As “the mom,” you have lots on your to-do list, including remembering what’s on everyone else’s to-do list. Want some help keeping it all together? While I’m sure having your own personal assistant would be your first choice, it’s probably not an option. But, good news… there are some apps out there that can be almost as helpful!
Keep the Family Organized
Cozi
Free
Being a mom takes a ton of brain power, and Cozi helps free up some of that precious energy. This app lets you share to-do lists, schedules, appointments and grocery lists with your family. You can set reminders, store recipes and even keep a family journal.
Find Family-Friendly Fun
Trekaroo
Free
Looking for family-friendly fun? Trekaroo lets you search by age-appropriateness, price and distance for places your family can go for a great time. It includes things like restaurants, parks, zoos and even hotels that are kid-friendly. You can also see ratings and reviews given by other parents.
Feed the Family and Stock the Pantry
Mealime
Free (optional upgrade $5.99 a month)
Mealime plans your meals for the week, creates an organized grocery list and gives you step-by-step instructions for preparing each meal. Most meals take 30 minutes or less to prepare. You can even enter each person’s dietary preferences and restrictions when you set up the app, and — voila! — Mealime pops out a week’s worth of meals that meets everyone’s needs!
Keep Them Safe
MamaBear
Free
This app provides incredible peace of mind. Your family can privately share messages and photos with one another and know where to find each other with location sharing. You can help keep your kids safe online by monitoring their social media and online viewing activity. You can even keep an eye on how your teen (or their friend) is driving, with notifications of when your child is in a car that is driving faster than a specified speed. There are several more features to check out, including quick options to let your kids “check in” with you when they arrive somewhere and even a panic button if they need help.
Manage Chores and Allowance
Homey Chores and Allowance
Free
Homey lets you assign chores, pay allowance and teach your kids about finances. You can create and assign one-time or recurring chores, set the amount that kids can earn with each task and keep track of allowance or even transfer money into a bank account. Kids can set savings goals and more.
ChoreMonster
Free
If you have younger kids, this app can inspire them to complete age-appropriate chores. You assign tasks and they earn points when they complete them. You get to decide what kind of reward their working toward — ice cream, trip to the zoo, movie night?
Find Child Care
UrbanSitter
Free
You can find a sitter for a night out or a nanny for long-term child care. Other families rate their experience with each sitter and you can view their profile, availability, qualifications and more. With this app, you can send messages to candidates, book sitting and even pay for services.
Sittercity
Free
Sittercity offers pretty much the same services as Urban Sitter. But from the looks of it, you can’t do quite as much directly through the app — like paying for services.
Get Nursing Support
Baby Breastfeeding Tracker
Free
Did you have any idea breastfeeding would be so complicated? Baby Breastfeeding Tracker helps you stay on top of it. This app helps you keep track of when you’ve fed, for how long, which breast and more.
LactMed
Free
When you’re nursing, you need to be extremely careful what you put in your body. This app is a database of medicine and dietary supplements that can impact breastfeeding. LactMed is a part of the National Library of Medicine’s Toxicology Data Network.
Moms Pump Here
$0.99
This app uses GPS technology to locate nursing-/pumping-friendly spaces. It includes descriptions, ratings and reviews written by other moms who use the app.
Preserve Memories
Chatbooks: Photo Books
Free
Want to pull your family memories out of cyberspace and into the real world? This app gives you a fast, affordable and easy way to print beautiful photo books. Pictures can be pulled from your phone, Facebook, Instagram and more.
Keepy
Free with in-app purchase offered
When your little ones bring home their masterpiece of the day, you proudly display it on the fridge. But then what? With Keepy, you can snap a picture of your child’s artwork, and keep it forever — without the clutter. You can share with family members, and they can leave notes or even voice comments. Memories are organized by child and you can even order prints, mugs or other gifts with your child’s artwork on it.
Check out other apps that can simplify your life in our What’s “Appening”? series.
