Ask Slashdot: Skype Setup For Toddler's Room?

New submitter mmmmdave writes "My parents love to Skype with my kid. My kid loves to mash laptop buttons and drool on the screen. And because we don't want to spend forty minutes every night holding the laptop outside of baby arms' length, we're looking to build some sort of wall-mounted monitor + webcam thingy. I'm sure there's a much cheaper option than sticking an iPad on the wall; what's more, non-touchscreen is probably better, so my daughter can't hang up the calls. Any ideas?"

Re:Doomed

[Anonymous Coward]

See Molly-guard [wiktionary.org].

Re:Parenting?

[DutchUncle]

They ARE doing their jobs, maintaining an enhanced familial / social network and more personal stimulation for the child.

OP does not include information about whether this is also assisting parents who find it difficult to travel (to visit in person which would be preferred) and/or expect limited time to interact with the child.

If/when you have a child, you can do it your way. When my son was born, my wife's parents lived in the next town (still do); my father was already dead and my mother lived far away (and has since died). Maybe with modern tech the relationship could have been closer. I certainly wouldn't begrudge OP the attempt.

Re:What Year is it, Again?

[Belial6]

Complete BS. Every one of those article links is a perfect example of "TV is evil. Let make a study that shows it." style studies. All of them start with a bad premise, and do nothing to actually prove their point. If you actually believed that TV caused brain damage, you wouldn't let your kids watch it at their friends place. Saying that you give your child brain damage brain damage because "It's social" is claiming that you are committing child abuse.

Re:What Year is it, Again?

[Yaztromo]

I recommend you have your parents come over to play with your kid, and give it toys/animals/people to play and interact with. Unfortunately, people are lazy and prefer to have the TV/screen babysitter.

Or they have parents who live on the other side of the planet, and who can't afford to fly half way around the globe for routine visits.

That would be our situation -- my parents are a five hour flight away. My wife's parents can't get any sort of direct flight to where we live, as they're on the opposite side of the globe; with all of the connections required I've had the trip take over 24 hours. The absolute shortest we could possibly get it down to is roughly 18 hours. If you factor in that my wife's parents a) aren't wealthy, and b) aren't particularly in good health, the opportunities for them to visit in person are on the order of once every few years at best.

Skype running on an iPad (on our end) or old PC (on their end) however means they've been able to see their only grandchild on a weekly basis. My 19mo daughter has had the benefit of hearing their voices, hearing their native language, and seeing their faces. Thanks to technology, she knows who her family is, and both sides have some connection to the other through more than an abstract concept of extended family my daughter is too young to understand otherwise. Similar with my parents (except we use Facetime instead of Skype), who have the benefit of seeing us somewhat more frequently, but still only twice a year at best.

So congratulation to you for not venturing too far from your parents home. Maybe for you seeing your parents just means crawling out of the basement, but for some of us the only way the grandparents get to participate in their grandchildren's lives is through technology.

But hey -- if you think you're up to it, why not take the condescending tone to my parents-in-law, and you can tell them how they shouldn't have been allowed to talk to their only grandchild after she took her first steps completely unassisted the other week. I'll enjoy hearing how they tear you a new one over the suggestion.

Yaz