Putting my smart house to good use
Non-parents can probably skip this, this is just something that happened a couple of days ago that intersected my gadget life and my kid’s imagination.
I’ve been given a lot of smart plugs for review. I’ve also got three multicolor smart bulbs I got myself for my birthday that somehow ended up in the kids rooms.
Currently in the kids rooms we can set the room colors and turn them on and off via Google Home/Google Assistant, and there’s also the Smart Life app which seems to power most of the smart plugs and the lights as well.
I think there’s one smart plug I own that does not work with the Smart Life app at this point, but it works fine with Google Home so I’ve got things pretty much covered.
Two days ago a friend was over and my two year old decided she was going to be a superhero and her power was to turn on and off lights. I gathered this as she attempted to say “ok google lights off” but she’s two so it was “goool lye uff!”.
I popped open the Smart Life app and turned the lights on and off when she pointed. This amazed her and she went and pointed to multiple lights throughout the house although I could only control a few of them.
When she couldn’t turn a light on or off we’d tell her her superpower was running low and she needed to take another bite of her food, she’d go take a bite and then run to a light and dramatically point with both hands to change it.
I think at one point she thought I was doing it (I was, from my phone,) and she took our friend into another room where I controlled a lightbulb with multiple colors. I could hear “Oh no super Aerin, turn it yellow!” followed by a two year old saying “yewwo!” and bam, I set it yellow. “Make it green!” “gweee!” bam.
This was far too amusing and possibly the most fun I’ve ever had with Smart stuff. When we’re not using them for superhero antics the kids like to tell me what color they want their lights at night and we change them, although the 2yo generally wants the same color.
