The TieFi prototype. (Grip)
Just in time for Father’s Day, Canadian ad agency Grip yesterday launched TieFi—a tie with a wireless hotspot built in, the better to lure your children near to bask both in your paternal warmth and sweet, sweet bandwidth.
Step 1:
Step 2:
While the plans to build your own TieFi are real (it calls for a tiny Raspberry Pi computer and some software customizations), the launch is a stunt—a tongue-in-cheek reminder to close the laptop and spend some time with your kids this Father’s Day, lest you find yourself Cat’s Cradled a few years from now.
After all, working fathers face some—not all!—of the same problems as working mothers do, in particular worrying that they’re sacrificing too much family time for work:
[T]wo out of three respondents also said work was just a small part of who they are and most of the fathers aspired to share equally in caregiving with their partner. Sadly, these good intentions aren’t translating. Fathers in the study were not taking time off of work to care for their children (and build parenting skills) in the formative years of development, and did not share parental duties equally the way they believed they should.
So in other words, No, don’t build yourself an Internet hotspot tie, even if it seems like the only way to get your kids to put down Clash of Clans for ten damn minutes. You’ve got better things to do.
