A Kid's Universal TV Remote

This is one of those inventions that I wish I had thought of. It is a remote that you pre-program to the specific channels that the kids watch.

My kids can wake up on a Saturday morning and turn the cartoons on which ussually gives me another 30 minutes to lay in bed and catch up on some sleep while they peacefully watch morning cartoons. We can hear the TV and kids from our bedroom so I ussually wake up but there have been a few times where my youngest decides to wake up unreasonable early. This has at least allowed him to watch cartoon without waking up his older brother (who I might mention is not a morning person).

The remote was fairly easy for me to program. The directions are clear and the programming portion is hidden under a panel that screws back on so that the kids can not try to reprogram or play with all the hidden buttons. I did make sure to keep the directions because I am sure that I wouldn't be able to reprogram it without the directions. We recently got a new cable provider and I have to reprogram it, it took very little time to reprogram with the directions in hand.

I did have to train my kids where to point the remote in order to get the desired results. Essentially the remote is similar to a regular remote but when the child pushed the number one the remote is pre-recorded to send a sequence of numbers to the cable box which means the remote needs to remain pointed at the box for a few seconds. The kids have learned to count to 5 after the push the button in order to make sure all of the numbers are registered into the cable box. This wouldn't be an issue for single digit stations or TV without an additional cable box.

The power buttons and volume works with the TV while the rest of the buttons are set to work with our cable box.

Our new cable set up only has about 6 station I want the kids to access without me. So I just programmed one of the stations twice. This way all the buttons produce something that the kids would be interested in. I did make sure to put their favorite (or I should say mine) as the number 1 because they ussually don't get past that channel.

I also like that the button are different colors, shapes, and numbers. I could easily tell my then 2 yr old to push the blue button or my 4 yr old to push the number 3. It adds a slight learning element to the design.

Amazon had this product at a great price when I looked this morning. We paid more than prices their price at Target two years ago when we bought it. It has been a solid investment for the money though (less than $20). My kids have left all the other remotes alone since then, babysitters and grandparents are easily able to find channels for the kids when needed, and I get a few extra minutes of shut eye on Saturday Morning. Sleep is priceless with little kids.