Co-parenting apps
With schools returned to usual teaching and timetabling, winter sports underway and kids birthday parties and social activities back to filling weekends, it is a bit of shock to return to full diaries.
This is can be even more of a juggle when children are shared between 2 households. These days though there are apps & other tools to make this a little easier.
Our Family Wizard
This is the App that tends to be favoured by courts and mediators in Victoria, it aims to simplify, document and improve communication between co-parents. Developed in the US it enables schedules to be shared, messages to communicated and even enables children to have access to some of the family information – great for tweens & teens to know where they are meant to be.
OFW also has an optional “Tone Meter” which picks up on negative messaging prompting you to choose an alternative way of saying something, so it is less inflammatory.
https://www.ourfamilywizard.com
We parent
We parent has a lovely clean interface enabling parents to share custody schedules, secure messaging, photos, contacts and lists between parents.
The lists function is great either to avoid vital things being left at one house or to encourage consistent routines between the 2 households – imagine kids having the same chores at both houses!
Cozi
Cozi is an app designed for co-ordinating families, not specifically designed for co-parenting. However, it’s calendar function, which includes the option to email schedules, is a streamlined way to share the children’s commitments between co-parents.
Google Calendar
If you want to avoid signing up to yet another app on your phone, a Google calendar can be an easy option. A google calendar can be shared and used for both managing the time the children spend with each parent as well as scheduling activities like sport & parties.
Communication apps
It’s a good idea to get essential communication about the children out of just text messages or instant messaging like Facebook Messaging, you want to avoid that communication being too easy to send out a reply without you thinking carefully.
A “Whatsapp” group is good if you are just looking for a communication tool, having to open the app from wherever you were scrolling is often a good reminder to keep the tone appropriate.
Go analogue
While apps can offer lots of benefits for arrangements between two households, don’t overlook the benefit of going analogue with a calendar on the wall. While a paper or whiteboard calendar will need to be completed separately by each household, it does have the benefit of being particularly useful for younger children who can look at the wall and know when they are with who. A calendar that shows the year on one page is great for this but if you don’t mind flipping between months, something like the Kikki K calendars that have columns for each family member are great. There’s always a great selection of calendars in Bendigo at Organise My in Bath Lane.
Looking for something that can work on the wall but adopt well to changes – there’s some great selections at https://www.dailyorders.com.au/ for dry erase wall planners.
So, whether you need the full blown app or just a little organizing tool, as life gets busy it is worth finding something that will make things easier for you, your ex and most importantly the kids.
As well as being an Accredited Specialist in Family Law & Director of O’Farrell Robertson McMahon, Marika McMahon is addicted to stationery and constantly looking for new and better ways to organise – contact her to discuss your family law matter or even just to ask about her meal planning….