Do you use smartwatch apps for parents? A few examples are Cloud Baby Monitor (iTunes), Feed Baby (iTunes and Google Play), and Baby Tracker (iTunes). We’ve previously discussed meal-planning app for working moms and apps that help working moms stay connected to school or daycare — but not specifically smartwatch apps for parents.
A couple of years ago, The New York Times’ KJ Dell’Antonia asked (at the NYT’s now-defunct Motherlode), “Is Your Child Your Excuse to Buy an Apple Watch?”
She wrote:
We can count on Apple, and app developers, to find ways to make the Apple Watch indispensable for parents that go beyond staying constantly connected. For now, there are some fun (pregnancy monitoring apps) and some convenience (you can monitor volume and other settings from the watch while your toddler watches the Nick Jr. app on your iPhone). For parents of teenagers driving some models of post-2014 Volkswagens, there are serious monitoring possibilities: The watch can alert you if the car leaves a designated area or exceeds a preset speed limit. The future holds watch-enabled baby monitors and, surely, virtual toddler leashes. Already, a parent and a teenager could use Apple Watches to stay more closely connected — if, that is, you’re willing to spring for a second watch.
For parents, the option to use apps like these isn’t the only benefit of a smartwatch. A mom who recently wrote a piece for Parents called 6 Ways the Apple Watch Elevates My Parenting Game noted that she can use it as a remote for taking photos of herself with her kids (how many of us have tons of pictures of our children without us?), for example, and it helps her find her phone when she can’t remember where she put it. Another mom wrote a piece for Baby Rabies called 10 Ways My Apple Watch Makes Life As a Parent Easier — for example, her watch alerts her to calendar reminders with a small buzz, and she can make or receive calls on her watch while one of her kids is playing a game or watching a video on her phone. (How cool is that?)
What are your favorite smartwatch features that make parenting easier? What do you think are some of the best smartwatch apps for parents in 2017?
Picture via Stencil.
It’s never too early to start weighing tips for preserving kids’ artwork—or you may find yourself still dealing with it when your kids have their own kids. When my parents were cleaning out their attic recently, they found some old artwork of mine from when I was young … which means it had been up there for decades. I ended up getting rid of most (or maybe all) of it, partly because I already have enough tangible reminders of my childhood, and partly because our house is already becoming overrun by my own son’s school papers and art. When at least one thing comes home in his backpack every day, and there are 180 days in the school year … well, it adds up. (Luckily, there isn’t enough stuff to have expanded into our attic yet — or basement.) So, moms, do tell: How do you organize and preserve your kids’ artwork and schoolwork? Do you save everything? Save only a few special or otherwise noteworthy things? Throw everything in a big box for now, or sort it neatly by grade or age? 
2017 Update: We still stand by this advice on our favorite apps to help you stay connected to school or daycare — but you may also want to check out some of our newer stories on 
ur kid is older, you can get around the “What did you do at school today?” non-answers. (My son’s favorite is “I forgot!” when I ask him about certain things that happened during his first-grade school day.) It’s especially nice if you don’t have time to volunteer at school and don’t ever get to see what goes on during a typical day. Today we’ve rounded up some parent communication apps that you can consider recommending to your child’s school if they don’t currently use one (before the year is out).
These days, everyone has precious things on our computers: those family photos, that old voicemail from Nana you saved on your computer, the half-finished draft of your novel. Some of it you can save casually in the cloud, sure — but some of it, for sheer size alone, kind of has to live on a hard drive. How do you back up those hard drives? We looked into the best online backup services that keep your stuff safe — and don’t require a ton of effort or money on your part.
