Shopping for Mom is TOUGH

Ed was working on his tongue-in-cheek campaign for Mother’s Day and it sparked some conversation in the marketing department. You see, he calls the campaign quirky humor because he’s suggesting that everyone buy Panasonic Toughbooks for moms. Look at his graphic.

It’s cute. It’s actually really nice. There are flowers, candy, card and a beautiful refurbished CF-31 Toughbook on an immaculate desk with no other clutter.

In Ed’s DINK (Dual Income, No Kids) brain, this campaign is amusing. I agree. It makes me smile. I used to be a DINK too. When I look a bit closer, I see that a Toughbook for mom (or dad) is also really practical. When I turned in my DINK card, I became a mom with practical experience. I learned my way around kids. Lately, I’ve been learning my way around refurbished Toughbooks. I have come to have an appreciation for what these laptops and  tablets can do and can actually see the value of having a few of these tough tools around the house for everyday use. I also know that in a home with children, very little is sacred. If it’s mine, it will get borrowed. If it gets borrowed, I expect it won’t return in the same condition.

“How to use a Toughbook for everyday life” lessons started the day that Marisa introduced me to her favorite CF-C1. Marisa knows each and every Toughbook in the warehouse quite well. She knows how they work, how to take them apart, repair and put them back together again, how to upgrade them and most of all she knows how to use them. So when she said that one of her favorite kitchen gadgets was her Toughbook, I took notice. Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Apps, YouTube and who knows what’s coming next (or what I’ve missed) all have a home in the kitchen now and the laptop, smartphone or tablet sits next to the Kitchen Aid mixer and the Cuisinart food processor. You have to be careful with them though. Your average touchscreen or keyboard can’t handle greasy, sticky, floury, wet fingers. It also can’t handle accidentally getting knocked to the floor. A Toughbook is the perfect solution: affordable and practically indestructible.

Let’s visit the bathroom now. Yes, the bathroom. 75% Americans admit to using a mobile device in the bathroom. Research doesn’t say what those 75% of Americans were doing, but odds are good that if you have children, and you’re up on your bathroom parenting skills you’re going to spend a lot of time there. Don’t take your phone to play the latest KidzBop so everyone can sing. Don’t take your tablet to run the latest Disney movie so all the parts can be reenacted in the tub. Increase the odds that your everyday mobile device won’t become a statistic! Take your Toughbook, preferably a refurbished fully rugged model. They’ve been tested by US Special Forces, they will survive the bathroom.

Talking about survival, the first time I saw my favorite 4 year old twin girls with their own IPads I cringed. Mom and Dad were tired of them fighting over theirs and “it was time”. I’m frugal and all I could see was several hundred dollars of Apple pieces in their near future. I remember thinking, there must be something else. There was, there is, and it was this memory and my sharing it with Ed when I saw his Mother’s Day campaign that prompted this blog post. Enjoy Ed’s photo. Buy the Toughbook but please, please don’t forget the candy, cards and flowers!