walkie talkies.

When I worked in care on of the residents lived in a flat separate to the main building so we had a set of walkie talkies so the person caring for him could ask the people in the main house for things without out having leave him alone.

One walkie talkie was always left in his flat. After a few days he kept insisting there was little girls in his flat and that he spoke to them. As he often got things he had seen on TV mixed up with real things we reassured him but didn't take it that seriously.

A one point a staff member walked in and heard him talking on the walkie talkie inviting someone over to visit him and offering for a cup of tea. We were so shocked when we heard a little girls voice on the other end telling him to come round to play to play.

We eventually worked out there was two little girls in one of the local houses who were using walkie talkies to talk to each other between their bedrooms. They were coming through one one of our walkie talkies and my service user had started up a conversation with them.

It was very innocent, he had learning difficulties and just wanted to invite them round to watch TV. However we were all paranoid about what her parents would think if one of the girls told them they had been talking to an adult man who had been inviting them round to his flat.

For that reason we ditched the walkie talkies soon after. Also as well as the girls on there we got taxi services often no matter how many times we changed the settings and sometimes there was bad language which wasn't ideal as one remained in our service user's flat and it wasn't very fair on him.

For that reason I would recommend a monitor so she can call you in a normal voice and be heard.

aldiwhore · 19/09/2012 08:42

Walkie talkies are fab. But buy a decent set otherwise you'll be throwing them at the wall within minutes.

Original poster

vvviola · 19/09/2012 17:45

Hmm Lillicat, that's something to consider alright.

I had really wanted to avoid the monitor, as I thought making an active choice to pick up the walkie talkie & call us might be a bit better from the point of view of getting over some of her anxiety. And I was worried about her feeling babied with a monitor...

OP posts:

GoldandOrangeAnnunziata · 19/09/2012 17:47

Mmm, I'd be worried she'd just play with it all night tbh.

GiserableMitt · 19/09/2012 18:26

Can I have a drink?
I can't sleep.
I'm too hot.
I'm too cold.
My pillow is scratchy.
What are we having for dinner tomorrow?
i can't find my blanky.
I need a wee.
Where do butterflies sleep?

Nah, I'm not a fan of the walkie talkie idea.

Glitterandglue · 19/09/2012 18:41

Wouldn't there be the same problem of crossed transmissions with walkie talkies as there would be with a monitor, or have monitors changed these days?

I ask because when I was about eleven my parents started using a walkie talkie when they went down the pub (five doors down the road, would check in every fifteen minutes) and the first night it scared the shit out of me because I turned it on for the check in and heard a woman talking and a baby. When I got through to my dad he told me it was obviously next door's baby monitor that the walkie talkie was picking up, but it didn't half scare me!

Dildobaggins · 19/09/2012 18:41

I've always wondered why they don't put walkie talkie features in mobile phones, so you can get in touch with family members a short distance away without there being a cost, a short range radio broadcast.

Also: make the doorbell ring your mobile if you are in the house.

I'm full of interesting ideas

Dildobaggins · 19/09/2012 18:42

Also: make the doorbell ring your mobile if you are in the house.

I'm full of interesting ideas

Dildobaggins · 19/09/2012 18:42

Whoops double post

UniS · 19/09/2012 19:18

maybe it depends on where you are AND what kind of radios you buy. In several years of owning and using license free Multi channel radios we have had no problems with crosstalk. We do not use 1.1 however but something further along the available channel list. AND we live in a rural area .

Thelobsterswife · 19/09/2012 20:00

Dildo I have also wondered the same! Would be great if phones could double as baby monitors!

SageYourOracle · 19/09/2012 20:19

There is actually an iPhone App that, of downloaded onto two iPhones, can be used as a monitor

SageYourOracle · 19/09/2012 20:20

if downloaded, not of

Stoopid iPhone!

Original poster

vvviola · 19/09/2012 20:21

But GiserableMit, if she doesn't do that now when she is within yelling distance AND has a monitor (sharing with her baby sister until we move), I'm not sure a walkie talkie would make her do all that after the initial excitement.

I think we'll have a look at what's out there and see the issues with interference etc and have another think.

OP posts:

SageYourOracle · 19/09/2012 20:21

Just had a wee google- there are loads!

ThisIsMummyPig · 19/09/2012 20:23

I would put baby's monitor in the corridor, so that you can hear both of them (my babies make plenty of noise when they want something, but I would put it closer to babies room). That way you aren't turning your daughter into a baby, and you aren't on tenterhooks for every snuffle.

If your daughter asks just make something up about the plugs being inconvenient in your new home.

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 19/09/2012 20:27

Our ds's have Walkie talkies and most times that they're on we get interference - there seems to be way more around than I ever imagined!

A lot of house phones with multiple handsets have an internal call feature. Would something like that work?

Arithmeticulous · 19/09/2012 20:29

You need an intercom.

You can get wire-free ones in Maplin (I think), there's some on Amazon. A baby monitor with a speech option on the part side would mean you could have it on permanently on the child side, but only turn on the talking/parent side when you wanted to talk.

The problem with conventional walkie talkies is batteries and needing both sides on ahead of knowing you are going to want to talk.

Arithmeticulous · 19/09/2012 20:32

Our house phones have an intercom feature but it is dependent on the kids actually answering the phone (they don't) - because the answerphone plays out through the handset as you leave a message, I end up calling the housephone from my mobile to leave a message all the while wondering why I didn't just yell up the stairs

Thelobsterswife · 19/09/2012 20:46

Thanks sage! That's mine and Dildo's Dragon's Den idea out the window! Back to the drawing board!

SageYourOracle · 20/09/2012 00:46

Sorry!

valiumredhead · 20/09/2012 08:53

I'm with Giserable wrt to the walkie talkies - she needs reassurance so I would do the ' I'll be back in 10 mins' thing. I still remember my dad doing that when I stayed at his house and it was lovely to snuggle down in bed and wait for him to come back and put his head round the door to check I was alright.

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