Featured in The Week

April 07, 2020 by Jennifer Tuohy in Wirecutter, Parenting

My column for Wirecutter was featured in The Week’s new Parenting Newsletter.

How to Fight Cabin Fever With Family-Friendly Alexa Games - Wirecutter

March 26, 2020 by Jennifer Tuohy in Wirecutter, Parenting, Smart Home

In this new normal, as we all try to squeeze our work life, school life, and home life into one big communal life (in one very small space), reliable ways to keep the kids occupied and at peace are as valuable as jumbo-size rolls of toilet paper. Our discovery: Amazon’s Alexa happens to have dozens of voice-based games built in (many of them really good; some not so much), and so it is a terrific tool for keeping the kids entertained without resorting to more screen time. To launch one of these games, just ask Alexa to open or play them by name (no need to install a Skill, as you did in the past).

Read the full post here.

How I trained my smart home to be a third parent

February 08, 2019 by Jennifer Tuohy in Parenting, Smart Home, Technology, The Ambient

My tips for using the connected home with children

“Why would I want a smart home?” It’s a common question as connected devices become more ubiquitous and pressure on “normal people” to start buying internet-enabled products mounts. My answer is always, “Do you have a problem you’d like to solve?” Or, “Do you have kids?”

The smart home is manna from heaven for parents. It is literally the third parent (or second) we’ve been asking for since these tiny bundles of joy burst into our lives. As early as 2016, 70% of parents in the U.S. owned at least one IoT device, and more than a third wanted to buy another one because they believe smart devices make them better parents.

Read the full article here.

INSPIRATION Smart home tours: Lennar's ready-to-go South Carolina smart home - The Ambient

January 10, 2019 by Jennifer Tuohy in The Ambient, Technology, Smart Home

Do most people really want a smart home, they just don’t know it yet? That’s what Lennar, one of America’s largest homebuilders believes, and that is why the 65-year-old company announced last year that it would outfit all its new homes with home automation tech as standard.

Those new homes – equipped with Wi-Fi Certified home design, Alexa voice control, and a starter kit of smart home tech – have now started to roll on to the market. We went to check one out in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Read the full story here.