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Prisoner In A Smart Home

My husband is a gadget freak who has equipped our home with just about every “smart” device you can buy. We’ve put solar panels on the roof and have timed window blinds to allow the sun to heat the home as much as possible in the cooler months. There’s a smart doorbell that sends my husband a notification everytime the front door is opened and takes a video when the doorbell is rung so that he can keep an eye on packages that are being delivered. He has an app that controls the temperature of the house and tracks the electricity usage and he can even turn on and off the lights and open and close the skylights from his workplace.
However, since I work at home I feel like I’ve lost all privacy and am being micromanaged from a distance. I got texted this morning that I should have waited until the afternoon to put a load in the dryer because it’s not good to operate the dryer in the morning because the solar panels have been in the dark all night. Today, to regain some privacy, I left the house through the bedroom window and went for a jog down the road. Later I plan to prop the refrigerator door open for an hour after I turn off my phone. Even though I do like the convenience of many of these smart gadgets and I like that we’re reducing our carbon footprint, I am very annoyed at my loss of privacy. How can I work this out with my husband so that we’re both happy?

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Bridgewater, CA
3:14 pm, Apr 11, 2026
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