Three Apps For Co-Parenting
My three picks for apps for co-parenting that can make things easier.
Why use apps for co-parenting details? Well, effective co-parenting can be achieved when two parents have the same primary goal of providing consistent, loving support for their children. While past relationship issues or divorce stress may seem like a barrier to this goal, the communication with the co-parent can be streamlined, simplified and effective. Technology today makes this simplified and removes the emotion from it. Some people prefer to communicate in person or on the phone, but for many things, it does make sense to use technology to communicate both for the simplicity as well as tracking purposes. Smartphones have shifted email communication over to app communication.
Here are three quick picks of useful apps for co-parenting that you may want to consider using.
Our Family Wizard
This app features
- Calendar
- Message Board
- Journal
- Expense Log
- Info Bank
- Mobile App
- $12 – $17/month
This app features:
- Calendar
- Messenger
- Requests
- Expenses
- Your Circle
- Free!
While not created for divorce situations, the Google calendar app is simple to use and you can easily include non-family members to the events. This app won’t help you track the expenses, but is a good option for sharing kid’s activities as well as appointments and the parenting schedule. It can be color coded for different kids, parenting time, events, etc. making it a handy quick reference.
If you aren’t interested in using an app at all, then you can use more basic technology such as email and Excel spreadsheets to communicate about events and track expenses. Using these methods may not be as streamlined as the apps for co-parenting details may be, but they will still get the job done.
While going through the divorce process and considering how you and your ex may best communicate, if you are confident that one method will be better than another, then you should request in your divorce agreement that the communication be tracked specifically through that channel. Whether you decide to use any of the available apps for co-parenting or more basic email, consistent use of technology will help you manage month-to-month communication and will likely help you co-parent more effectively.