The amount of time new parents spend on mobile phones, scrolling through reels about ways to change nappies, looking up Google for feeding methods, and finishing work while tending to their babies is astonishing. With the birth of a child, the everyday routine for parents changes. The sleep pattern goes for a toss, and extra hours of the day go into parenting, but one thing that doesn’t change for many of us, is the amount of time we spend on our phones: work or not!
In fact, mobile phone usage is increasing in parents and the screen time of their young ones is snowballing as an effect. This is because some parents see phones as toy to hand out at mealtime so the kid eats without getting cranky or as a way to distract them when working. Our babies imitate our actions. Inculcating good habits in them should be our primary upbringing mantra, which of course should not involve the usage of a phone, or if it does, it should be within the GATBOOK.
When I first saw the GATBOOK campaign on Kickstarter, I thought this was the perfect accessory to teach our babies to deceive. A deeper understanding led me to believe it could be effective in helping parents to go on with their daily work routine. Using their phones in the child’s presence without the worry of inculcating in them the habit of watching the screen.
Studies have shown that early exposure to mobile phones can adversely affect a child’s cognitive and social development leading countries like Taiwan and France to enact laws to protect young children from excessive screen time exposure. The GATBOOK steps in with its nifty design to allow parents to discreetly use their phones while appearing to read a book. As babies learn through observation in their growing years; introduction to GATBOOK can provide them a way to form positive reading habit, watching their parents engrossed in books and not a phone.
GATBOOK is designed around the concept of the “mirroring effect.” As babies tend to imitate what their parents are doing, including the use of their phones, this accessory can make them imitate the habit of reading, and watching their parents do so. For ease of use around babies, it is made from environmentally-friendly paper with a pollutant-resistant coating, so it can be easily cleaned if something accidentally spills on it. Beneath the cover is a set of beloved words translated into 12 languages that you can read out to your little one.
Using the GATBOOK app, you can even listen to native speakers to learn accurate pronunciation, and then share it with your baby. Just behind this reading section – between the front part and the back of the GATBOOK – is the boxy partition, secured by a magnetic clip, where the phone resides securely. It can be accessed anytime by simply flipping the front of the book over. The makers of the GATBOOK have taken personalization seriously, allowing parents to add their child’s hand or footprint (using an ink pad) to the inside of the book cover, “turning it into a cherished family keepsake.”
If you want to make this ‘small yet meaningful changes in daily routine” and your baby’s upbringing, you can back the GATBOOK campaign now.
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