Switching form a married to a divorced lifestyle can leave you with a dizzying amount of life changes. Finding ways to stay organized can both give you peace of mind and help your children through this transitional period.
This day and age you can manage your custody schedule and other child-related documents in the palm of your hand. There are all kinds of co-parent and family apps that can help provide structure for your children as they bounce between two homes and give you space for short- and long-term family plans.
How can my family utilize co-parent apps?
There is practically an app for every aspect of co-parenting. These are some ways you can implement mobile phone apps into your parenting plan:
- Calendar: Apps like FamCal can provide families a place to post an ongoing custody schedule as determined in your settlement. You can also use it to create child-specific calendars to make sure no one misses soccer practice or a parent-teacher conference.
- Documents: Even if you are on good terms with your ex and don’t mind texting and emailing one another, it’s nice to have all important documents for your child in one place. This can include school forms, child-related bills, medical records and identity documents. You can share and manage documents in apps like Parentship and WeParent.
How will they prevent arguments?
Using your app can help reduce conflict between you and your co-parent. Instead of having to ask for your ex to approve every minor schedule change or for your ex to contribute a child-related expense, you can use an app to send requests and reminders. This can help reduce tension, because it provides a platform to organize co-parenting duties without constant interaction with your ex.
Also, some apps like coParenter basically block you from saying anything negative to your co-parent on the app. When AI technology within the app detects that the exchanges from one spouse are problematic, it will flag specific words or phrases. And if offensive messages progress, the app may suggest speaking with someone from its neutral, third-party network of professionals, including therapists and social workers.
Using mobile apps to communicate about your children and their needs can create consistency and eliminate surprises.
