My husband and I have decided that we need to get out more. The final straw? Realizing that neither of us had seen a movie free of animated characters in the theater in over a year. Of course, we can't just leave the children home to fend for themselves. (Well, actually, the four-year-old could probably manage for a couple of hours if left with ample snack foods and HIgh School Musical, but I think they call that negligence? Darn.)
To make our escape possible, I've been working hard to increase our roster of babysitters. It hasn't been easy. Leave it to the Japanese to solve all my worries: say hello to the babysitting robot.

Retailer Aeon Co. has put the four-foot-tall robot in charge of entertaining children at its store in Fukuoka, Japan. Parents can leave their children with the machine by identifying their kids with special nametags bearing codes the robot can read. These badges allow the robot to identify the children by names and age and chat with them, even though its vocabulary is limited.

I just realized that isn't going to do me any good for the newborn. Hopefully, the Babysitter Robot 2.0 will come installed with diaper-changing and bottle-dispensing mechanisms. I'd pay good money for THAT, even if I wasn't going to leave the house.