Watching

I'm getting increasingly more uncomfortable with the thought of a relative stranger acting as Ashley's personal care attendant when I am not at home. I'll be switching soon from hiring aides myself to using an agency to provide an aide. And while I don't really anticipate any issues, I would definitely be more comfortable if I could have a view into my home when I am not there.

I'm considering a monitoring system, a nanny cam if you will. I want something that will work wirelessly with my home's router, and something that can record up to 4 hours or so of video either on the device itself or on the 'cloud' somewhere. I want to be able to check the video from either my work computer or my smart phone. And I want access to be secure, controlled by a password at least.

I just don't know exactly what to look for or even what questions to ask of a technician.

Have any of you installed a similar system? Have you been glad that you had it installed and paid what appears to be a pretty high cost for the system? Have you found the quality of the video acceptable? Was audio also recorded?

In what parts of your house did you install cameras, and how many cameras did you install? When the cameras are recording, do think make any perceptible noise?

Did you notify any caregivers that you hired that you were monitoring the house, or did you not mention it? Did you ever have to take some sort of action against the caregiver based on what you saw on the monitor? Did the other members of your family feel uncomfortable knowing the cameras were there?

And, if you have installed a system, can you share the details - brand, costs, etc?

And finally, what do you think - is this a good idea or a bad idea?