It's so interesting looking at the electronics in my house and remembering back to why I put them there.
I have one of those twisty timer light switches on the garage lights. I remember that my wife and most of my children would go out to the garage to check the freezer or refrigerator or something and they would leave the garage lights on all night. Over and over and over. And after getting upset about it repeatedly I finally just put in one of those 60 minute twist dial switches and the lights were off automatically after however much time they twisted the dial for.
I remember struggling with my oldest son to get him to turn lights off. He would walk into a room, turn on the lights, look for a minute, and then leave the room and leave the lights on. He did this in the utility room when we washed clothes. I repeatedly asked him to please turn the lights off in the utility room and the washer dryer area after he finished whatever he was doing. He did not. After much yelling much anger over him not doing what I asked I finally realized that he would not do those things and that I needed to take different actions. So I installed one of those motion sensor lights where when it senses motion it turns the switch on and then after about three minutes if it has not sense motion and it turns the light off. That has been one of my greatest accomplishments in managing electricity in our home. I did that over the washer and dryer area and the utility room area because nobody in the family except me would turn the lights off.
I remember when my youngest two boys were growing up they would leave the lights on all day no matter what. I finally got so frustrated with it that I put one of those timer switches in their rooms. And so they had to turn the lights back on if they were in the room more than an hour. I don't remember them ever complaining that they had to turn the lights back on.
It's one of those things where I used technology to reduce the friction between me and my children. I'm not proud of it, except when I watch the lights turn off after I left the room. And I'm glad that it was able to do something that allowed me to let go of that anger and frustration. I think that if technology lets us release anger and frustration it's got to be a good thing!
I love modern technology!
