An audio baby monitor with a video screen.

You want to stare at your baby. It’s innate. It’s irresistible, especially if you’re a first-time parent. If you get a video baby monitor, you will watch it as eagerly as your dad watches the latest NCIS. Aww, it’s just so cuuuuute.

Let’s be clear, though, that there’s no particular safety advantage to video. Your baby’s greatest talent is making loud, piercing noises to get your attention. In the almost impossible event that, say, an eagle swoops in to carry your baby away, you’re gonna want to be in that room, not watching it on TV.

Is it really safer for your baby for you to be overstressed, overtired, and too fixated on that damn video screen to take care of yourself? And what about later in life? We think it’s no accident that the coming of video baby monitors preceded the appearance of parents who won’t let their kids go down playground slides without the parent coming along. Or those parents who call up their grown child’s first employer to quibble about the kid’s performance review.

But hey, we get it. You feel a little safer if you can see in there. So here’s a compromise to indulge that wholly illusory feeling without dragging you into a spiral of paranoia and obsession: an audio baby monitor with a tiny video screen.

This Motorola monitor does a decent job at delivering audio, which is all you really need. Think of the video as just kind of a bonus throw-in. The screen is indeed tiny (1.8 inches). It won’t actually be all that much fun to watch, allowing the edge to naturally wear off of your hyper-vigilance until you are once again able to apportion your attention appropriately.

As a new parent, you’re gonna get a lot of unsolicited advice from know-it-alls with more conviction than knowledge. So let us add to the pile. If you must use a video monitor, take it in small doses. And if you just want to stare at your beautiful baby, as all wonder-struck parents must, tiptoe into the baby’s room and take a look in person. He or she will look a lot cuter in real life. Especially compared to this video baby monitor.