Peace of mind in your pocket

Many homeowners decide to finally take the plunge and invest in smart home products for convenience. Whether that’s being able to remotely control your gadgets from anywhere at any time, to checking in on your home with just the tap of a button, 21^st century life calls for ease of use and practicality.

But another key benefit of smart home products is offering homeowners with the much-needed reassurance that our home, family and possessions are protected. The same can be said for smart locks, that take reassurance a step further, highlighting exactly who’s coming and going from your home, at what time, and even whether your door has been left open or not.

And this peace of mind is the reason why many parents and carers utilise smart technology to reassure them that their families are safe and secure. In our latest ‘Diary of a Smart Home’ series, we hear from Yogitha and Akshat, protective parents of their young son, who are utilising their smart lock to start to give their young son some independence.

Yogitha and Akshat, parents to their 7-year-old son

Being parents of a 7-year-old, we are conscious of how quickly he is growing up. We want to ensure that he has enough freedom to give him his own independence, but we, most importantly, want to make sure he’s safe.

He likes to walk for the school bus on his own or with his friends, but we can’t help but feel worried about him. We’re proud that he wants to start being more independent and going on new adventures with his friends, but as he is still young, we want to ensure he builds up his independence slow and steady.

As working parents, we are both very busy during the day; my husband at the office and me at home, but I usually meet our little boy from the bus stop at the end of the day. We had heard about smart locks, and how they can give you more control over your home security and track who comes and goes, so thought this may be a great solution for us as he gets older.

We opted for a Yale smart lock, as we know they are well-known for their trusted security products, and so far, it’s been a brilliant help to give us peace of mind over our home security.

As the lock doesn’t require a key to open it, a pin code can be entered, or we can use the smartphone app to unlock the door. Our son really enjoys the fact he can use the keypad to unlock the door when he gets home from school - he even runs into the kitchen to tell us he’s home. Seeing him use the keypad and walk through the door makes us feel very proud.

Installing the smart lock has helped to make our lives a little bit easier and given us peace of mind that the smart lock will help give our son more independence as he grows up.

Whether it’s using a key fob, smartphone app or pin code, the numerous methods of entry means there are lots of different ways we can gain access to our home and the same for any trusted visitors or family who we share virtual keys with.

Yale’s useful Access App also means that I can view activity feeds from my smart lock, so I know that as our son gets older, we can check when he gets home from school with just a tap of the app.

We find the DoorSense^TM technology very useful too. We often head out together as a family, so it’s handy to be able to check if we closed and locked the door behind us properly.  

By investing in a smart lock, we’ve been able to create a great routine that works for our entire family, and we’re even looking to add more smart gadgets to our home to make life run that little bit more smoothly.