Best Smartphone Apps For Parents

If you’re a mom or a dad, then you know that parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Thankfully, there are many apps out there that can make this job much easier. Here are the best, most useful apps that parents that are worried about their children should have on their smartphone.

White Noise

Having some difficulty getting your child to sleep? Maybe some White Noise will do the trick. This app plays a variety of perfectly looped ambient sounds that lessen the impact of sudden noises, that can help both children and parents doze off. Rounding up the package is an alarm clock that comes with several sounds.

Toddler Lock

Tots may get better acquainted with technology at a younger age, but this won’t stop them from accidentally calling someone or deleting something in your smartphone. The solution: the Toddler Lock app entertains your kids by letting them draw on your device’s screen, and protects your smartphone from your children’s indiscriminate keystrokes. It’s genius.

WebMD Baby

Taking care of your baby is challenging enough, but raising one while keeping track of her growth, diaper changes, sleep activity and feeding time is close to impossible. Fortunately, the WebMD Baby app helps in keeping everything organised, especially when you and your baby make a trip to the doctor.

Mobicip Safe Browser

Finally, there’s a way to child-proof your iDevice. The Mobicip Safe Browser app looks and functions like Safari, but allows parents a layer of control over what their children can view. The app lets you create profiles for each child and choose their filtering level. With a premium account, you can even block categories and specific sites. Mobicip isn’t free, but it’s worth the expense.

PowerSchool for Parents

If your school district is using the PowerSchool student information system, then you should download its corresponding iPhone app, which lets you keep track of your child’s school attendance, grades, assignments, scores, progress, grade point average and even lunch transactions. It sounds a bit like Big Brother, but you’ll be able to supervise your child’s education more effectively.

Medscape

The Medscape app is such a huge steal for any health-conscious parent. It contains data on over 4,000 diseases; 8,000 drugs, supplements and herbals; and instructions for clinical procedures (with videos). With the app, you can find out vital information like dosage of certain medicines for children and compute hundreds of medical formulas. Best of all, the Medscape app is offline and free.

Sex Offenders Search

As a parent, you should always be alert for dangers to your family, including like sex predators. Well, the Sex Offenders Search app allows you to find out more about sex offenders in your area. The app also provides details such as the person’s physical attributes, a photo and prior convictions. There may be websites that show the same information, but this app comes with updated data.

Tales2Go

This app lets you stream thousands of audiobooks for children. All you have to do is download the app, pay for the US$99.99 yearly fee and listen to as many audiobooks as you can, including How to Train Your Dragon, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Curious George Rides a Bike. Considering that one audiobook can cost as much as AU$50, that yearly rate is pretty much a bargain.

Life360

The Life360 app isn’t the first family locator, but it’s one of the better ones. Aside from being accurate and easy to use, the app comes with a handy panic alarm that informs everyone in your contact list through text, e-mail or phone calls. There’s also a sex offender search, location history and chat, among other features.

Baby Monitor

This app turns your smartphone into a baby monitor that lets you look after your little one even when you’re not around. But aside from texting or calling you when your baby is crying, MVA’s Baby Monitor also comes with other nifty features such as:

• A sleep diary that lets you monitor your child’s sleep time.
• An image surveillance feature that photographs your baby when the alarm is activated.
• The ability to send warning text messages when your phone is low on power.

About The Author:

This article was brought to you by Shelly. Every parant wants to keep a close eye on their child from when they are in the baby pram and into their adult years. Shelly has written many educational articles for parents.

Originally posted on October 15, 2012 @ 6:58 am