Co-Parenting Apps
What are Co-Parenting Apps?
If you’ve recently separated from your partner, you’re likely thinking about the best ways for the two of you to co-parent your children. Changes to the family and domestic sphere can be challenging, but there are plenty of ways to ensure that the two of you can continue to parent your children harmoniously and avoid tension.
A co-parents app is software that can make your family’s lives easier in several ways, streamlining your day to day lives with your children and avoiding conflict. Co-parenting apps can help you and your partner connect on your upcoming plans and sync your co-parenting calendar, as well as keep track of important documents you both should have access to, such as medical records.
Most people who try co-parenting apps find them helpful – if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be millions of users around the world. It’s no secret that separation is hard, especially when there are children involved.
If you’re currently going through a breakup, you likely know that there’s a lot to manage – everything from your emotional wellbeing to tracking mutual expenses related to your children. Though technology can’t fix everything for you, it can certainly help to alleviate some strain and tension during a difficult time in your life.
Unfortunately, separation and divorce can be difficult for children. Kids who are struggling with this huge change to their lives may develop trouble sleeping, display challenging behaviour or may even have difficulty maintaining their normal hobbies and friendships. If your co-parenting relationship as parents is amicable and harmonious, your children will likely make it through this life change much easier.
Parenting with an ex-partner in separate households can often be tricky, especially at first – but finding a great app for separated parents will help you along the way.
What does a co-parenting App do?
Most co-parenting apps offer the following basic features:
- A calendar that can be shared as well as scheduling tools
- An expense tracking function makes it possible to share mutual expenses related to your kids
- A messaging service keeping track of the messages between you and your ex-partner (usually time-stamped and unalterable)
- A storage function where you can keep important documents such as medical records
Some of the premium services have additional useful features. Some Apps are not based in the UK and may not be subject to the same data protection laws as the UK.
Though there may naturally be tension between you and your ex-partner following a separation, many parents find that they can connect over their shared interest in their children’s emotional stability and wellbeing.
A co-parenting app can help the two of you organise your various parenting responsibilities in your children’s day to day lives as well as in the long term.
The right co-parenting App?
The different products approach the features in different ways and some tools are more comprehensive than others. Some people like the design of one app over another and it can be quite subjective. It's a good idea to look through the options and decide which will be the best for both parents.
Almost all of the apps are developed for the US market although some are based in the UK and are fully data protection compliant. Some have worked harder than others to make themselves 'UK friendly' and this may be a factor you wish to explore when checking the Apps out.
Apps to try...
OurFamilyWizard
OurFamilyWizard is a very helpful app that offers a range of tools that may be useful for parents who are raising children separately together. Within the app, you can store medical histories, insurance information, emergency contacts, and much more. They have recently introduced features that allow the safe sharing of photographs, videos, and locations (without tracking.)
The app has an interactive calendar so you and your ex-partner can stay on top of everything in terms of school and social events, holidays, special occasions and much more. Another great function of OurFamilyWizard is an expense log where you can track the costs the two of you share and make it easier to keep track of and settle any monetary issues. You can also add the 'ToneMeter' to the subscription. ToneMeter helps parents anticipate how the tone of their message, could be received by flagging statements that may be perceived as emotionally charged. This gives them the opportunity to modify the message before pressing send.
OurFamilyWizard has a full UK Entity and ensures GDPR compliance. They have offices in London and a full team who cover the whole country, offering training to family law professionals. OurFamilyWizard also offers free, 7 day a week Customer Support either over the phone or via email. The app is available for both PC and mobile.
OurFamilyWizard costs £79 per parent, per year – however there are free accounts available to those who need them. There is a free form on their website that allows you to apply for free accounts.
AppClose
AppClose is one of the most popular co-parenting apps in the world and is based in the USA. It offers the ability to stay organised and manage the schedules of both parents and children within a simple and streamlined app. With AppClose, you can also send date-stamped real-time messages which can be helpful if you’d like to keep track of the communication between you and your ex-partner.
AppClose is a great option for many parents, especially those looking for a free service – the app has no subscription fees or monthly charges. However, please be aware that this is a mobile-only service, so if you’d like an app that also works on desktop you should consider another option on this list.
Custody Connection
Custody Connection is a free mobile app. It is the simplest of its kind and features a calendar that you can sync with the other parent so you are both kept up to date.
However, please be aware that this is a basic mobile-only service, so if you’d like an app that also works on desktop or has more features, you should consider another option on this list.
2houses
This app is available for PC and mobile. This is App is based in Belgium.
It covers all the basic elements well: Calendar, expenses, messages, notifications, information store and more. It has 250,000 users across the world.
It offers a 14 day free trial, after which it costs £109.00 per annum, per family.
TalkingParents
TalkingParents is another good option for co-parents who want to maintain healthy communication and stay on top of everything in their day to day lives. It is based in the USA.
Beyond the basic features offered by all co-parenting apps, TalkingParents is all about healthy communication between parents, and is marketed as a ‘co-parenting communication service’. The app records all exchanges between you and your co-parent, with both sending and reading of messages being time-stamped. Within the app, you can also maintain a journal with notes that is personal to you and can’t be accessed by the co-parent.
The TalkingParents standard plan is free, but you’ll need to subscribe to the premium plan to access certain features. Some of their premium tools aren’t available in the UK, but the basic version of the app will work just fine for most parents.
weparent
USA based mobile only app that covers all of the features listed above.
$9.99 per month, $99.99 per year or $199.99 for lifetime for the entire family.
Cozi
Another American product, Cozi is aimed at busy families with school-aged children. Cozi is not solely for separated parents. It helps families using it to keep track of everything from school schedules and sports activities to grocery lists, meals and chores. Everything is in one place which everyone can access anytime. It is available in an app and website that helps users manage the chaos of family life with a shared calendar, shopping lists, to do lists, recipe box and more.
It can be accessed on Apple and Android devices, and is also available on the web. You create an account with one shared family password and add family members. Once you have your family set up, you can add events, appointments and reminders to the shared family calendar. You can set and change reminders so the whole family can stay informed about changes made to plans. The shared calendar, shopping list, to do list, recipe box and meal-planning tool make staying organised and on top of daily life simple.
The intention of Cozi is to give busy families one central location to keep track of all schedules, to do items, shopping lists and more. This allows families to spend less time focused on daily logistics.
Cozi prides itself on being easy to use. It allows you to set reminders for important meetings, events and activities; it helps with shopping and checking off to-dos. It helps plan dinner, and offers a journal where families can record special moments and save pictures. Whilst it is not made specifically for separated parents, it can certainly help those families where they struggle with scheduling contact and sharing details of arrangements.
Cozi is free. It also offers an optional ad-free premium subscription called “Cozi Gold” which gives the user additional features like Contacts, Birthday Tracker, mobile app themes, more reminders, mobile month view, change notifications and more. Cozi Gold has a 14-day free trial, and is then $29.99 per year.