Marshall Brain's Blog

Just to follow up on the previous Roomba post, a quick note.

Strangely, Roomba changes your relationship with your kids in a small, subtle way. Here's how: You worry less when the kids make a mess.

An example. Today at the dollar store one of the kids bought a little six-shooter confetti gun. You know the little confetti poppers you see at parties (like these). They've managed to fit six of these in a little plastic revolver, and it costs a dollar. So of course, if you are a kid, the thing to do when you get home is shoot it off. And now the floor is covered with confetti.

Pre-Roomba, this is a problem. You want the kid to clean up the mess, right? It teaches responsibility and so on. But a 5-year-old is a) unable to operate the vacuum cleaner alone, and b) going to put up some amount of resistance to the "chore" (no, my children are not perfect). This is a pain.

With Roomba, this little vignette plays out differently. There is confetti everywhere, so you turn Roomba loose in the room. 30 minutes later the confetti is gone. Every bit of it. It is one less thing to hassle with the kids about, and that makes life a tiny increment better. Instead of the chore, they do homework or work on the science fair project or read a book or whatever.

Still hoping for Pickba in the near future, and wouldn't mind having Spillba either...