Our Seattle Child Custody Lawyers Help You Discover Co-Parenting Apps
These days there is a lot of emphasis on divorced parents working together as co-parents rather than simply as two separate and isolated households. Doing this effectively means a certain amount of communication and coordination is needed. Fortunately there are now apps out there that are designed to help make co-parenting smoother and easier. Our child custody lawyers reviewed a few for your consideration:
OurFamilyWizard
The OurFamilyWizard app is one that I have been seeing around for quite a few years. It has functions for scheduling, expense tracking, communicating, and even sharing files. It also allows you to add people such as extended family members, mediators, and family therapists with their own levels of access. There is even an access level just for your children so they can see their upcoming schedules and send messages.
coParenter
CoParenter is an interesting option where outside help may be needed for more difficult situations. It adds live and on demand parenting coaching and mediation services, along with the ability to create and document specific parenting agreements. That is in addition to more typical features like calendaring, messaging, expenses tracking and reimbursement, and document sharing.
WeParent
WeParent is another app designed to simplify shared calendaring, file sharing, and secure communications among family members (with options for both one-on-one and to the group). As they say, “This way, you can focus on what matters most – raising happy, healthy kids!”.
Coparently
As the name implies, Coparently is specifically designed to help with co-parenting. With many of the typical tools including calendaring (which includes color coding times with each parent), communication, and expenses management, it also includes a shared contact list so both parents can quickly reach out to teachers, doctors, care providers, etc. when needed. It also you to add others such as caregivers and extended family to the communication function so everyone can stay in the loop. Children can be given access to the calendar without being able to see communications between parents.
2Houses
2Houses includes a parenting calendar (including change requests), expense tracking, a shared journal space (for sharing notes, pictures, etc.) basic messaging, and a place to put basic child info such as medical information, shared documents, and important contacts. The calendar can be synced to other calendars such as Outlook or Google, and can be shared with other people. Like some of the best apps, it also allows you to give limited access to extended family and third parties. The cost is also reasonable, being priced per family rather than per parent.
Parentship
The Parentship app has both free and lost cost paid versions. It’s main features are calendaring and sharing/storage of digital documents. It appears to also allow access by caregivers.
Cozi
Cozi is a free app designed as a family organizer (not specifically for two household families, but useful nevertheless). The primary features for co-parenting are a shared calendar and to-do lists. If you want to try out a simple app before deciding whether you want to invest in a paid app, this is a good place to start!
Custody Connection
Custody Connection is particularly designed around parenting plan schedules, and it another free app. It allows you to a standard or custom schedule so you always know which parent the child should be with. A function I especially like is the ability for the parents to request time trades and modify the calendar accordingly. If you don’t need a special app for communication or expense tracking, this could be a great option.
Of course, if you want to do things the old-fashioned way, our Seattle child custody lawyers are happy to help you create or modify your parenting plan. Contact our firm today!