There's An Alarm Clock That Could Teach New Parents What Life With Kids Is Like

Ruggie, being lauded as “the world’s best alarm clock,” offers some surprising similarities to life with kids.

Although unintentional I’m sure, many of the key selling points for the new alarm clock, Ruggie, are reminiscent of mornings with small children.

The creators of Ruggie say it’s the world’s best alarm clock and it certainly has some innovative technologies built into it. Instead of sitting on your nightstand where you can easily hit the snooze button, the memory foam clad clock lies on the floor and appears to be similar in size to a bathroom scale. Why do you put it on the floor and why the memory foam? Because you turn it off with your feet.

That’s right. You have to get your tired butt out of bed in order to turn off your alarm. And not just get out of bed and then climb back in. Nope. We’ve been doing that for years, that’s too easy. With this alarm clock, you’ve gotta stand on the beeping thing for three whole seconds. By that time you’re probably at least a little irritated and coherent, right? Even if you’re not you can’t easily go back to sleep because there’s no snooze function. None. You can’t hazily hit a button and then wake up 45 minutes later wondering what happened to your morning.

But the perk of being awake way earlier than you want to be? Motivational messages are spoken to you once the alarm has been turned off.

If you think you must have one, there’s still 53 more days left to back the Kickstarter campaign which has already far exceeded its $36,000 goal, but let’s think about who this device could best be used for: parents-to-be.

As I read through the campaign and watched the informational video, all I could think was, “This sounds like what it’s like getting up in the morning at my house.” First off, the fact that you have to actually get out of bed to make the stupid thing shut up. By the time my kids could walk they knew that if they annoyed me enough they could get me out of bed before dawn if, for no other reason, than to make them stop talking and get out of my face until I had at least started the coffee brewing.

And it doesn’t make it easy for you to even try going back to bed. Without a snooze function, you either have to get up and stay up or go back to sleep for who knows how long which could mean missing out on work, meetings, appointments, etc. This is not unlike trying to sneak in a few extra zzz’s while the kids run rampant around your home in their pajamas. Sure, you could get an extra five minutes of sweet dreams, but you’ll be missing out on little Timmy spilling cereal all over the floor, milk all over the table, and who knows what he’ll do to the bathroom without adult supervision.

If there’s a loved one in your life who’s expecting their firstborn, this would make an excellent teaching tool for them. It’s an easy way to learn that once you have children, your mornings and your life are no longer your own. You’ve gotta get out of bed when you don’t want to and there’s no easily accessible “off” button on those ankle biters. You’re awake when they are, no matter what.

Oh, and those motivational messages Ruggie will greet you with to get your day started? Maybe, just for practice, you can find a way to make it say, “Mommy, I poop on the floor and on the chair and on the cat.” Just so your friends know what’s in store for them.