There are tons of apps on the market designed with new parents in mind (and by new, I mean your baby is new. They don’t care if you have 13 kids.). Most of them are geared towards tracking things for your baby (eating, sleeping, popping – it’s a cliche for a reason!), and some are designed to explain why your sweet little baby is suddenly acting kind of possessed, like Wonder Weeks. All of this is super convenient and whatnot, but my favorite apps for parenting aren’t really even designed for parenting. They do make life with small children much easier, though.
My favorite apps for parenting:
This app allows you to check out ebooks and, more importantly, e-audiobooks with your library card. For free. Thank you, 21st century! I absolutely love to read and set a yearly goal to read 50 books. The problem is, if I have a book in my hands my kids will inevitably knock it out or use my momentary distraction to destroy the entire house. My solution? Listen to everything! With the cost of books on Audible, 50 books a year could be a pretty hefty investment. Instead, I check them out with OverDrive! It does work the same way as traditional library books, so there are limited copies of most books. You can place holds, though, and they will auto-check-out and email you when they’re available. Added perk: no late fees when it’s not even worth leaving the house with kids to get books back on time.
Okay, so this isn’t just an app. You have to buy the Tile itself, but it is So. Worth. It. I lose my keys. A lot. And I usually have help from tiny humans in the misplacement so that doesn’t exactly make them easier to find. The Tile goes on your keychain and with the touch of a button in the app, makes your keys ring. Super loud. Then you just follow the sound and bam! Keys. Beautiful, huh? Also, it tracks the last location your keys were in case you lose them outside of your home. There’s even a button on the Tile itself that you can press to ring your phone! If you lose both together, though, I’ve got nothing but solidarity. The Tile is also available for other frequently-lost items, like wallets, purses, passports, etc.
I basically love everything Google creates, but this app has been particularly useful since I had my first kid. Fun fact: kids are suuuuper cute. Especially when they’re squishy and new. And you will probably take a million and five pictures…a day. Your phone will probably get dramatic about “not having enough space”. That’s where Google has your back in ways your phone just can’t. Google Photo automatically backs up all of your photos and stores them for you. There’s plenty of space and you can even search by month and year to find old pictures easily and quickly.
