Interesting.
I’ll be the first to admit that I rarely used my baby monitors when my children were younger. This was mostly because as babies they were usually in the same room as me.
My husband on the other hand used them more frequently as he would often work from home and would use them to check on the baby if he had to work in the next room.
According to a recent study this is a fairly common situation as dads are apparently much more likely to make use of baby monitors than mothers. In fact they may be even using them too much.
According to a study funded by baby brand Summer, more than one in three dads will check their baby’s monitor at least once per minute. That’s a lot.
Research gathered during the study also found that only a fraction of mothers check their child’s monitor that often.
While keeping an eye on your child is always a good idea, as parents it is kind of our job. The problem lies in becoming so caught up in checking in on them they we become anxious and stressed which researchers believe is exactly what is happening, particularly with dads.
Over 1,000 parents were spoken to during the survey.
As well as discovering that dads are more addicted to checking the monitors it also found that dads are quicker to jump up if they hear their baby cries while mums will generally wait a moment to see if baby will fall back asleep.
Summer VP Brand Marketing Jen Johnson said;
“These results were extremely surprising to us. We talk a lot about screen time, and dads seem to be as glued to their baby monitors as their phones!”
I think part of this may be down to dads not feeling that they have the same instincts as mums. Mums are often praised for knowing just when their babies need them while dads are sometimes are little bit more insecure when it comes to trusting their instincts.
While I think it’s great to see so many dads so eager to look after their babies I also think it’s important for them to look after themselves. Being overly anxious will make anyone sick and stressed and dad you’ll be no use to anyone if you’re sick so make sure to take care of yourselves too.