No one ever said parenting was easy, right?
Any mom or dad can tell you that every stage of parenting is tough. Babies don’t sleep, toddlers don’t listen, adults don’t do their homework. Of course, most of us wouldn’t give up parenting for anything; we just wish it were a little easier.
The good news is that we live in an age where help is at our fingertips.
And not just to help you, these apps are designed to keep you sane.
Here’s how to choose the best one for you.
Apps for Babies
WedMD Baby, Baby Connect, Eat Sleep, Simple Baby Tracking, and White Noise are four apps designed specifically to help parents of newborns and toddlers navigate the chaos that surrounds this stage of life.
While these little ones do nothing but eat, sleep, and swallow, every parent knows how terrifying the newborn experience can be, especially when your baby wakes up every two hours for a middle-of-the-night feed. You’re supposed to be at work in 6 weeks, and there’s not enough coffee in the world to keep you thinking straight.
Luckily, these apps make it a little easier to think things through, and each one has its place.
WebMD Baby is a division of WebMD, one of the most trusted sources of medical information on the web. So it’s no wonder that over 1.7 million new parents also trust the app. In addition to offering feeding, sleep, and diapering tracking, it also offers a wealth of relevant information and an “Ask the Pediatrician” feature with videos from trusted doctors.
Baby Connect
Baby Connect also lets you track feeding, sleep, and diapering. It offers multiple logins for the same account, meaning mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, nanny, or anyone else can log in to the same child’s account. This makes the app especially ideal for families with babysitters, as the nanny can log the child’s daily activities, and parents will receive instant updates with parent links.
Eat, sleep. Simple Baby Tracker is perhaps the simplest and easiest baby app, allowing new parents to quickly enter information and get on with their busy days.
Looking at these three highly rated apps, the bottom line is that you need to decide which features are most important to you. Do you need direct access to professional medical information, instant syncing with your nanny, or a simple platform to monitor your baby’s feeding and sleeping schedule? Do you want to share photos or keep the information completely private? Remember, all of these apps offer basic consistency, so it’s the details that really make the difference when it comes to in-app purchases.
White Noise is a completely different app, but perhaps the most practical. The sounds include air conditioning, torrential rain, a cat purring, and more.
Toddler Parenting Apps
The Terrible Two. It’s often mistakenly thought of as a stage that can start around age 1.5 and end around age 4. This is the Jekyll and Hyde stage, where one moment your 2-year-old is throwing a tantrum because you coughed, and the next moment he’s screaming angelically at his doll.
This is also the stage where kids start creating art, using the toilet, and really enjoying playtime.
That’s where Artkive, Sit or Squat, and MomMaps come in—three apps that can theoretically be used by children of any age, but are in practice more useful for parents of young children.
Artkive
Artkive is a phenomenal app that offers a paperless way to store your kids’ artwork. Monthly fees range from $3 to $13, and all plans include unlimited storage.
Sitting or lying down, that’s what it looks like. It gives you the closest bathroom spot. Have all parents gone through the “I have to go” phase with a toddler? Yes. So, there’s no need to explain how useful this app can be.
MomMaps helps parents find nearby parks, playgrounds, restaurants, museums, and indoor playgrounds. This is especially useful for parents on vacation who want to find nearby kid-friendly activities. Arepp also lets you read reviews, ensuring you don’t end up in a place that’s not right for your child.
While any of the three apps above can help you stay healthy during your child’s early years, remember that just because they might be useful doesn’t mean you have to buy them. If your child isn’t very artistic, you don’t need to go crazy trying to preserve their creations. While these apps are great, only you can decide whether they’re going to help you or just waste your time and energy.
Family Wizard Apps
Oh, your little ones are growing up so fast. And suddenly those kid apps are no longer relevant. Yes, you need a more comprehensive and functional app to manage your growing family, which basically includes any kid who can make a to-do list or go places on their own.
Cozi, ChoreMonster, and Mama Bear are all similar apps, but like kid apps, each offers its own unique features. Cozi is the most comprehensive of the three, which means it covers most aspects of family life.
Which app could help you?
Here are more details.
Cozi is an award-winning calendar and collaborative organizer app that helps bring order to the chaos of family life. It includes a family planner, lets you create to-do lists for everyone, grocery lists, recipes, and more. In practice, this means you can keep track of your child’s (and your own) medical appointments, extracurricular activities, shopping lists, meal planning, and communication. Plus, you can even keep track of your favorite sports team’s schedule with color-coded communication tools.
Cozi
Cozi Gold is the VIP version, which costs $29.99 per year and offers an ad-free experience, as well as other benefits.
ChoreMonster is an app designed to help your kids ages 4 to 12 complete their homework by turning it into a fun game. What you need to know about this app is that it uses rewards as an incentive to do chores. While this may not suit everyone’s parenting philosophy, for those who prefer to encourage their children, there’s no better app than ChoreMonster. It’s fun, engaging, and easy to access for both kids and parents.
The appeal of Cozi and ChoreMonster is that your kids need access to electronic devices to keep everyone on track. The apps work on Android, iOS, and PCs, but if your child isn’t old enough to have free access to these devices, you’ll have to think of another idea.
Mama Bear is designed for families with teenagers. It’s also award-winning, offers message and social media monitoring, location sharing, speed alerts, and sharing with family members. There’s a free version and ad-free paid versions that offer more features. This app is truly unique and can bring peace of mind to parents whose children have entered the turbulent teenage years.
Empower Yourself!
Using a parenting app that helps you determine what stage of parenting you are in will not only benefit you, but your entire family. Your children will enjoy a calmer, more organized, and more balanced parent who can laugh and enjoy time with their children instead of worrying about the inevitable details that come with parenting duties.
As a parent, you are the one who will make your family run more smoothly, you are the one who will make your children’s lives more organized and problem-free, and you are the one who will provide the greatest peace of mind possible.
What could be more empowering than that?
