Video Doorbells to Improve Safety at Home
Granny was worried . . .
Picture of blue door by Pexels.
I can never forget the time my grandmother told me how worried she felt about Grandpa answering the front door.
She told me that Grandpa would answer the door, greet whoever was there, and kindly invite them inside the house.
My grandfather was at the beginning stages of dementia and was showing lapses in judgment across the board, so our family was becoming used to this kind of behavior.
But my grandmother was horrified by Grandpa inviting strangers in because he would do this in the evening when Granny was ready to snuggle in her bedroom and watch TV.
She didn’t want to be in her nightclothes and hair curlers talking with neighbors or strangers! Granny exclaimed, “I’m not decent!”
Caregiver Conundrum
At the time, we weren’t entirely sure what to do to monitor Grandpa at the front door. You couldn’t just reason with him (thanks, dementia!).
We had to figure out a different kind of system with family members supervising him because video doorbells weren’t a thing yet.
What are Video Doorbells
Video doorbells are a combination of a doorbell and a camera that syncs to your smartphone and allows you to see and speak to the person at your door.
Video doorbells are rising in popularity and largely viewed as a form of security for people's homes. According to Parks Associates and Statista, video doorbell sales will top five million units in 2022.
That’s a lot of video doorbells!
I like video doorbells for older family members because it allows people to answer the door virtually from different parts of the home by using an app on a smartphone. When the visitor rings the video doorbell, you can see them but they can’t see you.
(FYI: I’m an Amazon affiliate and receive an itty bitty commission if you purchase any of these products using the links. Muchos gracias!)
How to Find the Best Video Doorbell
Currently, I don’t have any experience with video doorbells for older adult family members. So I wanted to share a few resources for you to check out:
First off when I started looking at video doorbells, I didn’t have a clue what to look for! What’s important to know? Does the resolution matter? Should I buy cloud storage?
Before you go down this rabbit hole, please peruse Safe Home’s buying guide for video doorbells. This article gives great tips on what you should look for to buy the right choice for your home.
The second is Aging In Place’s list of best doorbells for older adults. They mention the Zmodo Smart Greet and the 1byone Video Doorphone. I looked up the reviews on a couple of other websites for these devices and they’re pretty highly rated across the board!
Included on the list are different doorbells without video for people with low vision or hearing loss.
The third resource to look up is Consumer Reports best video doorbell list for 2021. This article also talks about how easily video doorbells can be hacked, so please keep that in mind when choosing the best video doorbell for you and your family!
Personally, I’m super paranoid about my virtual security and I’d lean towards the Simplisafe Video Doorbell. No data for you, hackers!
Video Doorbell for Granny!
If my grandparents were still with us, I can confidently say we’d give video doorbells a try! Mom or I would have been able to “answer” the door no matter our location.
We would’ve scared off all of the miscreants!
I think video doorbells would’ve put Granny’s mind at ease. She probably wouldn’t have any more fears of waking up to the next-door neighbor hanging out in the living room with Grandpa watching WWE or peaking in her bedroom anymore!
No, she’d be more relaxed knowing that Mom and I would be monitoring her front door at all hours. And that’s all I ever wanted for my grandma was to feel more at peace in her home, not vigilantly hovering around Grandpa.
So what do you think about video doorbells? Do you have one already? Or if you’re shopping for a video doorbell, which one do you think you’ll buy? Tell us all about it in the comments below! We want to know which brands to buy or stay away from!
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