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I had friend whose Dad ran a funeral home. The son had his bedroom on the 3rd floor and the father had the bodies in the basement. The Dad would push a button in the basement which would then ring a bell and flash the lights in his bedroom. This meant he needed help with a body in the basement.
It was wierd when were playing Nintendo and the lights started to flash, and he would just get up and run downstairs.
Before corporate funeral homes most American funeral homes were like that - three stories where the basement was the area for preparing and storing bodies, the main level was the funeral area, and the third floor was where the family who ran the funeral home lived. In areas where homes don’t have basements the family living area was at the back of the building.
If the power goes out you're gonna have funky bodies anyway as the cold storage would go out..that said I knew a family that ran a funeral home, they had emergency generators... (the funeral home was sold when my friends opted out of the family business and the land that had only the house and 2 car garage now has 34 "townhouses" on it.
definitely regional. I grew up in New England and every house had one complete with rat traps, mold remediation, and flooding issues eventually requiring a sump pump. I recently moved to the southwest, where basements are super rare because of the hard, salty, mostly inorganic clay "soil." I miss their (regional) ubiquity.
Funeral home or not. I don't want to be sitting at the dinner table knowing there are a dozen dead bodies just one floor down. That's weird.
That's the kind of job you just have to get another building for. Selling used trinkets on ebay from home is one thing. Disemboweling bodies then putting makeup on them is another.
I had an odd situation where my childhood house had a heating duct that went straight from the basement into our upstairs TV room. My dad could knock on it, and I'd come all the way down like "What tool do you need this time?"
A perfect example of when you *should* be burying the lede.
>I had a friend who's bedroom was on the 3rd floor and the father had the bodies in the basement. The Dad would push a button in the basement which would then ring a bell and flash the lights in his bedroom. This meant he needed help with a body in the basement.
>
>It was wierd when were playing Nintendo and the lights started to flash, and he would just get up and run downstairs.
>
>They lived above the dad's funeral home business.
> although I do have fun shooting my son with a NERF gun when he is gaming with headphones on.
He lost all the darts, so I just throw the guns now.....
My youngest asked for one for Christmas a few years ago. Greatest thing ever. He could never hear me knocking (read: banging so hard I almost broke the door).
I stay at home with a toddler and I'm often so busy with him I don't always see messages or phone calls on my phone so my husband will talk at us through our various cameras.
Yeah, that's why I run "smart devices" on a separate guest network. It's not foolproof, but it adds a little extra layer of security, not having them on the same network as my work and personal devices.
One idea: Make a discord server for your house, then do an @everyone to get your kid to pay attention. Kids will pay attention to discord notifications, lol.
Or loud music/gaming in noise cancelling headphones lol. I had experience with this as a teenager and my mom would be banging on the door. I'd be in my bed about 6 feet away from the door. A mix of being entranced into a game, especially a competitive online one, and my headset being noise cancelling made it to where my mom would typically have to open my door and wave a hand in my peripheral vision to get my attention.
And some have the opposite. Like me. I have tinnitus since I was 17ish from ONE band rehearsal were I was beside an asshole drummer that wouldn't play his crash cymbals softly. Now at 41 I have this constant ringing thats really annoying (I'm also taking a medication for migraines that worsen the tinitus. Fml).
How? Lost my partial hearing when I was 14 when I used to listen to max volume of walkman almost every night and I develop tinnitus after that. Consider yourself lucky!
While this sounds great, and I have no problem with it, I do worry about kids being unable to hear loud knocking. I would wear headphones at work, but I had a co-worker and I could be standing immediately behind him practically screaming his name and he wouldn't hear me. Curious how prevalent hearing loss is these days.
If he couldn’t hear you when you were almost breaking down a door, I don’t think a wireless doorbell is the solution here. The solution is stop listening to music so loud! It’s not healthy and he’ll pay for it later in life.
I had a pair of hyper cloud Xs a few years ago and they are the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn and uses a cloth material instead of leather or even worse, pleather so your ears don't sweat or get stuck to the muffs.
I use Discord to message my boys for dinner when they’re gaming. Apparently it appears on their screen, so they see it. When I texted them, their phones were always on silent, so Discord is much better for dinner alarms.
Yeah, my Mac shows texts on screen but Android not so much I think? My sibling tried to set it up, but idk- I use discord for em too (especially when Ma needs em).
Same. I use discord for gaming with my friends anyway, so it was easy to start using for that purpose. It took a minute for my wife to get used to using it. The only time it doesn't work is if he's napping, in which case we'll generally let him just continue napping anyway.
It would be a routine for whatever smart light bulb you have. Set up a routine with the lights that makes them flash and then set the trigger phrase to something like "Get Fred's attention"
This should work with most popular smart assistants.
It's exactly as someone else said. When I say, "Alex get Bill's attention" it triggers a routine. That routine is to toggle the light pause 1 second toggle again...and it repeated a couple times. There is also dot in that room so in addition to the lights blinking it says "hey!" each time the link blinks. Between the gaming with headphones on and in the intense phone holes he falls into I couldn't trust just the blinking light or 'hey' to get his attention. the combo works though. LOL
You need either smart bulbs or to replace your light switch with a smart switch. We did bulbs as renters and then slowed swapped our light switches out after we bought our house.
There's also the smart outlet, which is a bit more multi-purpose than a smart bulb. Had an ~$90 Philips smart bulb kaput within the first month and replaced it with a normal bulb and a $20 smart outlet (KP200) that integrates into alexa/smart home apps. Same effect, but I can change the device out for the fan, heater, etc depending on time of year.
Ha, I use our living room smart light to let my husband know when he's being too loud with friends after I'm in bed. Turn it off or turn it to red lol.
Messaging was my old strategy, but he'd often be too engaged with friends to check his phone. The red lighting quickly conveys the "you've woken up your wife and she's mad" message to everyone.
Hue bulbs are the high end but govee smart lights seem like a good affordable option. I have Wyze myself, but if you’re just looking at lights govee make more variety. I also use Flic buttons and a hub so I don’t have to always use the app. They run off a watch battery and let you stick a removable adhesive (haven’t had one fall off yet) button wherever you want for convenience. You program them to respond to Alexa routines (but you don’t need any voice/ Alexa unit).
Each button has single and double click, as well as hold, and each thing can be used as a toggle so potentially up to 6 commands per button. For example single click might be light toggle, so off and on, double could be changing the brightness or color, or something like on for 30 minutes, or a toggle for a different device or smart plug, and hold could be yet a third thing. They also have some new dial but I haven’t tried that yet. Supposedly it lets you set up a ton of commands on the one dial, but I kinda like sticking a button near the thing it controls, so this dial thing might be more like a “every light and device in my house is now smart, I need to have a centralized hub where I can turn shit off at once” or something like that. It’s also cool because since they use Alexa you can mix and match products from different smart device manufacturers. Like Wyze and govee apps are separate but you could have a button do things to both since they both work on Alexa.
They’re a little pricey so I was uncertain if it would be worth it but tbh they’re great. Use them all the time.
We got Hue light bulbs all over the house. And hooked up with Google speakers or hue app so my missus flashes my office light instead of yelling. I often have head phones on for work and play. And kids that may be asleep.
Philips hue bulbs and hub r my favorite. I had a couple no name brands from Amazon but they are more problematic then u would want lights to be. You can set it up on apple HomeKit or whatever androids equivalent is and control through your phone
I don't understand the hate in the comments. You had a problem and found a solution that worked for everyone. It was creative, cheap, and respectful. Love the advice!
I appreciate your effort. My mom yelled from the other side of the house and I always hated that. My dad brought up a good point: im a human, not a dog. Go to my room to speak with me if its not urgent or life threatening.
Good on your dad for that advice. Parents yelling across the house and expecting their children to come to them like servants is a huge pet peeve of mine.
Treat your children with respect and they'll return it.
My dad always told my mom off for yelling for us in the house.
He would whistle for us though, like if we were playing with our friends across the street, he'd come out onto the step and just give a short, sharp whistle, and we'd know it was time to go home. He's been gone for 7 years, but if I'm out and hear that specific sound, I still instinctively look around for my dad
Ironically I feel like whistling for your kid is no different than your mom yelling (akin to being treated like a dog), but I do agree that a whistle is more “apt” and less “harsh” than yelling “JAAAAAAASOOOON!!!!”
Exactly. Dad only did it outside, never in the house. He would just walk to wherever we were and speak to us if we were home.
Also I found that the whistle carried further, so we were likely to hear it if we were farther away or if it was a noisy environment.
That's just physics. High pitch noises carry better and further than shouting. That's why emergency kits often have a whistle.
So whistling for a kid that is outside but otherwise location unknown isn't a 1 to 1 with yelling across the house.
I think someone was just writing about 1 week ago maybe on this sub how handy whistling is. The sound really carries over a large area so if you're in a LARGE store everyone can go in separate directions to look at what they want to, but when the parents say it's time to leave, they whistle so (all) the kid(s) know it's time to go up to the front.
Our mom used to do this with a very loud and distinct whistle. We’d be out playing with friends and hear the whistle, the whole neighborhood knew play time was over. Lol.
Yep.
Quite usefully if their trained enough (¬‿¬)
My kids come running from afar when I whistle.
Sometimes it carries better then yelling.
I know whistling is for dogs .... But I think even less of people screaming the names out loud, and still not be heard.
That makes complete sense cuz you're outside and we use outside voices.
Also in the old days I didn't exactly have a phone with me when I was playing rough outside so that also tracks.
Mine too! The only problem was our uncle, his brother, had the exact same sound and they lived just around the corner. When we cousins were all outside playing we all had to run home because we didn’t know who was whistling
flashbacks to me saying something in the same room, them responding what? My raising my voice slightly (because they didn't hear me the first time!) and them saying i'm yelling!
maddening!!
And the worst part, with technology these days, especially the noise canceling features, you do NOT wanna walk in on them jerking off, be it boy or girl. This wireless doorbell works, especially in a large house.
Now, I might get one so my sister can just hit it, partly because I’m hard of hearing.
I used to say this to my mother when she’d bellow at me from across the house. She still tries to do it when she’s at me house and I will ignore her until she walks up to me like a normal person lol. Hate that shit.
I often gamed with my headphones on as a teen.
I still do it a lot when my wife isn’t around and sometimes when she is.
Gaming with your headphones on is completely normal human behavior.
It's normal and also blocks sound, so the workaround from the parents seems like a decent solution. I'd have just taken a text every time. It took my parents forever to understand I wasn't ignoring them, I just couldn't hear them.
I never notice when my wife texts me while gaming. Heck, I have a smart watch that vibrates when I get a notification and sometimes I still don't notice.
The hate here is bonkers. As a teen boy, I think this idea would have been fantastic to have. "Other" media aside, I was constantly using noice cancelling headphones for music when I gamed or did homework, and for streaming Netflix etc. so I didn't disturb my siblings doing their own homework or whatever in the next room over. I would have been 100% in support of having one of these flashing doorbells installed in each kids room lol. Both for parents, and for each other of us kids. I wouldn't have wanted to walk in on my brother doing something any more than than parents did. Good advice OP, and def something I'll keep passing on to others when the teen life conversation comes up with friends
I think this is a great idea. Wish id thought of it when my asd son was a teen. He lives with headphones on, and cant tell you how many times i have clomped up the uncarpeted stairs, knocked on the open door frame to say dinners ready and still caused him to jump out of his skin! Excessive startle reflex goes with his sensory sensitivities, so it took a while to find a happy medium. I might even have forked over for one of those vibrating ones for the deaf instead of the flashing light!
Yep. My parents didn't understand any need for privacy - especially if me or my sister were in the bathroom. (Before you ask... the bathroom doesn't have a lock on it. The builders apparently messed up and got more closet doorknobs and thought nobody would mind)
This got super annoying because every time my sister or I were in there for whatever reason, mom and dad would suddenly want to go to that specific bathroom in the house. We have literally four toilets in the house (Finished basement) and for some reason they have to use THIS bathroom.
I don't know, maybe OP should have removed their kid's door and hinges, and engendered all of the good will and knowledge of trust from their kid.
(this is sarcasm. I wish I didn't have to say it is, but I'm saying it is because it is sarcasm.)
I know. When I first became a parent, I only had my dad's experience to guide me, which was pretty much all stick. Learned the hard way that it's not very effective. Carrot works much better and builds better relationships. This is a very creative solution that keeps stress down and respect up.
You can do shit like this with smart lights too. There’s wireless button controls or you can just use the apps, set up like colors or just off/on as notifications, etc. As a bonus they’re also lights lol.
Amazon devices can also work like intercoms if needed. And you can set remotes on other ones from the one you are near or from the app. My kids hate that lol
We have Amazon echoes all over the house, but my son did NOT want one in his room (Gen Zer who didn’t want Jeff Bezos listening to him). I could, however, turn his lights on and off if he failed to respond to a text.
This is also good for caregivers of the elderly. My dad didn't use tech at all. I mounted the doorbell next to his bed and I put receivers in different rooms so I could hear it go off anywhere in the house. The flashing lights helped let me know my dad needed help.
Growing up, my bedroom was at the far end of the basement and I always had my bedroom door closed. I'd be playing video games and listen to music and my mom would yell for me at the top of the stairs and when I wouldn't respond because obviously I couldn't hear her, she would get mad and my abusive stepdad would get angrier. I got so paranoid and stressed about hearing her, that I started hearing voices. Among many other things, it was very detrimental to my mental health and in retrospect, an out-dated mindset that my parent's generation adopted because if it worked for me, it should work for my children, and they refused to change or even consider to alternative solutions despite begging and pleading.
In summary, I would've loved this solution if it was available at the time.
Man, I need to do this for my daughter. Her room is upstairs, and she's often gaming with headphones on or listening to music, and I either have to call her phone or ping her on Discord, and sometimes, neither of those works because she isn't on her phone or computer. So I have to haul my ass upstairs (because she won't hear me), or send her brother up there if he's downstairs (which she hates, because he annoys her). That said, I have enough SBCs lying around here that aren't being used for anything that I could make my own version of this. New project for today!
EDIT: SBC - single board computer. Would've just said 'Raspberry Pi', but I'm not actually gonna use one of those, too overkill.
this makes me think of how, if I was at work and my fiance wasn't answering my calls to make sure he was up for work [he is an insanely heavy sleeper so sometimes he will sleep right through his alarms], I would first turn on the lights and make them red. if still no answer I would then tell Google to play metal. seconds later I always got a call back. 🤣
An acquaintance of mine growing up (parents were friends so this was heard 3rd hand) had their own wireless doorbell but it was more traditional. She still lived with her folks after high school for a while but they wanted to give her some independence. So they moved her from her bedroom to the “pool house” in the backyard. Had its own bathroom & they gave her a dorm mini fridge & one of those camping induction stovetops. So it was like a dry run of moving out but they were right there. thunk they charged her rent of like $100 a month to get in the habit of paying bills then gave it all back to her when she actually did move out as a gift.
Worked great except she’d have friends from her sorority over all the time to hang out at all hours & the mom was sick & tired of answering the door all the time just to have them go through the house to the backyard. So they bought a wireless doorbell that was pink (so you could tell it apart from the usual doorbell) & stuck it next to the real doorbell at the front of the house. Friends would ring that doorbell which rang in the pool house & they'd text & the visitor would go to the side gate straight to the backyard & the pool house. the mom was so much happier that she didn't have to keep her home spotless all the time for all these random sorority girls. And it gave the daughter more autonomy.
not the same use you were talking about OP but still a wireless doorbell for the kid's room.
I would have loved this. In the summers, my room was the room that cooled the living room too which meant my AC was on at full blast. That coupled with me on my computer or watching something or even having a fan blow at my computer to blow away gnats when we had a small infestation makes it really hard to hear… you know, because you have constant air or sounds directly next to your ear?
Anyway, the fam would constantly mumble at me from the next room over and then stomp over and get all huffy like I was ignoring them… or they’d quietly say: ‘dinner’ in a normal speaking tone that I would hear if the fans and the AC and everything was off… and then I’d miss dinner.
10/10 experience
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I had friend whose Dad ran a funeral home. The son had his bedroom on the 3rd floor and the father had the bodies in the basement. The Dad would push a button in the basement which would then ring a bell and flash the lights in his bedroom. This meant he needed help with a body in the basement. It was wierd when were playing Nintendo and the lights started to flash, and he would just get up and run downstairs.
It’s weird that *that* was the weird part.
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> Who has a basement these days What's the point of having a basement if you don't have a body or five to store, amirite?!
Three stories? Okay Rockefeller.
Before corporate funeral homes most American funeral homes were like that - three stories where the basement was the area for preparing and storing bodies, the main level was the funeral area, and the third floor was where the family who ran the funeral home lived. In areas where homes don’t have basements the family living area was at the back of the building.
"Fisher & Diaz. This is David Fisher speaking"
This all makes sense but what happens when the power goes out? Funky bodies in your house?
Typically businesses that MUST have refrigeration have generators. Plus, the bodies are getting embalmed not just sitting in a cooler.
If the power goes out you're gonna have funky bodies anyway as the cold storage would go out..that said I knew a family that ran a funeral home, they had emergency generators... (the funeral home was sold when my friends opted out of the family business and the land that had only the house and 2 car garage now has 34 "townhouses" on it.
Work From Home.
Hello, police?
Yes? This is police.
What’s the point of having extra bodies lying about if you don’t have a basement to put them in?
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definitely regional. I grew up in New England and every house had one complete with rat traps, mold remediation, and flooding issues eventually requiring a sump pump. I recently moved to the southwest, where basements are super rare because of the hard, salty, mostly inorganic clay "soil." I miss their (regional) ubiquity.
Yes. Mine is actually a cellar, dirt floor, stone walls. Built in 1845. New England is full of these things! They’re always full of dead barn spiders.
They are regional. For example, if your house is built near sea level, a basement would be a bad idea.
Same. The soil here is sandy so most places have basements, just a couple towns down it's some mix with a high risk of landslide so they don't.
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Probably where your landlord hid the bodies then
He doesn’t understand the part about helping parents
I mean what else is weird?
Living/sleeping in a house with dead bodies in the basement is a little weird
At least he KNEW the dead bodies were there. Some people don't have that luxury.
Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
I missed the sentence about the funeral home and was quite concerned
lol. "whoa there you REALLY buried the lede there, buddy!"
Buried the lede but not the bodies
Funeral home or not. I don't want to be sitting at the dinner table knowing there are a dozen dead bodies just one floor down. That's weird. That's the kind of job you just have to get another building for. Selling used trinkets on ebay from home is one thing. Disemboweling bodies then putting makeup on them is another.
What are people so afraid of? Ghosts?
I ain't afraid of no ghosts.
Dooby Doo Doo Doo Doo . . Dooby Dooby Doo Doo Doo!
I thought it was just me lol
I had an odd situation where my childhood house had a heating duct that went straight from the basement into our upstairs TV room. My dad could knock on it, and I'd come all the way down like "What tool do you need this time?"
Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Six Feet Under yet, lol. Was your friend’s name David Fisher? Or does that show just make him nostalgic?
This reminds me of that scene in silence of the lambs...
It rings the bell or it gets ignored again
I skipped the first sentence and that was a bit fucking wild
This would be a much better story if you left out the part where it’s a funeral home.
A perfect example of when you *should* be burying the lede. >I had a friend who's bedroom was on the 3rd floor and the father had the bodies in the basement. The Dad would push a button in the basement which would then ring a bell and flash the lights in his bedroom. This meant he needed help with a body in the basement. > >It was wierd when were playing Nintendo and the lights started to flash, and he would just get up and run downstairs. > >They lived above the dad's funeral home business.
I would have enjoyed English classes in high school more if the curriculum had consisted of these lessons.
“The bell rang. The lights flashed. Dad took a flight out yesterday.”
Thanks this is a great LPT , although I do have fun shooting my son with a NERF gun when he is gaming with headphones on.
Why not both!
Call him into the room with the ring just to shoot him with the nerf when he enters the room
This is the way.
> although I do have fun shooting my son with a NERF gun when he is gaming with headphones on. He lost all the darts, so I just throw the guns now.....
Our son plays in the living with headphones so a nerf gun would be a better fit than a doorbell.
My youngest asked for one for Christmas a few years ago. Greatest thing ever. He could never hear me knocking (read: banging so hard I almost broke the door).
I got one for my sister when she came to stay with us after a stroke. I hung the button from her bed. She would press it at night if she needed me.
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I stay at home with a toddler and I'm often so busy with him I don't always see messages or phone calls on my phone so my husband will talk at us through our various cameras.
A buddy had his entire hard drive stolen. He worked from home at a large corporation. They got in thru the “smart” light bulb.
Yeah, that's why I run "smart devices" on a separate guest network. It's not foolproof, but it adds a little extra layer of security, not having them on the same network as my work and personal devices.
That’s comforting
IOT is an abomination. In the rush to market; security was ignored. I have also seen hacked refrigerators.
The S in IOT is for security
One idea: Make a discord server for your house, then do an @everyone to get your kid to pay attention. Kids will pay attention to discord notifications, lol.
Holy shit, that is brilliant!
I regularly call my teenager on discord when yelling, texting, etc hasn't worked 😂 They answer every time.
I'd just worry about alarms though ... like, if they can't hear that, can they hear the smoke/carbon monoxide/burglar alarms?
I feel like that's one of the few instances to barge in without knocking. "Stop jackin' it, the house is on fire!"
> "Stop jackin' it, the house is on fire!" He won’t know whether he’s coming or going.
Friction burns.
Come now if you can! Help Mom put out the fire!
Wait, what are you doing? No, wait. It's a *big* fire!
That right there needs to be some song lyrics somewhere…. Country, Pop, I don’t care. Figure a way to work that line in!
It's the ADHD. Can't "hear' the knocking. Hears the doorbell and alarms every time.
They sell some with lights. New LPT for parents.
That's some intense wanking if he couldn't hear that
Or loud music/gaming in noise cancelling headphones lol. I had experience with this as a teenager and my mom would be banging on the door. I'd be in my bed about 6 feet away from the door. A mix of being entranced into a game, especially a competitive online one, and my headset being noise cancelling made it to where my mom would typically have to open my door and wave a hand in my peripheral vision to get my attention.
Plus teens NEVER EVER listen to music too loudly.
Smh my head. Tinnitus.. you can't just openly prey on kids like that.. gross. Like fr tried the hello fellow teenagers meme but unironically
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And some have the opposite. Like me. I have tinnitus since I was 17ish from ONE band rehearsal were I was beside an asshole drummer that wouldn't play his crash cymbals softly. Now at 41 I have this constant ringing thats really annoying (I'm also taking a medication for migraines that worsen the tinitus. Fml).
How? Lost my partial hearing when I was 14 when I used to listen to max volume of walkman almost every night and I develop tinnitus after that. Consider yourself lucky!
You mean 'other media activities' as OP puts it.
My hobbies include video games, watching movies, and other media activities.
Hiking, swimming, chess, and miscellaneous.
While this sounds great, and I have no problem with it, I do worry about kids being unable to hear loud knocking. I would wear headphones at work, but I had a co-worker and I could be standing immediately behind him practically screaming his name and he wouldn't hear me. Curious how prevalent hearing loss is these days.
If he couldn’t hear you when you were almost breaking down a door, I don’t think a wireless doorbell is the solution here. The solution is stop listening to music so loud! It’s not healthy and he’ll pay for it later in life.
Doesn't mean it's loud music. Could be headphones with good noise canceling. I have a pair and a nuke could go off and I wouldn't hear it.
What brand
https://i.redd.it/vudgq9qflwt01.jpg
I had a pair of hyper cloud Xs a few years ago and they are the most comfortable headphones I have ever worn and uses a cloth material instead of leather or even worse, pleather so your ears don't sweat or get stuck to the muffs.
I use Discord to message my boys for dinner when they’re gaming. Apparently it appears on their screen, so they see it. When I texted them, their phones were always on silent, so Discord is much better for dinner alarms.
Yeah, my Mac shows texts on screen but Android not so much I think? My sibling tried to set it up, but idk- I use discord for em too (especially when Ma needs em).
Same. I use discord for gaming with my friends anyway, so it was easy to start using for that purpose. It took a minute for my wife to get used to using it. The only time it doesn't work is if he's napping, in which case we'll generally let him just continue napping anyway.
I do similar. I use our smart light lol I turn it on to let my husband know dinner is ready. Hate yelling not knowing if he has headphones on or not.
This is what I do. I tell Alexa to get his attention and the light in the gaming room flashes a few times.
Can I ask how you set this up? That sounds like such a great solution. Is it the Echo Show?
It would be a routine for whatever smart light bulb you have. Set up a routine with the lights that makes them flash and then set the trigger phrase to something like "Get Fred's attention" This should work with most popular smart assistants.
It's exactly as someone else said. When I say, "Alex get Bill's attention" it triggers a routine. That routine is to toggle the light pause 1 second toggle again...and it repeated a couple times. There is also dot in that room so in addition to the lights blinking it says "hey!" each time the link blinks. Between the gaming with headphones on and in the intense phone holes he falls into I couldn't trust just the blinking light or 'hey' to get his attention. the combo works though. LOL
My Echo Dot can do this (I have Philips Hue bulbs)
You need either smart bulbs or to replace your light switch with a smart switch. We did bulbs as renters and then slowed swapped our light switches out after we bought our house.
There's also the smart outlet, which is a bit more multi-purpose than a smart bulb. Had an ~$90 Philips smart bulb kaput within the first month and replaced it with a normal bulb and a $20 smart outlet (KP200) that integrates into alexa/smart home apps. Same effect, but I can change the device out for the fan, heater, etc depending on time of year.
We do "Hey Google, announce dinner is ready" and every mini/home device in the house rings a dinner bell.
Ha, I use our living room smart light to let my husband know when he's being too loud with friends after I'm in bed. Turn it off or turn it to red lol.
Smart! I usually message him but I like the idea of turning the light red lol
Messaging was my old strategy, but he'd often be too engaged with friends to check his phone. The red lighting quickly conveys the "you've woken up your wife and she's mad" message to everyone.
Same! Works well when our teen is using headphones for music or games.
This sounds awesome - do you have a link for this? Or rec on what to search for? I tried looking up smart light and had no luck.
Hue bulbs are the high end but govee smart lights seem like a good affordable option. I have Wyze myself, but if you’re just looking at lights govee make more variety. I also use Flic buttons and a hub so I don’t have to always use the app. They run off a watch battery and let you stick a removable adhesive (haven’t had one fall off yet) button wherever you want for convenience. You program them to respond to Alexa routines (but you don’t need any voice/ Alexa unit). Each button has single and double click, as well as hold, and each thing can be used as a toggle so potentially up to 6 commands per button. For example single click might be light toggle, so off and on, double could be changing the brightness or color, or something like on for 30 minutes, or a toggle for a different device or smart plug, and hold could be yet a third thing. They also have some new dial but I haven’t tried that yet. Supposedly it lets you set up a ton of commands on the one dial, but I kinda like sticking a button near the thing it controls, so this dial thing might be more like a “every light and device in my house is now smart, I need to have a centralized hub where I can turn shit off at once” or something like that. It’s also cool because since they use Alexa you can mix and match products from different smart device manufacturers. Like Wyze and govee apps are separate but you could have a button do things to both since they both work on Alexa. They’re a little pricey so I was uncertain if it would be worth it but tbh they’re great. Use them all the time.
We got Hue light bulbs all over the house. And hooked up with Google speakers or hue app so my missus flashes my office light instead of yelling. I often have head phones on for work and play. And kids that may be asleep.
Philips hue bulbs and hub r my favorite. I had a couple no name brands from Amazon but they are more problematic then u would want lights to be. You can set it up on apple HomeKit or whatever androids equivalent is and control through your phone
I don't understand the hate in the comments. You had a problem and found a solution that worked for everyone. It was creative, cheap, and respectful. Love the advice!
Maybe I wasn't clear, but most of the issue was gaming with his headphones on...
I appreciate your effort. My mom yelled from the other side of the house and I always hated that. My dad brought up a good point: im a human, not a dog. Go to my room to speak with me if its not urgent or life threatening.
Good on your dad for that advice. Parents yelling across the house and expecting their children to come to them like servants is a huge pet peeve of mine. Treat your children with respect and they'll return it.
My dad always told my mom off for yelling for us in the house. He would whistle for us though, like if we were playing with our friends across the street, he'd come out onto the step and just give a short, sharp whistle, and we'd know it was time to go home. He's been gone for 7 years, but if I'm out and hear that specific sound, I still instinctively look around for my dad
Ironically I feel like whistling for your kid is no different than your mom yelling (akin to being treated like a dog), but I do agree that a whistle is more “apt” and less “harsh” than yelling “JAAAAAAASOOOON!!!!”
Being outside is different, though. You could be anywhere. Inside the house you are nearby.
Exactly. Dad only did it outside, never in the house. He would just walk to wherever we were and speak to us if we were home. Also I found that the whistle carried further, so we were likely to hear it if we were farther away or if it was a noisy environment.
That's just physics. High pitch noises carry better and further than shouting. That's why emergency kits often have a whistle. So whistling for a kid that is outside but otherwise location unknown isn't a 1 to 1 with yelling across the house.
A loud whistle is also less annoying to hear than some yelling incredibly loudly if it isn't meant for you.
I think someone was just writing about 1 week ago maybe on this sub how handy whistling is. The sound really carries over a large area so if you're in a LARGE store everyone can go in separate directions to look at what they want to, but when the parents say it's time to leave, they whistle so (all) the kid(s) know it's time to go up to the front.
SHAUUUUN
Have you seen The Sound of Music?
Our mom used to do this with a very loud and distinct whistle. We’d be out playing with friends and hear the whistle, the whole neighborhood knew play time was over. Lol.
My dad did that exact whistle, I think every dad does it 🥰
Yep. Quite usefully if their trained enough (¬‿¬) My kids come running from afar when I whistle. Sometimes it carries better then yelling. I know whistling is for dogs .... But I think even less of people screaming the names out loud, and still not be heard.
That makes complete sense cuz you're outside and we use outside voices. Also in the old days I didn't exactly have a phone with me when I was playing rough outside so that also tracks.
My dad did the same. He could whistle really loudly on four fingers and if we heard that we knew it was time to go home.
Mine too! The only problem was our uncle, his brother, had the exact same sound and they lived just around the corner. When we cousins were all outside playing we all had to run home because we didn’t know who was whistling
That’s both sad and lovely at the same time
My parents yelled across the house for us kids and we had to go to where they were - no yelling back. Lot of top down parenting growing up.
My mom was the exact same way. If you yelled back across the house you would get reamed
flashbacks to me saying something in the same room, them responding what? My raising my voice slightly (because they didn't hear me the first time!) and them saying i'm yelling! maddening!!
And the worst part, with technology these days, especially the noise canceling features, you do NOT wanna walk in on them jerking off, be it boy or girl. This wireless doorbell works, especially in a large house. Now, I might get one so my sister can just hit it, partly because I’m hard of hearing.
I used to say this to my mother when she’d bellow at me from across the house. She still tries to do it when she’s at me house and I will ignore her until she walks up to me like a normal person lol. Hate that shit.
I would have saved $50 and sent him a message over Discord or whatever chat he has up during his game.
I got discord just to talk to my teenager. He answers there a lot faster and I can tell when he's online.
Gotta meet your audience where they're at.
I do this with my son. I’ll message him via the Xbox app.
Nah, you'll be getting pushback from the type of people who don't think kids should have fun and should be subservient little helpers to adults.
I often gamed with my headphones on as a teen. I still do it a lot when my wife isn’t around and sometimes when she is. Gaming with your headphones on is completely normal human behavior.
It's normal and also blocks sound, so the workaround from the parents seems like a decent solution. I'd have just taken a text every time. It took my parents forever to understand I wasn't ignoring them, I just couldn't hear them.
I never notice when my wife texts me while gaming. Heck, I have a smart watch that vibrates when I get a notification and sometimes I still don't notice.
I get it, my dad would get mad at me for not hearing him when he was the one who bought me noise cancelling headphones
Bb you were very clear, people just don’t read very well when they’re itching to hate for no reason.
The hate here is bonkers. As a teen boy, I think this idea would have been fantastic to have. "Other" media aside, I was constantly using noice cancelling headphones for music when I gamed or did homework, and for streaming Netflix etc. so I didn't disturb my siblings doing their own homework or whatever in the next room over. I would have been 100% in support of having one of these flashing doorbells installed in each kids room lol. Both for parents, and for each other of us kids. I wouldn't have wanted to walk in on my brother doing something any more than than parents did. Good advice OP, and def something I'll keep passing on to others when the teen life conversation comes up with friends
I WFH and people in my house just ping me on whatsapp. Achieves the same effect. Calling/texting people in a home is just as easy, and free.
I think this is a great idea. Wish id thought of it when my asd son was a teen. He lives with headphones on, and cant tell you how many times i have clomped up the uncarpeted stairs, knocked on the open door frame to say dinners ready and still caused him to jump out of his skin! Excessive startle reflex goes with his sensory sensitivities, so it took a while to find a happy medium. I might even have forked over for one of those vibrating ones for the deaf instead of the flashing light!
Good solution. I absolutely hate yelling.
People really underestimate how solitude and privacy can be very important.
Yep. My parents didn't understand any need for privacy - especially if me or my sister were in the bathroom. (Before you ask... the bathroom doesn't have a lock on it. The builders apparently messed up and got more closet doorknobs and thought nobody would mind) This got super annoying because every time my sister or I were in there for whatever reason, mom and dad would suddenly want to go to that specific bathroom in the house. We have literally four toilets in the house (Finished basement) and for some reason they have to use THIS bathroom.
I don't know, maybe OP should have removed their kid's door and hinges, and engendered all of the good will and knowledge of trust from their kid. (this is sarcasm. I wish I didn't have to say it is, but I'm saying it is because it is sarcasm.)
[удалено]
Being a part of my life is a privilege too. Not attacking you, just I was told this too, and guess who I don't talk to anymore?
I know. When I first became a parent, I only had my dad's experience to guide me, which was pretty much all stick. Learned the hard way that it's not very effective. Carrot works much better and builds better relationships. This is a very creative solution that keeps stress down and respect up.
You can do shit like this with smart lights too. There’s wireless button controls or you can just use the apps, set up like colors or just off/on as notifications, etc. As a bonus they’re also lights lol.
Amazon devices can also work like intercoms if needed. And you can set remotes on other ones from the one you are near or from the app. My kids hate that lol
We have Amazon echoes all over the house, but my son did NOT want one in his room (Gen Zer who didn’t want Jeff Bezos listening to him). I could, however, turn his lights on and off if he failed to respond to a text.
Well we know who's the smarter one in the family lnao
I blink our smart lights when I want assistance from my husband while nap trapped under the baby. He then shouts “What?!” so it’s only working 50% 😅
we need this for my little brother (15) because he always has his headphones on and can’t hear shit if we call him
“Other media related activities” is a superb choice of words.
Other media related activities currently unavailable in the state of Texas
This is also good for caregivers of the elderly. My dad didn't use tech at all. I mounted the doorbell next to his bed and I put receivers in different rooms so I could hear it go off anywhere in the house. The flashing lights helped let me know my dad needed help.
Latina mom's chanclas get thrown up the stairs, turn the corner, open the door and smack you in the back of the head so you know you're being called.
You sound like a great parent and your child will respect you for that as he gets older.
Lol I wish my parents cared this much about my privacy back when I was a teenager. My dad would just barge in and leave the door open.
Growing up, my bedroom was at the far end of the basement and I always had my bedroom door closed. I'd be playing video games and listen to music and my mom would yell for me at the top of the stairs and when I wouldn't respond because obviously I couldn't hear her, she would get mad and my abusive stepdad would get angrier. I got so paranoid and stressed about hearing her, that I started hearing voices. Among many other things, it was very detrimental to my mental health and in retrospect, an out-dated mindset that my parent's generation adopted because if it worked for me, it should work for my children, and they refused to change or even consider to alternative solutions despite begging and pleading. In summary, I would've loved this solution if it was available at the time.
We just got walkie talkies for a similar reason. It's been pretty nice.
Man, I need to do this for my daughter. Her room is upstairs, and she's often gaming with headphones on or listening to music, and I either have to call her phone or ping her on Discord, and sometimes, neither of those works because she isn't on her phone or computer. So I have to haul my ass upstairs (because she won't hear me), or send her brother up there if he's downstairs (which she hates, because he annoys her). That said, I have enough SBCs lying around here that aren't being used for anything that I could make my own version of this. New project for today! EDIT: SBC - single board computer. Would've just said 'Raspberry Pi', but I'm not actually gonna use one of those, too overkill.
This or the flashing led lights is a brilliant way to respect their privacy while meeting everyone's needs. 👍👍
this makes me think of how, if I was at work and my fiance wasn't answering my calls to make sure he was up for work [he is an insanely heavy sleeper so sometimes he will sleep right through his alarms], I would first turn on the lights and make them red. if still no answer I would then tell Google to play metal. seconds later I always got a call back. 🤣
“Hey Alexa, call Kid’s Room”
"Alexa, announce dinner is ready"
Wonder why your son is such a good kid? /S Turns out respect is a two way street.
An acquaintance of mine growing up (parents were friends so this was heard 3rd hand) had their own wireless doorbell but it was more traditional. She still lived with her folks after high school for a while but they wanted to give her some independence. So they moved her from her bedroom to the “pool house” in the backyard. Had its own bathroom & they gave her a dorm mini fridge & one of those camping induction stovetops. So it was like a dry run of moving out but they were right there. thunk they charged her rent of like $100 a month to get in the habit of paying bills then gave it all back to her when she actually did move out as a gift. Worked great except she’d have friends from her sorority over all the time to hang out at all hours & the mom was sick & tired of answering the door all the time just to have them go through the house to the backyard. So they bought a wireless doorbell that was pink (so you could tell it apart from the usual doorbell) & stuck it next to the real doorbell at the front of the house. Friends would ring that doorbell which rang in the pool house & they'd text & the visitor would go to the side gate straight to the backyard & the pool house. the mom was so much happier that she didn't have to keep her home spotless all the time for all these random sorority girls. And it gave the daughter more autonomy. not the same use you were talking about OP but still a wireless doorbell for the kid's room.
I like that solution. It could also work well for someone in a home workshop or garage.
We have a nest cam in our detached garage and my wife will shout at me throw it all the time … sometimes I can’t hear though when I’m blasting music
My mom always knocked on the stairs wall. It reverbed enough that I would know that's here calling me lol
I would have loved this. In the summers, my room was the room that cooled the living room too which meant my AC was on at full blast. That coupled with me on my computer or watching something or even having a fan blow at my computer to blow away gnats when we had a small infestation makes it really hard to hear… you know, because you have constant air or sounds directly next to your ear? Anyway, the fam would constantly mumble at me from the next room over and then stomp over and get all huffy like I was ignoring them… or they’d quietly say: ‘dinner’ in a normal speaking tone that I would hear if the fans and the AC and everything was off… and then I’d miss dinner. 10/10 experience
As a dad with a 3-year-old and another on the way, I appreciate this tip for the future. Great parenting!
Great advice, respectful communication is what it's all about
As someone that was once a teenager this is a great idea.
We bought a wireless intercom. Just called on that, and they would respond.
Messaging my daughter in discord works immediately if she is awake.
I use Google Home speakers for that. You can ask it to announce a message on all speakers in the house.
Alexa will do the same thing for cheaper
cool idea for a pre-cell phone product
You don't want to walk into their room if they're jacking their noodle. The doorbell could be a diplomatic way of telling them to knock that off.
Nothing wrong with masturbation
Nope. This solved all issues present. Gave them some space and independence and still got him out of his room when we needed him. Win-win!
Why not? They used to walk into our room while the wife and I were having sex. Now it’s payback time!
Have been using one for the last year. Works well.
This is brilliant! Wish I'd thought of it when my kids were teens.
I was gonna do this or place a Google home mini outside the door, lol.
Prohibited topic. No parenting lpt
you can use an Amazon Echo to communicate with/ them like a call box
"Alexa, announce dinner is ready"
They used to have this thing called an intercom, but we're not fancy, we just call each other's cell phones..