Top Co-Parenting Apps To Help Your Family Stay Connected
Our Happy Divorce Thursday, January 16, 2020
Co-parenting apps make communication easier through shared calendars, in-app messaging, financial tracking and more. Here are some of our favorite apps that make co-parenting easier and keep your family connected.
Parenting is tricky enough! Throw a co-parent in the mix who lives in a different house and may have a different parenting style than you and it gets even more challenging. Successful co-parenting is all about communication. Cell phones and texting have made communicating about kids much easier, but sometimes you need a little more organization.
Top Co-Parenting Apps
2Houses: Nearly 170,000 people use 2Houses to communicate with their co-parent. In addition to a color-coded calendar that can pre-fill custody dates based on common custody schedules, the app features an expense tracker and info bank where you can store doctors’ info and more.- We really love: The integrated calendar makes it easy to track parenting time, adjust custody schedules without scheduling over another activity, and add important dates and appointments. The calendar syncs with your iCal, Outlook or Google calendar, too.
Amicable: If you’re interested in skipping a costly divorce battle and collaborating with your ex-spouse instead, try Amicable. The app is designed to help you have a quicker, less expensive divorce.
- We really love: Amicable’s integrated parenting plan templates help set the tone for successful co-parenting. The app’s goal-setting tools help you and your ex-spouse get on the same page about how you’d like the divorce and parenting to go.
Coparently
: If you’ve had communication issues in the past, Coparently can help you streamline your conversations with your ex and get the pertinent information you need to be a better parent.
- What we love: The app features free guest access which can be a great way to share custody schedules and appointments with grandparents and caregivers. Kids can have an account, too, so they can easily see which parent they’ll be spending time with. Sensitive information like conversations between parents and financial info stays private.
Our Family Wizard: This app provides color-coded custody calendars to help you track parenting time, as well as tools like reimbursement requests and payments. You can also submit trade/swap requests right through the app if you need to adjust parenting time.
- What we love: The Journal feature is like a family photo album and diary rolled into one. It’s an easy way to record special moments and share them with your co-parent, like school performances, sporting events and birthdays.
Cozi: This app is a 3-time Mom’s Choice award-winner, and with good reason. In addition to calendar tools, the app can also help you store recipes, plan meals and shop for ingredients right from the app.
- What we love: Each child can have their own assigned color on the calendar. This makes it easy to keep multiple academic and extracurricular schedules straight at once.
Talking Parents: While many of these apps require a subscription for certain features, Talking Parents is a free co-parenting app. The app provides a way to communicate with co-parents and keeps an unalterable record of all conversations. If you need to revisit the parenting schedule or meet with a lawyer for any reason, these transcripts can be extremely helpful.
- What we love: The base app is free, but there are many reasonably priced upgrades available. Text message notifications ensure you’re notified right away when there are important updates from your ex, and you can export certified records right from the app.
Google Calendar: Many people are already using a Google Calendar to schedule out their lives. With a few quick steps, you can create a shared calendar with your co-parent while keeping your personal calendar private.
- What we love: The familiarity of Google Calendar makes it an easy, quick-fix co-parenting app. It’s easy to create recurring events (like custody schedules or sports practices) and the email and text notifications help you juggle multiple to dos.
FamCal: This calendar app allows you to share your calendar with other family members, make lists and share notes.
- What we love: The shared shopping list feature makes it easy to sync up with your co-parent on things like school supplies, birthday gifts and more.
Custody Connection: While many apps focused on shared calendars, Custody Connection allows you to share certain appointments like custody days while keeping personal appointments private. You’re able to use just one calendar for personal and parenting decisions.
- What we love: In addition to receiving push notifications when a parent makes a schedule change request, you can approve a request right in the app and the calendar updates automatically.
Parentship: Parentship is committed to helping families focus on their kids. In addition to tracking shared calendars and expenses, families can also track important documents. The shared calendar can integrate seamlessly with your Google Calendar.
- What we love: Each child can also have their own profile which makes it easy to track activities and expenses. This is helpful in blended families with biological and step-children.
It’s no secret that the world is going digital. These co-parenting apps help ensure that everything you need to know – from custody and social schedules to important contact info and documents – is in the palm of your hands. You can quickly sync up with your co-parent without waiting for a call back, and make decisions that keep your kids front and center.