Business Ideas

It snowed again in Boston today. It has been a really tough winter and the babies, Lynn and I are starting to get on one another's nerves. Yesterday I caught Claire looking on the internet for a family in Florida that might take her. I think Sam is capable of crawling south for the winter.

I have a few ideas for removing the stress of our enforced togetherness. I would like input and ideas from you as well.

1. Babies' day off. I get the sense that Claire and Sam need a break from our constant togetherness as much as Lynn and I do. An obvious solution would be to give them a vacation from their parents. All we need to do is fill twelve baby bottles with milk, open three cans of green beans and toast ten pieces of bread and put it all up into their room. Put the CD player on auto repeat of the muppet movie soundtrack. Pull the toys out and let them have at it for the day. "OK Kids, here's the deal: you don't bother us, we won't bother you." I've just started to discuss this possibility with Lynn. She is skeptical now, but I think she'll come around.
2. The Baby Kennel. A friend of mine runs a doggy day care in Salt Lake City. The idea is that you drop off your dogs when you need to travel or even if you need to be out for half of the day. They run the dogs together; the doggy day care allows them to form into a sort of a pack. They have a grand time. I figure that this concept could be run in reverse. Instead of traditional day care, where you leave your kids on a regular schedule because of commitments to work, there could be a sort of baby drop off day care center where you could leave your children for an indeterminate period of time. They, too, could let the children bond together in a natural way like dogs in a pack or the Lord of the Flies.
3. The Baby Walking Service. This is sort of a variation on the previous idea. Around here you see day care centers with these stroller-wagons that hold twelve children. When the weather is good, the day care staff carts the kids down the walking path. Instead of all the overhead of day care--insurance, trained staff, rent--one could have a sort of a baby walking service. The wagon-stroller could go on a predetermined route. It would have a distinctive sound--like an ice cream truck--when parents heard it, they could get a twenty dollar bill out, bundle their child in a snow suite and put him in the wagon. It would come back around in an hour or two. I know that there is some way RFID could be used as part of this business model.