These days, fathers play a lot of different roles. In honor of Father’s Day, we have listed some of the apps that can help busy fathers with everything you do. Are you a dad who could use a hand with some of the tasks you complete every day for your family? Here are a few ways technology could help you.
1. Saving Money
When you want to look for bargains, turn to these apps.
ShopSavvy: Shopsavvy can help you sort through different sites and stores to get the best prices on anything from big ticket items, such as appliances and TVs, to small electronics such as wireless earbuds. Just use the app to scan the barcode of an item and make sure you’re getting the best deal.
Kids Eat Free: Another way to save money is finding restaurants where your kids can eat for free or at discounted prices. Kids Eat Free is a GPS based free app that allows you to see specials by restaurant and the day of the week, so you can find the best deals near you.
2. Activity Planning
When you’re out and about or traveling and need to find a place for your kids to blow off some steam, check out these apps for local family-friendly activities.
Playground Buddy: This specific app does one thing, but it does it well. With it, you can find public playgrounds near you, see pictures, understand what the playground includes, and share it as a meeting place with others to set up a playdate.
Trekaroo: Trekaroo can help you find everything else, including family friendly activities (such as museums or festivals), restaurants and hotels. On the app (or website), you can read reviews, plan trips, or just find unique ideas for activities to do with your kids in your area.
3. Scheduling
We all have so much swirling around in our heads at any given time, that it can be difficult to remember everything. However there are some apps that can make everyday family tasks a little bit easier.
Remember the Milk: Remember The Milk allows you to add tasks to your to-do list, along with due dates, priority and repeating reminders all in one simple step. The app also allows you to set reminders for yourself across multiple devices and channels, such as email, text, IM, twitter and even skype.
Timyo: Time with your kids is important. Responding to work emails can eat into the time you have at home. With Timyo, you can assign yourself due dates for when to respond to emails, so you can prioritize right-now responses and the time you have with your kids over the email responses that can wait until later.
4. Safeguarding Keepsakes
When your kids make you a piece of art, it can be a great moment of pride. Now, you can save those moments and make sure that everyone in your family can see what your kids have done.
Keepy: Keepy allows you to take pictures of and save all of your kids artwork, schoolwork and mementos and organize them in one app. You can organize by your child’s age and by specific events and include both pictures and videos. In the app, you can also record yourself or your child sharing the story behind each photo and share memories with your loved ones, who can respond by recording messages. There is also a printing store, so you can print photo books, canvases, and other items with your kid’s artwork to save it forever.
Artkive: For a more tactile and less digital experience, try Artkive. This service allows you to send in all of your kid’s artwork in one big box, have it professionally photographed, and turn it into a keepsake book. It’s a way to celebrate your child’s art while freeing up some space on the fridge!
5. Organizing Kids’ Healthcare
Keeping everyone’s health appointments straight, including those for your kids and for yourself, can be difficult. Now, these apps help you concentrate everything in one place.
Continuous Care: This app can be a personalized health diary not just for you, but for your family as well. You can save medical reports, health records, and appointments straight to the app, so you never miss an appointment and your kids always have all of their necessary check-ups.
CareZone: CareZone also allows you to consolidate health data for your family in one place. Do you always forget the name of your daughter’s asthma medication? Easily upload it into the app by simply taking a picture of the pharmacy packaging. The app also allows you to keep track of appointments and prescription refills and organize important medical contact numbers.
6. Building Routines
Whether you’re the chore enforcer in the family or usually back up for your spouse, dads can always use an extra hand when building family routines. Here are a few apps that can help.
Happy Kids Timer: This app focuses on 6 common activities that kids need to complete in the morning (such as brushing their teeth and packing their lunch), and establishes routines for getting them done on time. The app includes a timer, and if kids complete the tasks in the proper time period, they can earn points and certificates. You can also customize up to four morning tasks to include chores such as making their bed.
Brili: Brili makes it easier for parents to track multiple kids throughout the getting ready process. The app helps build important routines that each child can check off when they’re completed.
Chore Monster: For young kids, chore monster can be a great motivation. Using the app, you can set chores for your kids and rewards if they complete them. Kids can sign in, see the chores they have to complete and their due dates, and earn points that lead to rewards (such as new toys or movies to watch).
7. Balancing Work, Family, and Personal Lives
Working dads have a multitude of responsibilities, contacts, and priorities. Here are a couple apps that can help you keep everything straight.
CamCard Lite: This app can scan and organize all of your business cards (from your work contact to your dogsitter) and keeps them all in one easily searchable and shareable space.
Instapaper: Do you notice that you’re not reading as much as you used to? Use dead time during your commute or waiting for your kids in the carpool line with Instapaper. This app saves web pages (including digital newspapers) for later so you can read the paper or other websites offline in your free time.
Happy Father’s Day to all of the busy dads out there. Hopefully, these apps can help you be more organized, save more money, and enjoy the time you spend with your kids over the next year.
