Even if you and your ex are on good terms, co-parenting presents significant logistical challenges.
For those who do not have the best relationship with their ex, co-parenting can create conflict and tension. In order to facilitate direct communication and deescalate conflict, a number of companies have websites and apps designed to make co-parenting significantly easier.
Three major benefits to using co-parenting websites and Apps:
- Track and monitor communications. In today’s age, emails can be deleted, and text messages can be edited and deleted. Many divorce websites and Apps store and track communications so you have a complete record of them. Many of these websites and Apps also have hostility or tone meters, which can flag unpleasant encounters and force co-parents to rethink their approach.
If your co-parent has the unpleasant habit of incessantly calling or messaging you, which can be anxiety-provoking, consider having a rule that all communications must be over a specific website or App absent emergencies. Most websites and Apps allow parents adjust their settings, so they will not receive notifications except when is convenient for them to log in and address issues when are convenient for them.
- Provide a shared family calendar. Nowadays, electronic calendar invitations can be easily modified and deleted, or just not accepted. Many divorce websites and Apps store and track calendar appointments, and any changes to them, so you have a complete record of them.
- Track expense sharing. It is very common for parents to agree to split paying certain expenses, which used to be very tedious to track and true up every month or quarter. Now there are many websites and apps that track the sharing of expenses for you, request payment from the co-parent and track reimbursement, which saves hours.
My favorite co-parenting websites and Apps:
Our Family Wizard
Best For: Most Robust
Our Family Wizard is one of the most popular apps used to co-parent. It provides a variety of features, including, a shared calendar, a messaging platform with a tone meter which stores communications, a way to share documents and facilitate and log calls, an expense tracker, and an information bank where you can log all important information, such as medical history, insurance information, important contacts, and clothing and shoe sizes, a journal, and more.
The information log and shared calendar help eliminate a lot of direct communication between coparents because the information one would ask the other for is already available on the App. Our Family Wizard also provides transparency, and allows parents to see when a change has been made to the shared calendar. You can also allow third parties to gain different levels of access to the App.
Custody X Change
Best For: Parenting Plans
Custody X Change is a website that prompts you to outline many major provisions typically included in a parenting plan, such as legal and physical custody, holidays, school, health, exchanges, travel, extracurricular activities, and transportation.
This helps ensure that when a parent is thinking about and creating a plan that they are thoughtful about the logistical issues that may be of importance to them and their children. The software creates a visual calendar of your unique custody schedule so you can see what your schedule looks like. If you are in the early stages of figuring out a custody plan or schedule, Custody X Change is a great place to start.
By taking parents through this step by step process, Custody X Change ensures that parents can visualize what their schedule and plan should look like. Custody X Change also has other helpful features, including an expense tracker, journal, calendar of activities and messaging platform, which monitors hostile language so you no one hits the send button too soon and stores the communications.
Talking Parents
Best For: Communication
Talking Parents is an app primarily used for coparents to communicate, but also has a lot of other great features, including sending and storing messages, calling, sharing documents, a shared calendar, an information library and expense sharing.
If there are serious concerns about a co-parent constantly reaching out and using different phone numbers to contact you, then Talking Parents helps to combat these concerns with their Accountable Calling feature, which allows parents to make video and phone calls without having to disclose their phone number, and it can also record and produce transcripts of these calls for your personal record Before using this feature you should determine if this is legal in your jurisdiction.
SplitWise
Best For: Expenses
If you are looking for something a little more in depth than typical e-payment apps like Venmo and Zelle (which are both great Apps to use), then SplitWise is a great add on for you and your co-parent to implement. You can input an expense or even upload the receipt and send it to your co-parent along with a request to share the expense in a certain percentage. It even allows one to implement requests for reimbursement for recurring expenses, such as health insurance.
SplitWise is a great app where parents are sharing ongoing expenses for their children. SplitWise also allows you to generate various reports.
OnWard
Also Great For: Expenses
OnWard is another great app to track expenses. The app works alongside third party payment apps, such as Venmo, and is simple to use.
One parent can enter a payment made for the child, and the other parent will receive a notification where they can then pay the amount they owe. Co-parents can even chat through the App about the expense.
The app allows you to split expenses according to your divorce decree or agreement to ensure that each parent is paying their share. Onward also generates various reports so payments can be tracked.
These are just few of the many apps for co-parents to consider.
Law Clerk Gwynn Mak contributed to this article.
