While I was pregnant, my mom (now 'Gramma Patsy') bought us one of the most valuable items we own. A video baby monitor. There is a tiny video camera above Rhys' crib, and a handset with a tiny video monitor that we can carry around with us. It's proven to be extremely handy.
Before Rhys was born, we set up the camera and did a little test, to make sure it worked. While testing the video monitor, we flipped over to 'channel B' to see if the reception was any better. What happened next shocked us.
Channel B was not displaying our empty crib. Channel B was displaying a different crib, with a baby in it. My face turned white. I showed Warren and his face turned white too. We couldn't believe our eyes. We could see someone else's baby on our monitor. We quickly grabbed the manual and read that the monitor has a range of 350 feet, and it uses PUBLIC air waves, meaning it was possible to pick up someone else's signal.
We guiltily watched this other baby, who had started crying and who's mother had now entered the room to console him/her. The sound of the baby's cries filled our room, the soft words of the mother hidden underneath. This was a glimpse into our future. A glimpse that we should never have seen.
Then it dawned on us. If we could see their baby, then they would probably be able to see ours.
Maybe this revelation would have been enough for other parents to return the monitor, but not us. Once Rhys was born, we continued to check in on the other baby, who was obviously a bit older that Rhys because he/she could sit up and move around the crib. Again, a glimpse into our future. We felt weird 'checking in', but we continued to be curious.
Cut to Remembrance Day, 2009. The three of us were leaving the house, with Warren's parents, heading over the road to have brunch. A young mother across the street waved at us and said hi, then she started walking towards us, with her young daughter sitting on her hip.
Young Mother: Hi! I haven't met your baby yet! We saw the stroller in the driveway and knew someone must have a baby. (She peeks into the stroller) Oh! And what a new baby! Hi, I'm Amanda, and this is Claudia, she's 16 months old.
Me: Hi, I'm Amanda too!
Young Mother: Ha! Ha! For real? That's crazy!
Some small talk ensued, and then...
Young Mother: (after squinting her eyes and looking us up and down suspiciously) Hey...do you guys happen to have a video monitor?
Our eyes grew wide.
Me: Oh my gawd, that's you guys?!
Young Mother: So you're the ones with the baby who is always sleeping!
Me: Hahaha, ya, I guess so.
Young Mother: But LAST night the tables had turned! OUR baby was sleeping and yours wasn't!
Me: Oh. Haha. That's right...
This was getting weird.
We noticed that ever since that conversation, we haven't 'picked up their signal'. Maybe they stopped using it. For us though, we decided it was slightly less creepy once we knew who the other family was.
What's your take? More creepy, or less creepy?
2 comments:
Wow -- that's crazy! Crazy that you could see another baby, and crazier still that you met the other baby! But the strangest part is that they've now disappeared since you met them...huh. What's that all about?!?
Since you asked, the whole thing would creep me out if it was me. It actually sounds like the beginning of a scary movie. Hmmm. Maybe some writing while on maternity leave???
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