Every dad wants to protect his family and keep them safe. Whether it’s the manhood, warrior, provider, protector instincts kicking in or not, we all want to keep them safe.

With the new Panasonic Smart Home Safe System, keeping your family safe has never been easier. Now, I would never admit to being a Big Brother fan, but it would be one of my guilty pleasures in life. The Panasonic Home Smart System allows to have a ‘Big Brother eye,’ on your home.

It’s a home monitoring system that primarily uses cameras, smart plugs and door sensors. This isn’t the cheapest gadget around, but I always think, can you put a price on keeping your family safe? Obviously not!

We were given the starter kit which included an indoor camera, 2 door sensors, a smart plug and a hub. It’s this hub that basically controls everything. Being wireless, this system is a walk in the park to set up and didn’t take us long at all. In fact, the longest but was downloading the APP onto our smart phones so we can control it from that device. (A handy extra!)

The smart plug is, in essence, a reinvention of those old fashioned plug timers that click off once the dial has turned. Linked with the APP however, you can control when that plug has power or not. So if you’re out and about, you can give the impression you’re home. Like that scene from Home Alone when he has all the card board cut outs! He’d have had a field day if he had a few smart plugs!

The indoor camera does feel a bit big brother like, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’re a busy parent getting jobs done, having a way of checking up on whats going on in the play room, bedrooms or wherever is a massive help. It would allow you to get on with things more freely, whilst making sure your children are safe.

The door sensors are designed to alert you to someone coming in or out of that particular door. Obviously, this could be an intruder or simply your kids coming home from school. Useful if you’re upstairs etc. It’s also fabulous for parents with toddlers. As babies become more independent, walking in and out of doors, especially the front door, as it’s a huge hazard, this gadget can really help. Ted isn’t of an age where he can’t yet let himself out yet, but if you have kids who can, this could be a great save. I also wonder about using it on Teds bedroom door, when he’s slightly older; we’ll know if he’s gotten out of bed in the night for some reason.

There are so many genuinely useful things you could use the various components for, but I guess it’s a case of finding what works for you. In the mornings, it’s useful to be able to switch the landing light on, rather than the bedroom light, using the smart plug. (It means I don’t disturb the missus!) I’m also envisioning this becoming more useful as Ted gets older. We have to be with a 17 month old pretty much all the time, but as he gets more independent, the cameras and sensors could be brilliantly useful.

Having used this bit of kit for a few days, I think it would be super useful for families with children 3+. For us at the moment, some components are a little redundant, but none the less, this is a good bit of kit and if you worry about keeping your family safe, this is a far cheaper option, at £129.99, than a full on security system.

The Panasonic Smart Home System receives an official Dad Network star rating of 4.5 / 5 and our award of recommendation.

Buy The Panasonic Smart Home System Here