Does the stuff your infant chews on not look like a video game controller? Are you a gamer parent concerned that your child may want to go outside instead of sitting in front of the television all day? BabyGlitch has your back with its new line of baby gamer gear, featuring small scale replicas of Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox controllers with movable joysticks and poppable buttons, all made out of delicious BPA-free silicon.
I am constantly telling my 10-year-old son Seamus to stop chewing on the Xbox One controller, but getting to this point took years of training and discipline. He used to chew on just about anything, dice, coins he found on the ground, choking hazard warning stickers. Now it’s mainly Microsoft analogue sticks. I can only imagine how much easier this journey would have been if he’d had a silicon game controller to chew on as an infant instead of rubber giraffes, blankets, and his twin brother.
If only BabyGlitch founders Seth and Mishelle Bruce had their idea for chewable baby controllers sooner. Well, chewable controllers for babies. There is no such thing as a baby controller. Yet.
Currently on Kickstarter with a modest goal of $US8,000 ($10,601), BabyGlitch calls itself “the world’s first baby brand dedicated to gamers, by gamers.” What they’ve created is a series of five different video game controller chew toys inspired by real-world consoles old and new. There’s a Nintendo 64-inspired controller, a DualShock, an Xbox One model, Super Nintendo, and Genesis, giving parents options no matter which console they want their baby to eventually play.
Because chewing on silicon only keeps children three months to four years occupied for so long, each BabyGlitch controller features poppable buttons that can be pressed in and then out again from the back. The more modern models come with analogue sticks for wiggling action. Each lil’ controller has a slot at the top for a matching baby clip so your children can’t toss it out the car window without putting in some serious effort.
“As a father with a new son, shopping for any relatable toy was nearly impossible; it was either a giraffe or a rainbow,” BabyGlitch co-founder Seth Bruce said in a press release. “As a gamer parent that grew up playing the classics and the currents, I wanted to give gamer parents and future gamer kids something they could truly appreciate.”
I appreciate the sentiment, even if I don’t appreciate throwing shade at giraffes and rainbows. Part of me does worry that the BabyGlitch controllers will teach children to chew on game controllers as my son does. Another part of me can’t stop watching this adorable promo video.
A third part of me (I am a man of many parts) is considering buying one for myself to use as a fidget toy. Maybe hang it around my neck with a cord or something, so I can quickly let it drop from between my teeth when I need to pretend I’m all grown up.
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