Instant Retreat

In my Mother’s Day giveaway (click this link to enter), I asked you to tell me what’s on your mother’s day wish list. The responses are terrific and I’m enjoying reading them. Most people don’t want ‘things’ on Mother’s Day. But Dianne mentioned that she wouldn’t say no to a pair of comfortable headsets for her mp3 player. Well, as it happens, I have been meaning to write a post about the wonderful Ifrogz Ear Polution CS40 headphones ($39.99) that I have in for review.

Honestly, I didn’t expect much because I have often seen headphones like this that cost much more. But I dutifully tried them out when they arrived.

The over-the-ear cushion design drew an instant eye roll and exclamation of “Dork!” from my 11-year old. But when I settled into a comfy chair with a book and these, my critical tween, the housework begging for my attention, and the noise of the Xbox being played by my 13-year-old in the next room all faded away and I retreated into my own bubble of relaxing sound. I had no idea how crappy my ear buds (and these are good ear buds, not the junk that came with my player) sounded till I put these on.

Do I look dorky? I don’t care. (And neither did my tween when she tried them.) These are cushy, comfortable and they sound great. They gave me an instant retreat right here in my own living room. They create a sound bubble around me but they don’t quite block out the sounds around me. So if a kid really needs me or the phone rings, I can still hear it — somewhere out there outside my bubble.

And then I made a mistake. I loaned them to my teen. An hour later, my daughter and I busted out laughing because we could hear him singing at the top of his lungs and dancing around his room — oblivious to the rest of the world. But later when he wanted to go to a party and I wouldn’t let him because his homework was unfinished, he had teen temper tantrum. (These are just like a four-year-old temper tantrum but bigger. And the language is stronger.) During this tantrum, he snapped the Ifrogz right in two. If he couldn’t have his party, I couldn’t have my retreat.

I get in a lot of gear to review here at Geekgirlfriends. And, usually, I’m happy to send it back because I would be unable to walk in my house for the piles of gear if I didn’t. But I might have to buy myself of pair of these Ifrogz. (Actually, I think you can guess who will be doing the buying in this case, with his lawn-mowing money.)

And whoever is in charge of Dianne’s (look in the comments on this post for Dianne) Mother’s Day, get her some of these!