Our last house, despite low ceilings and carpet, was bad enough. And not so much because of the kids, but because of MY voice. With kids' bedrooms in the basement and upstairs, I was constantly yelling up one stairway and down the other any time I needed kids--or even just one child--to come.
"In this house," I told Papa Rooster, "I want an intercom system installed."
"Installed?" he asked. "I'm sure it's all wireless now." And by golly it is!
I was thinking of my aunt's house, when I was little. There was a box on the wall in the kitchen, one in the basement and one upstairs. The wiring had been put in when the house was built.
But now, did you know that you can go to Radio Shack and buy three intercom box-thingies, plug them in in three different rooms, and with the push of a button, you can talk to each other?
Buy six box-thingies, and you can have one in each teenager's bedroom, one in the basement family room, one in your husband's office, and one in
Visitors to our home always say, "Wow, what a great idea! We need to get those!" When it's time to leave, more than one dad thinks it's fun to call all his kids on the intercom. (It's also surprisingly great entertainment for certain teenage boys.) And it builds family togetherness, because no, you can't select which unit to call; if you speak, everyone hears.
In our home, besides dinner and chore announcements, Mom uses it to give a wake-up call to any sleepyheads, to solve small mysteries such as "Who is Bantam3 with?" and to give the 15 minute warning before it's time to leave. Papa Rooster in the basement uses it to let Mom in the kitchen know that they are starting the movie now...(do other moms try to get "just a few more things done" while everyone else assembles?). And after the novelty wore off, the kids use it for information only now; e.g. "Mom, did you do laundry today?"
Works great for us!
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6 comments:
This sounds great. Wonder if I can get them here in N Ireland?!
We had those for a while in our old house. I very much like them
I didn't realize that those little box thingys had gone wireless! Genius, I say!
I've bought them for my similar large house/medium size family situation. There are no more "I didn't hear you" excuses. I do have trouble keeping the two youngest off of them though. They remove them and use them as walkie talkies!
What a great idea! It would save on the voice wouldn't it.
This is such a great idea! I hate yelling for 5 minutes to get someone's attention, and then having them reply "what" and having to yell some more! This must be a sanity saver!
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