It Was MY Idea First

I'm usually one of those people on the plane. It isn't that I'm not a friendly person, but especially when I was traveling regularly for business, the plane is the one place where I can relax and unwind in peace and quiet for just a little while.

I sit in my seat, and my magazines or newspapers or (if I'm lucky) book get opened. And I'm reading. Please don't bother me; I'm just not interested. I've been known to rattle my papers when interrupted and put them up higher to block out the face of the person talking to me. I promise this is only when I've had a really bad day, and it isn't quite as bad as it sounds.

However, on my most recent flight, I was reading the magazine that my health club sends out (hey, I didn't even know they sent one out with membership until now). One of the pages was talking about neti pots. Ironically, Manic Mommy had just given her demo recently on using a neti pot (Sept 6).


The woman next to me asked me if I'd ever used a neti pot, and I actually answered. We ended up talking the entire flight about various things, but the neti pot started it. We discussed how she uses it and how she introduced it to her son but how that didn't go so well.

We talked about how great it would be to have a neti pot for younger children since they so often get colds and allergies, and the neti pot can really help. Good luck getting a kid to sit still while you stick a watering can into their nose and have water run through.

I figured out how to get rid of all the issues, however.

To get kids interested in it, you make it look like an elephant. Just make it a nice pretty blue, and add some cute legs and ears.

The trunk is pretty obvious. However, putting something ceramic and cold and hard into a child's nose? Not gonna happen. Well, ok, it might happen, but not for more than six milliseconds or so. Instead, you make it out of a flexible neoprene. That way, when the child moves, the trunk moves with it and you don't spill the water everywhere. And it's soft and closer to room temperature.

I'm brilliant so far, aren't I?

The other issue is that the child is not likely to want to stand over the sink on a stool to drain into a sink. Solution? The elephant "lives" in a jungle. The jungle is a large shallow bowl with a couple of palm trees sticking out and four imprints for the elephant to rest comfortably. Obviously, this is made out of a shatterproof plastic or other material. You just have the child sit or stand near the jungle, and you're set.

The woman sitting next to me was really impressed with my ideas. In fact, she was so impressed she made notes when I was finished explaining my invention. And then she talked about how she's going to look into getting it made.

HEY! Wait a minute. This was my idea. She's stealing my idea! Maybe I wasn't ready to market it yet, but still, this was all me.

So when you see the child size elephant neti pot on QVC, you'll know who should really be getting all those royalties.