CARS.COM — With our first child, my husband and I went to great lengths to try and get him to sleep. We’d put him on top of the dryer, sing softly off-key for hours on end and take endless drives in hopes of him finally succumbing to slumber. We were exhausted first-time parents, being driven to acquiescent insanity by our baby dictator, all in hope of getting an hour or two of sleep ourselves. Parents will try almost anything to get their baby to catch a few Zs, and Ford has tapped into that.
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Ford just developed the Max Motor Dreams baby cot. It looks like any other small modern crib, but once activated, it begins to gently move and emit subtle noise and LED light to simulate a nighttime drive. In fact, thanks to its companion app that tracks your own car’s movements and sounds, the crib reproduces your car’s specific groove. It’s the automotive equivalent of one of those grocery store horses that move your kid slowly up, down and around.
In theory, swell idea. In practice, maybe a bit overboard. Do we really want our children to become dependent on myriad sensory inputs to fall asleep? Are we setting them up for a lifetime of sleep stimulus co-dependency?
Here’s the thing: While my husband and I tried endlessly to find ways to lull our firstborn into peaceful repose, we did nothing of the sort for our second and third children. Turns out, Mr. Firstborn still won’t go to bed, and the other two can sleep easily no matter what’s happening — or not happening — around them.
The one-off Max Motor Dreams is being piloted only in Spain for now; no word yet on when fatigued families elsewhere might get their chance to take one for an in-house spin. Sweet dreams!
