Tech Tools for Co-Parenting

When couples with children divorce, they are faced with the reality of an entirely new parenting dynamic. While married, each parent most likely had certain “domains” that he or she took care of for the children, often with little or no input from the other parent. This is the nature of married parenting, but it isn’t the same for divorced couples. Most divorced parents want to have access and input into all areas of their children’s upbringing, even when they didn’t in the past. This can be challenging, considering many couples end their marriage due to poor communication.

Thankfully, there are a few extremely helpful apps that can streamline the co-parenting process and help families transition into a new dynamic. Programs such as these ensure that all of the children’s activities, expenses, appointments and important information can be kept in one place, and can be documented for the court if necessary. Below is a brief overview of two programs we recommend to our clients:

Our Family Wizard  is a paid program ($99.00 per parent, per year) that allows parents to upload and track expenses, communicate with one another via a messaging feature, and utilize a joint calendar for the children’s activities and appointments. For parents who are especially high-conflict, Our Family Wizard has additional tools that allow attorneys, parenting coordinators, therapists, and courts to log in and view certain information that is shared between the parents.

2houses is a free program with many of the same features as Our Family Wizard. 2houses also offers spousal support tracking features, a “wish list” that allows parents to upload photos of items they would like to purchase for the children, a journaling function to make notes after events such as parent-teacher conferences and doctor’s appointments, and an “Info Bank” area where parents can upload contacts, addresses and other information such as social security numbers and clothing sizes. 2houses also has an “Albums” area where parents can upload shared photos of the children.

We strongly encourage parents to utilize these free and low-cost technology tools to make a difficult time less challenging and to ensure optimal communication for your children’s best interests.