Watching over your little one has never been so easy. Or so potentially free. Enter for your chance to win a Philips Avent Digital Baby Monitor!

I was talking to a mom-friend the other day and she mentioned that she doesn’t bother using a baby monitor. “My kids are loud enough!” she said, joking-but-not-really-joking. I’ve always used a monitor and I’ve come to rely on it; it saves me having to pause Game of Thrones and squint my ears (you know what I mean) to hear if someone (other than Jon Snow) is crying. But I know what she means: low-tech monitors can be temperamental and static-y. High-tech monitors can be hard to navigate. It would be nice if there were a monitor that wasn’t a “bother” to use.

Enter the Philips Avent Digital Video Monitor series. First things first – if you know anything about me, you know I really hate reading instructions. That’ll be my epitaph: “She didn’t read the instructions.” Fortunately, the booklet is brief and the monitor is totally intuitive. It’s pretty much plug-and-play.

It’s pretty much plug-and-play.

I just connected the camera cord and pointed the camera at the crib. Then I plugged in the base unit and let it charge. In 3 hours, the monitor is fully charged, which means 10 hours of battery life on Eco mode. The button on the side lets you toggle between modes – Video, Audio, Vox, and Eco. I tend to keep it on Eco mode, so it saves power but turns on if the baby makes noise.

I really like that there’s not a bunch of extraneous fiddly features to scroll through or anything, it’s just a clear picture, perfect size screen, night vision – just the stuff you want.

I really like that there’s not a bunch of extraneous fiddly features to scroll through or anything, it’s just a clear picture, perfect size screen, night vision – just the stuff you want. We’re not hacking the Pentagon here, people. But I have to admit that I love the two-way communication button. Why did it take so long for us to put this on baby monitors?! WHY, scientists? Nothing gets a baby’s attention faster than a familiar human voice. (Emily seems to prefer to be shushed by Daddy. “Is she afraid of me or something?” he wondered the other night. “Of course not, she just doesn’t take me seriously,” I said. “Seventeen months old and she’s already internalised the patriarchy.”) There is also a button to remotely play lullabies – traditionally, a baby’s second-favourite thing to hear.

After one night with the Philips Avent Digital Video Monitor, I gleefully tossed my staticky old walkie-talkie style monitor in the garbage. Move over, Game of Thrones, I have a new favourite TV series: The Emily Show!

Congratulations to Kendra Crooks from Minnedosa, MB for winning our first Philips Avent Digital Video Monitor.

Congratulations are also in order for Chelsey Chernichan from Stathclair, MB for winning our second Philips Avent Digital Video Monitor.