Review and giveaway: ChildMinder Smart Clip System

I think we've all seen the tragic stories in the news- a routine changes or something happens and a parent accidentally leaves a child in a hot car.  I can never read those without being simultaneously heartbroken for the family and terrified of doing it myself.  So when I received an email asking if I'd like to try out the ChildMinder Smart Clip System, I immediately agreed. Here's a bit about this product, from its website:

The ChildMinder^® Smart Clip System with Single-Unit Key Ring Alarm Unit is typically for households with only one child (ages 0-6 years) in a car safety seat. (An additional Single-Unit Key Ring Alarm Unit for an alternate caregiver can be purchased separately.) Click to Add: Item 005; $28.95

The ChildMinder Smart Clip System should greatly reduce the opportunity for a child to be inadvertently left unattended in a motor vehicle while fastened in a child safety seat. The smart clip is deactivated upon unfastening.

1. The ChildMinder system performs a self-test upon each use to insure its proper functioning.
2. The ChildMinder system reminds the parent/caregiver with an alarm six seconds after the parent/caregiver has moved more than 15 feet from the child in the child safety seat.
3. The ChildMinder system even serves to remind the parent/caregiver of the child's presence even when the parent/caregiver has inadvertently forgotten the key ring until the smart clip is deactivated.
4. The ChildMinder system installation takes less than three minutes. Simply replace your child's safety seat chest clip with the ChildMinder system's smart clip and place the key ring alarm unit on your automotive key ring.
5. The ChildMinder system will not compromise the integrity your existing child safety seat.

After reading through the instruction manual, I tested the alarm out by having my kids run to the other end of our condo's main hallway, carrying the carseat clip. And sure enough, when they got to the end of the hall, the alarms started beeping! They thought it was a really fun game and still ask to play it again :)

The ChildMinder Smart Clip replaces the existing safety clip on your child's carseat.  This does require accessing the straps at the back of the seat, but that's fairly simple on most carseats.


Of course, parents always need to be mindful of where their kids are and whether or not they're in the car- that's just common sense. But it's still nice to have products like this- just in case.

Since my kids are older (and talk constantly, so there's little chance I could ever forget they are there!) and we don't ride in the car often, I decided to pass this handy little device onto one of you. Open to US mailing addresses, enter at the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: I received this product to review for myself. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions posted here are mine and mine alone.