Keep in Touch with Friends with CloudPets™

If you’ve ever watched your child hurt when a friend moves, you’ll understand why I was thrilled to participate in this sponsored campaign with Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. We have become huge fans and proclaim #CloudPetsForever thanks to #CollectiveBias now that it’s so easy for my Molly to keep in touch with her sweet friend.

 

Two years ago, my daughter’s best friend moved out of state from right across the street. Molly was devastated. These two darling girls were kindred spirits – or as we called them, “peas in a pod.” They balanced each other, smoothed out the other’s rough edges, and helped each other grow.

Despite her buddy attending public school while Molly homeschooled, they played together all the time.

 

We say in our family that God puts people in our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. There are people that we meet to teach us life lessons or help us through tough times – a reason. There are people we’re friends with because we share a job, class, or other interest – a season.

Then, there are the people that God put in our lives for a lifetime. You know those kind, don’t you? Are you blessed to have a few in your life? The people that you haven’t seen in months or years, but make plans to meet up with, and all the years between melt away immediately, and you’re right back where you left off?

It was obvious that Molly and this sweet soul were meant to be lifelong friends. They just are.

For the last two years, we – the moms of his twosome – have tried hard to give them chances to talk, and I’ve dropped everything possible on Molly’s schedule anytime her buddy has come into town. It’s just hard to get them together to talk, whether in person or one the phone, as much as they want to. We’re both living busy-crazy lives, and are one different schedules.

Enter CloudPets™.

I’ve seen these cute stuffed animals advertised on television, and hadn’t paid much attention to them, thinking that the last thing we needed in our home was another stuffed animal. Molly asked if we could buy one for her friend, and I kind of brushed her off – what’s so special about an talking animal? And then I was asked to try one out.

And am totally eating my words.

 

CloudPets™ are the perfect gift to give a best friend that has moved out of state when you’re a little girl – too young for a cell phone – and still craving to keep in constant contact with a kindred spirit.

You don’t even have to wait to see the commercial or search for them on the Internet any more. We picked up the kitty, which is seriously as soft as a cloud, the last time we were at Walmart, right up by the registers in the pallet display where they group together things seen on TV. We grabbed some batteries, too, since you need three AA batteries to power the cuddly message giver.

This one of a kind stuffed animal comes with a tagline I love, “A message you can hug.” Perfect. Molly’s BFF can cuddle Kitty while listening to Molly chat about a recent vacation or activity.

The free app can be downloaded to your Apple or Android device and has stellar parental controls. You can see exactly how it works here, but essentially, Molly will record a message through the app we’ve installed on our family iPad, and the red heart on the kitty will flash so her BFF knows there’s a message to listen to.

When she’s done listening, she’ll press the record button on the CloudPets™ stuffed animal and Molly will get a new message in our app. It’s like a long-distance walkie-talkie that the girls can use to chat with each other any time they want to.

Since her friend has been on vacation this month, we’re hanging onto to the kitty cat for now. We’ve cuddled her (to make sure she felt loving enough – she does), tested her out (to see if she worked – she does), and are pulling together a good luck in third grade care package with her as the star to send as an “I miss you and have a great year” gift once she gets to her home 3 states away after vacation.

I can’t wait to watch my two favorite eight-year-olds reconnect through CloudPets™.

Has your child ever watched a best friend move away? How did you handle it? Who would you give a CloudPets™ stuffed animal to?