Your precious one is so important to you. So beautiful, so fun, so expensive, so…breakable. We’re talking about smartphones here, right? As much as you love your little one, your phone has probably been in your life a little bit longer, and you’re probably not ready to give it up for an indestructible flip phone. So how do you keep both of your babies safe?
Physical protection
Smartphones are very sleek and very delicate. The nicer a phone looks, the less likely it is to survive being tossed from a high chair too many times. If you want to get through these toddler years with mind and phone intact, you’re going to want a case, a screen protector, and a safe place to charge it. The case will keep the body of your phone protected, and the screen protector will guard your screen against cracking. A secure place for your phone charger will keep Baby from pulling your phone down by the cord, which could damage your phone or fray the charger.
Virtual protection
The next generation is almost scarily good with technology from a very early age, but there are a couple things to look out for before you think about handing your phone over to Baby. First, you don’t want them playing with any apps you think they might not be ready for, including social media apps you’d rather Baby not update for you. Instead, look through the educational, child-friendly games available on your phone, and play with them yourself to see if you want Baby playing with them. From there, you can set parental controls on your phone so that Baby can only access the approved games. This will keep them from sending stray texts or making in-app purchases. Different phones have different kinds of parental controls, but you can usually find them through Settings or by installing a parental control app.
Travel protection
We’re not locked into landlines anymore – our phones go where we go. And with Baby on board, your phone may be more important than ever. You might be using your GPS to get to their new daycare, waiting on a call from their healthcare provider, or playing the alphabet song from your Spotify account. Long story short, you need your phone to be functional and within reach pretty much all the time. If you don’t already have a car charger and a car dock for your phone, you might want to consider it. The charger will ensure your phone never dies en route to a playdate, and the dock will make it easier and a little safer to skip songs and use your GPS.
Try as you might, your phone will probably never be completely safe from knocks off the counter or tumbles onto the sidewalk. Check out the insurance policies your phone company or wireless carrier offers, and see if any of those appeal to you. And remember to back up your photos onto your computer or to the Cloud – in case of an accident, you wouldn’t want to lose any of those adorable pictures of Baby!
