If you’re divorced or separated and have children, it is important that your children continue to lead a normal life without worrying about their parents, their communication and/or lack there of. The best way to do so is to embrace co-parenting, which we know is easier said then done. However, there is an app for everything and there are resources that exist to facilitate co-parenting.
Apps and Websites to help your family
1) Our Family Wizard
Our Family Wizard (OFW) is a website and app which can help ensure effective and timely communication between parents.
This tool offers divorced or separated parents tools to easily schedule and track parenting time, share important family information, manage expenses as well as create a log of communication.
The OFW website reduces conflict between separated parents by providing a central, secure location to document and share important information about your family.
2) The Family Core
This app/website is a family management platform, which allows users to grant access to designated users to track information on your children’s schedules, and is customizable to suit different family’s needs. It provides a secure and private Chat feature, Geo-location service, data storage system, and with a color-coded a task calendar.
3) 2houses
2houses offers an interactive calendar with many opportunities for sharing and synchronization. Separated parents can set parental schedules, manage changes, and avoids scheduling conflicts. 2houses also has a simple and effective financial management system where you can manage shared expenses. Through the same interface, 2houses offers a simple messaging tool that is efficient and secure. This avoids unnecessary email exchanges, text messages, and Facebook, as all you need to do is log into your 2houses account to keep track of all your communications. This can be used to communicate with the other parent, your children or even with your mediator. You can archive your conversations or print them out, but can’t be deleted. This is a very helpful tool, for special expenses. For example if you prorated amount for special expenses is 70% it will calculate your share of the expenses and keep track of what you each owe etc.
4) Cozi
Cozi won the Mom’s Choice Award, Appy Award, National Parenting Center Seal of Approval and Best Mobile App Gold Award. The basic program is free and it helps coordinate and communicate everyone’s schedules and activities, track grocery lists, manage to do lists, plan ahead for dinner, and keep the whole family on the same page. There’s also a family journal to track your children’s milestones.
Other apps with similar features include:
1) Talking Parents:
provides a place to store all your communications. As a completely secure, easy-to-use record-keeping system, it eliminates having to take screenshots, taking notes by hand and trying to retrieve long-lost emails should you need to supply proof of correspondence to courts.
2) Coparently:
custody calendars, secure messaging centre, shared expenses, shared online directory.
3) coParenter:
This permits a parent to send a notification to the other parent, whenever picking up or dropping off the kids. Smart filters can help ensure clean/appropriate communication between parents. You can also make requests to the other parent directly to swap weekends or alter other visitation/residential plans. If you are at an impasse you can tap Get Help for live on-demand mediation or coaching.
4) AppClose:
Helps parents to manage their schedules, make pickup and dropoff requests and to send date-stamped real-time messages.
5) SupportPay:
this platform is for managing, tracking and paying child support and spousal support.Read More: Co-Parenting: it’s all about give and take
Helpful Children’s Books
There are also a bunch of books for children of divorce:
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Always Mom, Forever Dad: a Story of Divided Households. Jeanna Rowland, illustrated by Penny Weber (ages 4-7)
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Do You Sing Twinkle? Sandra Levins & Bryan Langdo, (ages 3-5)
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I Am Living in Two Homes. Garcelle Beauvais & Sebastian Jones, (ages 4-7)
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I Don’t Want to Talk About It. Jeanie Franz Ransom (ages 4-8)
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The Invisible String Patrice Karst
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Two Homes Claire Masurel (age)
