Co-parenting can be challenging and filled with emotions. You might be feeling stressed from communicating with your ex-partner. You may also struggle with the organization required when your children are switching between parents.
Two people sharing responsibilities over two houses can be difficult. While some of that stress might be unavoidable, a lot of the details and logistics can be handled with a co-parenting app!
If you’re wondering how a co-parenting app can help you in separation with kids, keep reading this informative article! You’ll find practical uses and benefits that explain how an app can help you manage your custody schedule.
What Is a Co-Parenting App and Why Is It Useful?
A co-parenting app is a smartphone application that is built to help separated families. If you’re a divorced or separated parent, these apps help you to communicate with your co-parent.
Some co-parenting apps are for communication and messaging. But other apps also help you keep logistics organized. This might include details like your schedule, doctor’s appointments, soccer practices and even tracking expenses.
It’s helpful to be able to talk to your ex about your children in one place. But, it’s even more helpful to also store all these messages and documents in one place.
In general, most co-parenting apps function to keep track of your children’s activities, time schedules, and expenses.
This is useful for sorting out custody time, as well as financial responsibilities. This also helps to make all the important information accessible to all parties.
The 2Houses app allows parents to exchange important information, like school details and medical notes. You can also receive help with storing documents and keeping messages with mediator access.
Frequent Features
One of the most important features of the 2Houses app is the shared calendar, which allows you to build an interactive calendar. You can also sync the calendar with other major apps, like Google calendar and Outlook.
If your child is scheduled for a dentist appointment in the same week as your work trip, it will be important to communicate all the details with your ex. You also want to talk without stressing about how to keep all the details clear.
Another essential feature is the finance tracker. This tracker allows you to log all the shared expenses. This means both you and your co-parent can view any expenses.
You can also build reports that show spending over time, and you can even organize this by category. This might help you to show how much you are contributing to your child’s costs.
Additionally, banking information can be stored on the app. Upload other important information about your children, like social security numbers, medical information, and clothing sizes.
You can be sure that this information will be safe and central. This way, both you and your child’s other parent have equal access to important information.
This parenting app also contains a journal where you can write information to share. This allows you to share memories about your children as they go through important milestones in life!
The Benefits of a Co-Parenting App to Improve Communication
Now that you know the features of a co-parenting app, it’s important to understand the benefits of these features.
This way, you can begin to see how a co-parenting app can improve your life. The first improvement that you might see from a co-parenting app is communication.
Talking to your ex can be difficult, but it’s a key part of success when it comes to co-parenting. You and your ex need to be able to discuss any upcoming dates and events for both yourselves and your children.
You will also want to keep each other up to date on general life updates that occur while your children are in each other’s custody. This will end up creating a better relationship between yourself, your co-parent, and your children.
But, this can end up being challenging for two people who are no longer involved romantically.
You might also find that one person is more willing to communicate than the other. You might be sending messages about events, and they either got lost in the shuffle of their phone texts or they might say they never received them.
Keeping all your information in one central place helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to raising your kids. This also helps you and your ex to communicate more healthily and respectfully since all the messages are stored.
If you also worry about your ex intervening in your relationship with your child, you can make sure everything is clear through the app.
Even in the best co-parenting relationships, it’s easy to lose important information about homework, playdates, and medical appointments, so a co-parenting app will help keep it all in one place.
Using an App to Help with Co-Parenting Organization
Another huge benefit of a co-parenting app is the ability to organize information between your houses. Not only do you need to keep your logistics in order, but you will also have a lot of paperwork to keep track of.
Many doctor’s offices and schools are using digital and email records, which makes it even easier to store your information in the app.
This also makes it challenging to search your inbox. So it’s important to be able to access your children’s records in a central place that both parents can see.
If your children are school-age, you will also need to keep all their school information organized. Imagine being able to store each teacher’s name, along with your children’s grades, permission slips, and school numbers.
You might have much more information about your children than you’d even think, and all of this should be kept in one place. Things like phone numbers for friends, insurance information, and birthday wishlists can all be stored.
Especially if you have more than one child, the paperwork and details involved can be complicated. It can end up as a stack of papers or a bunch of emails that can get lost or easily forgotten about.
You can also upload other information like vaccination records and identification documents. This ensures that both parents have everything they need and that you can keep it all in one online filing system.
For example, your child might want to go on a school trip to another country. But one parent keeps all the important documents like passports and social security numbers. So you might be stuck having to call them for information.
By keeping these documents stored in one place, both parents feel involved in their children’s lives.
The Benefits of Using an App for Documentation
As mentioned above, a co-parenting app stores your information for you in an easy-to-access manner. The history of communication through the app is also stored.
This means if you end up in a situation where you are disagreeing with your co-parent about something that is said, you can refer back to the messages, schedule, or document you’re referring to.
This is especially important if you are in a stage of the separation process with lawyers and court hearings. You will need to be able to show certain proof of expenses.
Being able to show both expenses and proof of communication can go a long way in showing your level of responsibility and organization. Since the information is stored for both parties, you will also not end up with one person claiming they never received a message.
So if you message your ex about arranging a pickup time and they don’t show up, you can refer back to the app to show exactly what was initially agreed upon.
Again, even in the smoothest parenting relationships and separation with kids, it’s still important to have documentation.
For example, you might have agreed to share expenses. But you may believe you have been spending more on school supplies, clothing, and food for the past month.
With a co-parenting app, you can bring up a chart to show where the money has been going for each person.
Using a Co-Parenting App to Keep Everyone in the Loop
Aside from documentation and imaging situations where one parent is at odds with the other, a co-parenting app is also a great way to keep all the important parties in the loop.
Your children are more than schedules and paperwork, and they will be making memories with each parent along the way.
Staying active and present in your child’s life is a top priority for each parent. But it can be difficult to do this when your child is splitting their time with your ex. Technology has allowed us to keep people involved even at a distance.
By using the app, you can not only arrange for face-to-face exchanges with your children, but you can also use the in-app journal to share experiences.
If only one parent can attend a play or game for your child, you can use the journal to recap the memory and help the other parent feel involved. You can add photos to share even more memories and store these important events.
This app is also helpful for day-to-day thoughts and concerns about your children in a private manner. So you able to share important memories with your ex.
You can also communicate in free space with your thoughts and concerns without having to message them separately from the app. This is a great way to keep track of updates about your children.
For example, you might be trying to raise a teenager who could be telling one parent a story and change the story completely for parent 2. By communicating through a co-parenting app, you keep your kids accountable.
This will also make sure nothing is falling through the cracks. Everything will also be saved, so the journal is a great way to reflect on your children’s lives throughout the year.
Still Questioning the Use of a Co-Parenting App?
Sometimes we are all hesitant to add another app or technology service to our lives. Especially when as parents, we’re already involved in far more things than we can keep track of.
So you might still be questioning the use of a co-parenting app in making your life a bit easier.
Whether you’re at the beginning stages of a divorce or you’re trying to improve your relationship with your ex for the sake of your children, a co-parenting app can be the right tool to improve your life.
This is a great option for you to each is held accountable for your responsibilities. But it helps you to not have to physically jot down notes about schedules that you might lose later on.
Also, if you need a mediator, the 2houses app has a special feature that allows you to share communication with a mediator to keep your relationship and communication more civil and productive.
An App to Help Take the Stress Out of Co-Parenting
The last thing a busy parent need is another service to keep track of, which is why a co-parenting app helps to centralize all your children’s needs in one place. This way, both parents have access to all documents and notes.
Learn more about the features 2houses has to offer. Discover how you can start improving your co-parent communication to make your life and your children’s lives a bit easier.