Nobody ever said being a parent was easy, right?
Any mother or father can tell you that every stage of parenting is difficult. Children don't sleep, little children don't listen, older children don't do their chores. Of course, most parents wouldn't give up parenting for the world, we just wish it were a little easier.
The good news is that we live in a time where help is available at our fingertips.
And more than just helping 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 4 apps designed specifically to help parents of babies and toddlers understand the chaos surrounding this stage of life.
Although these little ones don't do much more than eat, sleep, and swallow, every parent knows how scary the newborn experience can be, especially when your baby wakes up every 2 hours to feed in the middle of the night. You work in 6 weeks and there is not enough coffee in the world to make you think coherently.
Fortunately, these apps make the thinking part a little easier and each app has its place.
WebMD Baby is a branch of WebMD, one of the most trusted sources of medical information on the web. So it's no surprise that more than 1.7 million new parents also trust the app. In addition to offering feeding, sleep, and diaper tracking, it also offers a wealth of relevant information and an Ask the Pediatrician feature that includes videos from trusted doctors.
Baby Connect
Baby Connect also provides feeding, sleep, and diaper changing tracking. It offers multiple logins for the same account, meaning mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, babysitter, whoever, can log into the same child's account. This makes the app especially good for families with nannies, as the nanny can enter the child's daily activities and parents will be instantly updated with custody links.
Eat sleep. Simple Baby Tracker is perhaps the simplest and most straightforward of all the baby apps, allowing new parents to quickly enter information and then get on with their busy days.
When it comes to these 3 top-rated apps, the bottom line is that you need to decide which features are most important to you. Whether you need instant access to expert medical information, instant sync with a babysitter, or a simple platform to track meal and sleep schedules. Do you want to share photos or keep information completely private? Keep in mind that all of these apps offer basic tracking, so it's the details that will really make the difference in terms of which in-app purchases you choose.
White Noise is a completely different type of application, but perhaps the most practical. Sounds include air conditioning, pouring rain, cat purring and many more.
Toddler Parenting Apps
The terrible two. It is often mistakenly referred to as a stage that can begin as early as a year and a half and end at age 4. It's the Jekyll and Hyde stage, where one second your 2-year-old throws a tantrum because you're coughing and the next he's angelically screaming at his doll.
This is also the stage when children begin to produce art, use the bathroom, and really enjoy playdates.
That's where Artkive, Sit or Squat and MomMaps come in, 3 applications that in theory can be used by children of any age, but in practice are more useful for parents of young children.
Artkive
Artkive is a phenomenal app that offers a paperless way to store your children's artwork. Monthly rates range from $3 to $13 per month and all plans include unlimited storage.
Sitting or lying down is what it sounds like. provides you with the location of the nearest bathroom. Has every parent been through the “I have to go” thing? stage with a small child? Yeah! So we don't really need to elaborate on how useful this app can be.
MomMaps helps parents find nearby parks, playgrounds, restaurants, museums, and indoor playgrounds. This is especially useful for vacationing parents who want to find nearby kid-friendly activities. Arepp also allows you to read reviews, meaning you can make sure you don't end up somewhere that isn't quite right for your child.
While any of the 3 apps above can help you stay healthy during your baby's infancy, remember that just because they may be helpful doesn't mean you should get them. If your child isn't very into art, you don't need to go crazy storing his creations. While these apps are really great, only you can decide whether they will help you or just waste your time and energy.
Family Wizard Apps
Oh, your little ones grow up so fast! And suddenly these apps for babies and children are no longer relevant. Yes, you need a more grown-up, high-functioning app to handle your growing family, which basically includes any kid who can manage a to-do list or go places on their own.
Cozi, ChoreMonster, and Mama Bear are apps similar to each other, but like baby apps, each offers their own unique specialty. Cozi is the most comprehensive of the three, meaning it covers most areas of family life.
Which app could help you?
Here are some more details.
Cozi is an award-winning shared calendar app and organizer that helps bring order to the chaos of family life. Includes a family planner, allows you to create to-do lists for everyone, shopping lists, recipes and more. In practice, this means you can keep track of your child's (and your own) doctor appointments, extracurricular activities, shopping lists, meal planning, and communication. Plus, you can even follow your favorite sports team's TV programming with color-coded communication tools.
Cozi
Cozi Gold is the VIP version that costs $29.99 per year and offers an ad-free experience along with several other benefits.
ChoreMonster is an app designed to get your kids ages 4 to 12 doing their homework by turning homework into a fun game. The main thing you should know about this app is that it is about using rewards as an incentive to do household chores. While this may not fit everyone's parenting philosophy, for those who embrace encouragement, there is no better app than ChoreMonster. It's fun, engaging, and offers easy 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 the same page. The apps work on Android, iOS and PC, but if your child is not of the age where you want him to freely access these devices, she will need to come up with a different idea.
Mama Bear is designed for families with teenagers. Also award-winning, it features text message and social media monitoring, location sharing, speed alerts, and family member sharing. There is a free version and paid versions that are ad-free and offer more features. This app is truly remarkable and can offer peace of mind to parents whose children have entered their turbulent adolescence.
Empower Yourself!
Using a parenting app that helps you determine what stage of parenting you are in will not only benefit you, but everyone in your family. Your children will enjoy a calmer, more organized, saner parent who can laugh and enjoy time with their children, rather than worrying about the little things that inevitably come with raising children.
As a parenting, it is you who will make your family run better, it is you who will make life more organized and hassle-free for your children, and it is you who will give you the most peace of mind possible. ;
What's more empowering than that?