Earlier last month, I received Philips MyBuddy and brought it home to my excited kids and here is the review after using it for the last one month.
Jordan thinks MyBuddy is delicious.
Philips MyBuddy is very marketable to young children. The name itself is catchy and makes kids want to ‘own’ it like a pet. My preschooler, Josiah talks about MyBuddy as if it is really his pet. When we go on trips, he even wanted to bring MyBuddy along. Thankfully, I also received the MyBuddy stuffed toy, so I managed to get him to bring that one along instead.
MyBuddy is basically a 3 in 1 lamp, it’s a reading lamp when fully on, and it’s also a night light when off and when only the moon light shine through and it’s also a silent alarm clock that shows the sign of the sun when the time you set is reached.
What are the benefits of the lamp? I can think of a few:
1) It is using LED so it is not hot, thus it is safe to use in a kid’s room. My kids can hold it and touch it and there are no parts coming out that can cause electric shock. It is energy saving too.
2) The shape is very cute, even my toddler loves it. It comes in pink and blue suitable for boys and girls.
3) It helps children know when is the time for bed and when is the time to wake up. When my preschooler is cranky and either doesn’t want to go to bed or doesn’t want to wake up, I will point to MyBuddy and tell him look, the sun is up, MyBuddy wants you to wake up. He will surely open his eyes and look and that led to other series of conversations and him awakening fully after.
4) It’s a great reading lamp. At nights, I sometimes show the flash cards to my toddler in bed or we open up the books to read. We can bring MyBuddy down from the side table and put it near the book since it’s not hot and it’s safe. The light is bright enough for simple reading and maybe even bright enough for actual reading.
5) Philips MyBuddy works as a clock for us adults too. There is a LCD clock panel at the back for us to set the time and then to set the sun rise time, I set mine at 7.30am. Sometimes at nights I might awaken suddenly and wonder what is the time. I just press the button at the back and the LCD Panel lights up in blue and I can tell the time from there. Of course, just by looking at the moon/sun sign, I will know whether it is already 7.30am or not.
6) I can’t turn the main switch of MyBuddy off as that would reset the timer. However, I realised that even with the main switch on, the adapter is never warm. That’s a nice touch, unlike our phone chargers, it will be warm even when the phone is not plugged in. The dial at the back of MyBuddy can be turned to switch off all lights, so MyBuddy doesn’t know any moon/sun sign. I usually only turn it back on again at night when I bring the kids to bed.
7) Philips MyBuddy cares about children. I am glad to know of a lighting company that specifically created a product for kids. Not many companies I know actually made a separate product just for the kids and actually understood how the minds of kids work. For anyone or any company to put children first, I am just grateful as a mother.
One of our routine activity before the kids go to sleep, we will have bed time story session. Yeap, I have to finish at least 2 books before they went to sleep. Ever since we have Buddy at home, reading session become more interesting with cute light besides the bed. Besides switching on the main bedroom lamp for reading which make them more awake, the diffused warm white light is gentle and provides perfect light output for reading while soothing them to sleep.