Leaving your house safe and sound while on a road trip

Panasonic Home Monitoring System
The homeland is safe; but while you’re away, is your home safe? The Panasonic home monitoring system lets you peek in and see

Being away doesn’t mean you can’t see what’s going on at home.

You know that really awful feeling you get hundreds of miles from home and you start to wonder if you left the front door unlocked? Or if a storm hits at home and you wonder if everything is OK or if you’ll have power when you return?

You can hire a caretaker for your estate, or, you can invest in new connected house technology that does all this for you right from your phone or tablet.

Recently, Panasonic sent me two of these products: the Panasonic Home Surveillance System ($299 on Amazon) and the Panasonic Smart Plug ($39), which work together to ‘wire’ my house to my iPhone so I can see what is going on and turn things on or off where ever I am.

Panasonic Home Monitoring System
My friend Lorraine Robertson can see that her daughter is doing what she should: homework, with her Panasonic home monitoring system. Photo: Lorraine Robertson

I can see if my dog is really whining by the back door the ENTIRE TIME WE ARE OUT TO DINNER. Or I can see if my 13 year old is STILL playing Grand Theft Auto when she’s supposed to be doing her homework.

The system’s base connects to your household WiFi and then has a number of elements that it can control including cameras, motion detectors and a smart plug. I can connect the smart plug to the lights, TV or anything else and turn it on or off with my phone. Sweet.

I can add a motion sensor to the system, and if it goes off, I can turn on the lights and the TV, which has been shown to scare off someone who is in your house.

Panasonic Home Monitoring System
The base and cameras of the Panasonic home monitoring system

Or, I can put a camera right on top of the TV (or hide it in a corner of the room) to see who is in front of the TV when they shouldn’t be. And then I can message her to turn it off and go do her homework (and see the scowl on her face when she gets the message!). And then I can even turn off the TV if she doesn’t do as she should. I’m starting to think that this could be a new girls night out parlor game.

Panasonic Home Monitoring System
All the things you can connect to the Panasonic home monitoring system

But what gives me the most comfort is that I can position the cameras and motion sensors so that if someone comes into my house while I’m away, I can be alerted and call the police. And we can come home to a brightly lighted house after a long trip.

My friend The DealMommy reviewed the system and had some nice things to say, as well as some important caveats.

And my friend Lorraine Robertson uses it to spy on her kids. I must say, I like that!

What would you do with a home surveillance system? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Disclosure: Panasonic provided the home monitoring system and smart plug; opinions (and girls night out ideas) are all my own.

Scotty Reiss
Scotty Reiss

Journalist, entrepreneur and mom. Expertise includes new cars, family cars, 3-row SUVs, child passenger car seats and automotive careers and culture. A World Car Awards juror and member of the steering committee, Scotty likes to say the automotive business found her, rather than her finding it. But recognizing the opportunity to give voice to powerful female consumers and create a voice to match their spending power, her mission became to empower women as car buyers and owners. A career-long journalist, she has written for the New York Times, Town & Country, Adweek and co-authored the book Stew Leonard, My Story, a biography of the founder of the iconic grocery company Stew Leonard’s. Her love of cars started when her father insisted she learn to change the oil in her MG Midget, but now it mostly plays out in the many road trips taken with her family.

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