apps for parents

Just about every day, I have a moment where I'm grateful social media wasn't around when I was a teen or pre-teen. Don't get me wrong; technology is a major positive in my life and in my kids' lives. But it's also kind of scary to think …

For the most part, I've got a good handle on my family's finances, but when it comes to the smaller details of where our money goes, I could use some help from this new iOS app. I'm finding it's really great for tracking your every day e…

Obsessed with Pinterest as we are? Follow us ! Then check out our five most popular pins from this week. 1. Keep these awesome educational channels for kids on YouTube bookmarked to help your kids get ready for back to school. 2. Here's …

There's nothing more delicious for a parent than when we appreciate an app as much as our kids do--even if it's not quite for the same reasons. We really loved Mo Willems' first app and his new one has even more of the spirit of the quir…

Indeed, one of our Cool Mom Tech subscribers will win a fully loaded iPad this month, courtesy of one of our very favorite parent lifesaver apps, Artkive . But our subscribers get so much more than that every month. Our monthly newslette…

We've been touting the benefits of Animoto video editing since the very first day we discovered how easy it was to make fabulous videos from your own snapshots, how professional they look, and how free they can be. (At least the short on…

I feel for parents of teens these days, who not only have to contend with the usual teen angst, but also have a whole new set of digital obstacles to face with their kids texting and app-downloading and web surfing. Not to mention apps l…

Oh Appy Day! is our ongoing feature giving you the scoop on the coolest apps from some of the coolest people anywhere. Last week, our Editor Kristen Chase had the chance to talk to actor and dad Ethan Hawke and find out his favorite app,…

With a second grader in the house who is increasingly reliant on the computer for homework and projects, I'm finding myself becoming much more vigilant about what he's doing when online, and researching ways to be better about monitoring…

Even though I'm on the Do-Not-Call registry, I sometimes get the one-off unwanted cell phone call from a telemarketer that I wish I could block, because it always seems to call the moment we sit down for dinner. While I have come to acce…

With two tweens, I'm increasingly aware of all the trouble they might get into using social media like Instagram, Facebook , and especially Snapchat . A.K.A. "the sexting app"--eep! Even if it is just an accidental lapse in judgment, it …

The Honest Company , Jessica Alba and Christopher Gavigan's awesomely pure baby company we've loved featuring on Cool Mom Picks has gone from organic to high-tech with its new mobile app. And it is as good as we expected. The new HonestB…

As a sentimental parent and one who loves to remember all the little things, I've been turning more towards my phone for digital assistance so I don't miss a thing. Which is why I love checking out apps that are designed to record memori…

I've been a big Spotify fan ever since this awesome music service finally hit the United States. Since then, I use it pretty much daily to listen to music myself, but also to help me parent my kids. Check out these 10 ways parents can us…

When I use instant messaging services and have all windows open at once, it gets a little complicated at times to keep up with AIM, MSN Messenger, Gchat and Skype messages that are all coming at me at the same time. (I swear, it's not ju…

The other day I was cleaning out my daughter's closet and I came across her baby book. About the first six months of her life were complete, but after that, it was pretty spotty. I will say that looking at digital baby book options avail…

Any time I talk to a parent with tweens, the conversation eventually turns to the kinds of technology they are using, which then eventually turns into a Q&A session of me asking about cell phone usage, social media usage, cyber bullying …

Is there a safe kids' browser that I can put on my iPad or phone for my son? Or do I have to just find a way to block sites on Safari somehow? Thanks! -Ellen K Ellen, we get the need for a safe kids browser for your devices! We also unde…

I remember when we were pregnant and pretty much counting down the days until we could announce it to the world. We of course were not together enough to spill the beans in any clever fashion but rather did so in a deluge of texts, email…

As parents, I know so many of us keep some kind of record of our funny kid-isms (they do say the darndest things, right?), but a new service called Limetree will now let you record all of them in one place. Limetree is both a website and…

I've never had a problem with creating to-do lists, but having different lists scattered in different places seems to defeat the purpose of getting organized. So in the vein of actually having my to-do lists in one place, I've pulled tog…

If you're like me, then you live by your online calendar. This also means that when I'm not at my laptop, I need to be able to access it from my iPhone and iPad through a calendar app. But wow, there are tons of calendar apps out there, …

These days, with contacts in virtual address books, real address books (yes, I still use one), Facebook, LinkedIn, and apps galore, it's getting increasingly essential to find a way to organize your contacts and streamline them in one pl…

It's become ridiculously easy to shop on a budget thanks to the plethora of apps and websites aimed at saving you money. We narrowed them down to our favorites, all of which will make life easier and put a little money back in your walle…