Tools for Effective Communication and Co-parenting
It is not always an easy task for separated couples to learn to communicate, and often times just text messaging and email cannot meet the needs of a busy family planning for all of their kids’ pickups, appointments, school events, and extracurricular activities. Thankfully online tools and mobile applications exist to help facilitate communication between parents and ease the logistics of co-parenting. Each of the following options presents its own set of unique characteristics to fit with your family’s needs.
Our Family Wizard
This application offers numerous features to assist in co-parenting and is specifically designed to take the hostility out of co-parenting situations. The tool provides shared visitation calendars and color-coded parenting schedules to make time-management a breeze. It also offers secure messaging; secure document storage (great for important family documents like immunization records); a “tone meter,” which it describes as “your emotional spell-check;” and even expense features, where users can record and formalize reimbursable expenses. The application, which can be used online or downloaded as an app for smartphones, gives you the option to link to your bank and allow you to transmit funds for expenses over the app. The tool costs $100.00 per year per parent, and child and third party accounts are free, however, Our Family Wizard does offer a sliding scale cost for parties who qualify and apply. Additionally, the tool allows third parties to access and view the tool, and the tool prevents anything from being deleted or altered by the parties. More and more courts recommend and order Our Family Wizard, and it comes highly recommended by The Law Office of Erin Wilson.
Talking Parents
As the first tool designed to focuses specifically on creating a “system of record” for communications that can then be used as evidence in court, the application usually is recommended for parents with a history of conflict. Uniquely, this tool keeps the communications as independent unalterable records and then lets users download the unalterable PDFs of communications. The online tool offers messaging, the ability to create a shared calendar and users can also create an attachment library, whereby to store any documents that are sent between the parties in one place. The tool is free, however downloading a record of communications comes with a cost.
Life360
Life360 is an application that offers many of the same important features as other tools, but this app’s focus and uniqueness it derives from its GPS locating system. The application creates a “private circle” with your family members, where members have access to the location sharing feature giving family members a view of each other’s recent and real-time whereabouts. The application also is enabled to send users “smart notifications,” for times when family members come and go from the family’s most frequented places. The app even sends alerts for when someone’s phone battery begins to run low. The app’s tiered cost system ranges from free to a nominal monthly fee to gain access to features like Driver Protect, which generates driving reports of the family and links each device to immediate emergency and non-emergency roadside assistance.
4. Google Calendar
For families whose primary concern is coordinating schedules with the other parent, a simple Google shared calendar can be an easy-to-use option, that links with other Google features that many people already have and use. The shared calendar feature allows each parent to view and make edits to the calendar, and parents can set certain regular events to repeat automatically week to week. As a tip, this application works best by separating visitation and parenting time schedules from a child’s calendar of activities.
Other helpful applications that are less used but still worthy of exploring are Cozi, CoParently, and 2Houses. The key goal that these tools all work towards, is helping families avoid turning the child or children into a family messenger. These apps are some of the many options for families to consider for their unique lifestyle and needs. It could be helpful for you to give different tools a trial-run to see what might work best for your family. For your questions regarding effective co-parenting and all family law matters, call The Law Office of Erin Wilson for assistance.
NOTICE: This blog is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be construed as providing legal advice. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have regarding this blog post.