Gear

If “new phone” is on your gift list for a child this holiday season, SafetyWeb might be a good add-on. For $10 a month (or $100 a year), SafetyWeb riffles through publicly posted information on your kid(s): profiles on Facebook or other social networking sites, Tweets, game portals, and other places associated with his aliases and email addresses. If SafetyWeb sees anything that might be problematic, it’s immediately noted in the personalized report available on your child.

What kinds of things are problematic? Oh, angry words, racist words, anything associated with sex, drugs, or alcohol. SafetyWeb also notes who your child befriends, so if a 45-year-old man suddenly befriends your 13-year-old girl, you’ll know about it. SafetyWeb also finds and displays all publicly available photos of your child, just in case there’s one or two floating around out there you won’t like.

For users with family plan phones, SafetyWeb even includes phone usage in the report. You’ll know the top five numbers your child called, and how many text she sent. Darned useful information if you’re trying to monitor what your child’s up to in that big digital world.

Man, it took forever for my daughter to figure out the difference between sippy cups and the kind of plastic straw-cups we’d be served at restaurants. She was always turning the restaurant cups over and dumping iced tea all over herself, or timidly sipping at the sippy cup “straw,” only to wail when nothing came out.

Looks like we could have used a Lollacup. The innovatively designed (and darned cute) cup features a straw that’s weighted at the bottom, so no matter what angle baby holds it at, a suck brings something up. The handles are big, smooth, and easy to grab for little ones, yet twist off easily for bigger kids worried about drinking out of something “babyish.” And the cup doesn’t have into little tiny valves in it to get filled with brown gunk you swipe at halfheartedly with a toothpick.

BPA-free and made in America, too? Hey, that’s a pretty cool cup.

Lollacup, $18

Sometimes, everyone wants to get away from it all. Sure is hard to do that when Mom, Dad, and assorted siblings wander into your room whenever they feel like it. For just $100 and the labor involved in hanging a big thing from your ceiling, Huggle Pod gives kids another option.

The canvas (read: washable) chair is great for a wide variety of kids; from those who can barely climb on the seat right up to 175-pounders. Kids climb inside, sit on a thick cushion, and either use their legs to swing and spin, or criss-cross applesauce into the chair, turn to the wall, and disappear. Either way, the swing provides comforting sensory input and development-boosting privacy, for many years on end.

Huggle Pod, $100

Have you ever seen one of those backpack carriers meant to be taken on hiking trails? They’re the size of a lawn chair, they’re as heavy as a brick, and they’re super awkward to carry around. Plus, I happen to know a kid who got a broken leg from his dad setting the backpack down, which is downright creepy.

That’s why the Piggyback Rider caught my eye. This simple contraption looks more like a fanny pack than a carrier: when rolled up, it’s about the size of a beach towel. But once unrolled and strapped into place, the Piggyback Rider has a secure bar for kids to put their feet, and two straps to hold onto. And now we’ll ride Daddy into the forest!

The Piggyback obviously is only suitable for slightly older kids, old enough to balance and hang on, since they’re not really strapped in. They have to stay awake in there; they can’t nod off. But little climbing monkeys will go absolutely crazy over being allowed to climb up on their parents’ heads and walk around.

Piggyback Rider, $80

It sure was a mistake to let Junior have a chocolate ice cream that day at the beach boardwalk. And here you are regretting it, years later, when you’re looking over that old Maclaren for #2. You spent a lot of money on that sucker! And it’s still perfectly solid; just a little grungy.

If you happen to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, or the Los Angeles environs, Buggy Bubbles can help. For about $90, Buggy Bubbles will pick up your tot’s ride and make it sparkle like new: anything fabric is washed, anything plastic is de-grimed and shined, any moving parts are tightened and lubed. When it’s returned to you (or you pick it up), it’s clean, shiny, and in tip-top shape.

Visit Buggy Bubbles Detail Shop for more information.

Even the most dedicated potty-training parent doesn’t like having to empty out one of those little toddler potties. It’s always such a nasty surprise when you lift the lid to find a deposit has been left to ferment, and won’t just empty out nicely into the big toilet. Do you really want to scrub that out in your sink? Your bathtub?

The Little Looster is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” type products. It’s just a stepstool that makes it possible for little ones to safely make their way onto the toilet, and to rest their short legs on while going, instead of dangling them. But it’s the smart design that makes it special. U-shaped, the Little Looster wraps around the toilet, making it near impossible to fall off the side. There are openings at the bottom so that grownups can stand in front of the toilet or sit on it comfortably and use it without moving the stool around, a boon for those who are always tripping over or kicking stepstools out of the way.

Little Looster won’t help kids who worry they’re soon to be flushed away, but we’ll take what we can get.

Little Looster, $35

April showers bring May flowers, goes the old saying, but a spell of springtime rain sure is easier to bear when you have cool rain gear. Change the “Oh no, it’s too rainy to go the playground!” to “Oh boy, I get to go splash in puddles in my cool boots!” with these rainbow-striped boots from Target. Just $20 to keep your feet dry and swathed in beauty. They’ll break down after a season, to be sure, but I haven’t found that the $35-$45 models from good shoe stores perform any better.

Next, to keep zee head dry, try the Kids’ Color Spectrum Umbrella from the MoMA Store. All the shades of the color wheel rainbow above your head. Something cool about rainbow umbrellas: If you spin them quickly, all the colors blur together into white. It’s true! Color Spectrum Umbrella, $18.

If you have a sense of whimsy, a great love of style, and—most importantly of all—$3,500 to spend on a stroller, Kid Kustoms is definitely the place that should soak up your excess income. The California-based buildery makes custom tricked-out strollers for kids, like this one, the Roddler, all aluminum and stainless steel. Surprisingly menacing for a stroller, huh?

The color of the chassis is up to you, as is the look of the fenders and the upholstery. But we like this stroller in basic black, all the better to cruise coolly up the block. Note the three-wheeled construction, which makes the Roddler take turns like a breeze. And those tires are white-walls, but of course.

The Roddler, $3,500

Every time you grimly snap shut another plastic container of tortilla chips, don’t you kind of wonder what else is getting into the food you’re serving? It’s no secret that a chemical called bisphenol-A, also known as BPA, is in most plastics. Or that it mimics estrogen when it sneaks silently into the body. Or that it causes endocrine disruption and can hurry cancer along.

So! If you weren’t thinking about plastic alternatives before, you probably are now. We suggest LunchBots, simple stainless steel tins, in various sizes, with dividers in or not. They feel much like those tins you get Danish butter cookies in, you know, the ones you always think you should save? Except for these are smaller, lighter, and shaped to fit in lunch boxes and bags. The Duo size is about right for hummus and dippables; the Uno for a sandwich. Happy packing.

LunchBots containers, $13-18 per piece/set

Children adore having little set-off bits of private space: play tents, forts, little “houses” constructed of sheets draped over chairs. The Joki Hanging Crow’s Nest performs this function admirably, but it has an added bonus: it swings. The movement, the privacy, and the comforting feeling of material wrapping all around the skin comforts and quiets children who are edgy, and gives you a break, too.

Hang the nest swing from the ceiling or a doorway with a hook and eye (not included), and kids are irresistibly drawn to it. Some want to bring a book inside, some to bring special toys to play with, and some want to use the sling to jump and swing like a monkey. They can do it all, because the 100 percent cotton swing holds up to 175 pounds.

The Crow’s Nest comes with a removable cushion for those cuddly times. Send your child in with it, and a blanket, and don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from him for a long, long time.

Joki Hanging Crow’s Nest, $120