Co-Parenting Communication Applications

Talking Parents is one of several excellent co-parenting communication platforms available on the market today

Co-parenting applications are designed to facilitate communication and coordination between parents who share custody of children. A co-parenting app provides a structured and neutral platform for communication in a dedicated channel — one location — for parents to discuss child-related matters. Co-parenting apps reduce the risk of misunderstandings, miscommunication, and even heated exchanges via personal phones, SMS messages, or emails. They preserve time-stamped records of all communication and may not be altered, which can be valuable for legal purposes if needed. Using a co-parenting app minimizes the risk of unintended audiences (like children) overhearing or participating in sensitive, adult discussions.

Co-parenting apps include other features, including shared calendars. The calendar feature allows parents to easily coordinate schedules for pickups, drop-offs, school events, and extracurricular activities. They slo help parents track and share child-related expenses (e.g., childcare, medical bills) for information and reimbursement purposes. The app can help reduce deniability, minimizing and even eliminating the ability of a parent to claim that they did not know about an event or expense.

If a co-parenting app is implemented in your family dynamic, take the time to learn how to use the app effectively and use any available support resources. Each of the most common apps have dedicated web pages and tutorials designed to guide and inform parents about best practices for use of the app.

As co-parenting apps offer many benefits with little downside, they are frequently ordered by courts to be implemented by parents post-separation. Many times, a parent who resists implementing an app is the parent who has a history of making false claims such as “I didn’t get that,” or “I didn’t know that” to try to shift blame for their irresponsibility and oversight to the other parent. They recognize that the application will eliminate their deniability, so they may push back on a suggestion for using an app. Because there is so much value to using an app, judges may order the parents to download an app and purchase a subscription even if one of the parents objects.