Do you find yourself looking at your Video Baby Monitor too much?

[DesignStudentLDN]

Full disclosure I am a product design student studying in London and am asking this question as research for a project so any and as much feedback as I can get would be super appreciated.
I have been asked by a client to design a baby monitor that "gives time back to parents".

My current hypothesis I have gained from Secondary Research is that some parents will find themselves spending a lot of time looking at their video monitor instead of getting on with other things (work, chores hobbies etc.) even though the whole point of the monitor is to permit time/separation from your child in the knowledge that they are safe.
This currently only a hypothesis but I am looking to find out how true it is amongst the general population.

Again would be grateful for as much or information you could provide me,

Thank you very much in advance👍

before i got one that had notifications, yes. But I got one that linked to my phone and notified me if there was movement.

Most definitely yes at the beginning. Mine has got a function where it can be left displayed constantly or only flash up if there's movement. I have it set on the second option now and only check now and again (he doesn't move too much to set it off).

Yep, I'm looking for a new monitor because it's driving me mad constantly looking at the app on my phone

even though the whole point of the monitor is to permit time/separation from your child in the knowledge that they are safe.

You don’t absolutely know they’re safe though do you? I used to check in the beginning that DD hadn’t been kidnapped / learnt how to jump out her cot / was still breathing / hadn’t got tangled etc etc

Just habit, innit

I've always had video monitors with my DC but very rarely have the screen on and just use the volume setting for the very reason that if the screen is on I find myself running up everytime they would be fidgeting etc. il just turn it on now if I can hear noise and want to check they are not awake

Mine has got a function where it can be left displayed constantly or only flash up if there's movement. I usually buy baby stuff from littlebluenest.com/ they provide worth spending baby items, you should try as well.

You could design one that had some sortvof sleep sensor built into the mattress to record length and quality of sleep like a fit bit, and then linked to the Huckleberry app to suggest ideal tike for next nap or bedtime. That'd save time for the parent working it all out and entering the data manually into Huckleberry.

Tike = time

We bought cheap audio only ones only for 2 reasons. Firstly because I am clumsy and as I predicted I dropped 2 of them so badly they stopped working and we left one behind in a holiday rental. Secondly because I'd seen friends staring at theirs and didn't want to do that so avoided the temptation.

There isn't any design that would have made me swerve from the £15.99 Motorola one in Argos!

We have ours which is a camera we used to use for the dogs when we weren't home. We have it linked to an old tablet so it displays all the time. I still turn the volume up to maximum to watch and hear him breathing numerous times a night but I'm generally happy with it

What is the problem with looking at or watching the monitor for period(s) of time when they are asleep? My monitor only shows the image if there is a sound, not movement, but sometimes I switch on the image anyway because I like seeing it. It’s not really stopping me doing anything.

They are unneccesary

Yes in the beginning because I missed them. Then when I was trying to get a handle on naps and how long she was actually sleeping I would watch until I could see she was asleep, so I could start the timer. Now I only switch it on if I hear a noise to see if she's properly awake or will likely go back to sleep. I don't think it's a huuuuge issue to be honest. Similar to PP it might be useful to have one that links to sleep tracking apps (Huckleberry) to trigger the start of the sleep timer? But then again babies are veeeery active when asleep so it might not be to accurate...she's always the other way round in the cot when I get her up!!

So what if they are unnecessary? Loads of things are.

It saved me time because otherwise I was going up into their room every 10 minutes checking on them and unintentionally waking them up 🙈 but I am an anxious person so I can accept that most parents don't do that 😅

It’s pretty handy to have a video monitor but no, I don’t find myself wasting time watching my son when I have other things to be doing.
The one I have is set to switch on the monitor (video and sound) when he makes a noise over a certain level. So the snuffles and grunts (and farts!) go unnoticed, but if he shouts, I know to go and get him.
Bloody handy really.
I wouldn’t have just a sound monitor now, it’s much easier being able to just have a nose at him without the risk of waking him up popping in to check on him.

Personally, no. The reason I find a video monitor useful is because I initially found it hard to tell the difference between baby stirring and baby waking and needing attention. We usually have the monitor face down overnight and only look at the screen if we can hear a noise - if baby is still laying down then we leave her to it, if she’s obviously awake we go in. It means we never have to pop our heads in to see how awake she is, which IMO means she is better at self settling.

To be honest the main thing that would improve our monitor is being able to move the focus of the camera remotely once we are out of the room - so annoying when it moves and we have to sneak back in to make sure it’s angled correctly!

I don't use ours. It was motion sensors and we'd get notifications. To be honest if he's awake you'll know about it I'll pop my head in his room every once in a while I think they can be useful but can also feed into people's anxieties!

It was so bad with my first that I wasn’t allowed to sleep with it on my bedside (because then I wouldn’t sleep).

The visual was nerve-shredding and the sound of it in a small flat meant that it sort of picked up on its own feedback, so the slightest noise was terrifyingly loud. I think we wrecked ds’s ability to self-settle by overreacting to the amplified audio.

Even now, with my second, I feel that if I don’t look at the monitor all the time then I am not taking proper care of her.

@Wazooks

It was so bad with my first that I wasn’t allowed to sleep with it on my bedside (because then I wouldn’t sleep).

The visual was nerve-shredding and the sound of it in a small flat meant that it sort of picked up on its own feedback, so the slightest noise was terrifyingly loud. I think we wrecked ds’s ability to self-settle by overreacting to the amplified audio.

Even now, with my second, I feel that if I don’t look at the monitor all the time then I am not taking proper care of her.

same with me, it was horrendous. I actually got shot of it with my second baby. She's now 5, survived fine. If I knew then what I knew now, I would not have bought one. It was anxiety inducing for me (albeit recognise that's not the case for other parents)

@ShadowPuppets

Personally, no. The reason I find a video monitor useful is because I initially found it hard to tell the difference between baby stirring and baby waking and needing attention. We usually have the monitor face down overnight and only look at the screen if we can hear a noise - if baby is still laying down then we leave her to it, if she’s obviously awake we go in. It means we never have to pop our heads in to see how awake she is, which IMO means she is better at self settling.

To be honest the main thing that would improve our monitor is being able to move the focus of the camera remotely once we are out of the room - so annoying when it moves and we have to sneak back in to make sure it’s angled correctly!

@ShadowPuppets why don’t you just move the camera back so you can see the whole cot?!

A monitor cannot tell you whether a baby is safe, and that's not why I bought one. I bought it because I wanted to know if they were asleep or awake or crying. I left them in situations that I believed to be safe. If you need a monitor to reassure you of this, then it's probably better to keep the baby in the same room.

Only had a video monitor with DC3, no, I don't think I look at it too much. I look at whether he is breathing on it from time to time but it doesn't stop me from doing other things that I want or need to do. With the audio monitor I used to go in periodically to check if they were breathing if I worried about it.

I think monitors that monitor breathing, movement or track sleep patterns etc are predatory and unhelpful for parents, spiking anxiety. Cot death is very rare and we don't need more products marketed to worry us especially if they don't actually do anything to help.