Training a young child to sleep and stay in bed can be, well, a bit of a nightmare, which is where a toddler alarm clock comes in. Imagine a device that can tell your wee one when he or she is allowed to leave the room to wake mommy or daddy. Now, imagine that that same device tells stories, plays music, lulls them to bed with white noise, has a timeout clock, and can easily be carted from room to room thanks to a portable handle. What you have in mind is the My Tot Clock. While the clock boasts a fun, star-themed face and 10 features that are meant to pique your child’s interest, parents know that cool product descriptions and positive reviews mean nothing to kids. To find out if the My Tot Clock would be a hit with our toddler and preschooler, we tested one out for a few weeks. Read on for our little ones’ reactions and our thoughts on the clock’s performance, design, and price.
Setup: Daunting yet effective
One thing you may notice when you take the faceplate off the clock is the plethora of buttons. There are buttons for on, off, hour, minute, timer, dimmer, sound, duration, and volume; plus five colored buttons on top of the device. Never fear, once you read through the instruction manual and play around a bit, it becomes easy to figure out. The amount of buttons makes a lot of sense given all the things this alarm clock can do. The My Tot Clock has five different illumination settings—blue for bedtime, yellow for wakeup, cyan to naptime, green for playtime, and red for timeout—as well as lullaby, white noise, and story settings. When it comes to programming, parents are able to set the length of time outs and naps, as well as when to wake up or go to bed. Luckily, you can set and forget these times as you won’t need to adjust them unless you change your child’s schedule. As for the kids, they don’t really need to figure anything out. Once it’s set, they can just watch it change colors. Of course, finding the right button to make it sing and tell stories is useful, but we noticed our kids had this figured out in minutes.
Performance and Design: Kid-friendly
There’s a lot to be said for a simple clock that’s lightweight enough for your child to move around. When our toddler got a hold of this 1.15-pound device, he moved it back and forth from his dresser to his bed where it looked right at home among his stuffed dinosaurs and magnetic stacking blocks. Not only did he take it to bed with him, but he then brought it down to the breakfast table and after he was done eating, continued to make it play nursery songs while he battled make-believe superheroes nearby. One of the greatest things about the My Tot Clock is its intuitive design—even our two-year-old could instantly figure out how to work it. There’s enough going on with the clock that kids can also explore the device beyond its obvious purpose, be that through the electronic storybook cards (you can purchase more on the side to give your kids additional options) or the bevy of songs. The clock also showcases both the digital time and a classic watch face, so learning how to read numerals and an analog clock face is an added bonus. You can switch out the faceplates to match your child’s nursery decor, but the cheery moon and stars design the item comes with proves cute enough for most. The clock runs on either batteries or an AC charger, though you will want to make sure you stock it with batteries because if your kid is like ours, the clock will get unplugged and travel around the house before making its way back to the nursery for bedtime.
Age Range: Toddler to preschool
Our preschooler loved this clock just as much as our toddler, which was great until they started fighting over it. Luckily, the soothing sounds doused any tension and both enjoy hearing the stories before bed and even the next morning while they wait to leave the room. My Tot Clock also features a timeout setting, so if someone needs five minutes to cool down or think about their actions, this helps make it easier.
Cleaning: Quick and easy
Avoid submerging this product in water (or juice) and you’ll be good to go. Simply dampen a cloth with a mild cleaning solution and wipe all the sticky fingerprints off the surface. It’s an easy process that can be done in a minute.
Price: Expensive but worth it
The My Tot Clock retails for roughly $50, making it one of the more expensive toddler alarm clocks on the market. That’s for good reason, though. The device has so many bells and whistles, you really get what you’re paying for. Think of it as an investment not only as a sleep training device but a music box, entertainment center, and patience tester as well.
Competition: Depends on your toddler’s interests
Though the toddler alarm clock business is fairly new, there are still a lot of devices on the market. Like the My Tot Clock, the $50 Mella Ready to Rise Children’s Sleep Trainer and the $40 Mesqool Kid’s Alarm Clock have noise machines built in; the latter also features music and can change colors. Neither of these devices has a handle, though, which is something our toddler particularly liked about My Tot Clock. If you’re not concerned about extras and just want basic functionality, simple light-changing clocks include the $25 Big Red Rooster Sleeping Training Alarm Clock and the $30 Kid’Sleep Moon Sleeptrainer by Claessens’ Kids which features a bunny that “wakes up” when it’s time to get out of bed. Yes, the My Tot Clock is one of the most expensive toddler alarm clocks on the market, but it has the most to offer your little ones. From stories to songs and alarm clocks to time-to-wake lights, it’s really a great device. The simple, easy-to-carry design also makes it a winning kids item.
