Parents Want One Family-Management App
131 posts across 31 communities in the last 30 days; 28% from r/SideProject.
“Love that you built this out of a real problem you experienced as a parent. For onboarding, I'd make sure adding twins is super intuitive and each baby is visually distinct when logging feeds or naps. One thing I'd be curious about is whether a first-time user immediately…”
“Hey guys! First time posting on here! I'm absolutely tired of our Wi-Fi camera setup because of its unreliability. I have two kids and my wife and I heavily rely on our two Roku cameras to make sure they are not doing anything unsafe. The problem is, when our Internet goes down…”
“Basically the title. There are plenty of these apps on the AppStore that are pretty great. But they all have the same issue. I’m not controlling the data and they usually cost money. I.e an app that: * Has date scheduling * Todo lists * Long term todo * What to buy *…”
Parents are struggling with fragmented digital tools and overwhelming data related to their children and household management. Existing apps often fail to address the specific needs of families, leading to frustration, duplicated efforts, and a desire for more connected, privacy-focused solutions. They're building their own tools to solve these problems.
SOURCES (60)
“Hi everyone, FamilyPine v3 is now available on the App Store and Google Play. It’s the biggest update we’ve ever done. We rebuilt every screen, so the app looks and feels new, but all of your family’s memories, chats and events are still there. What’s…”
“Our family's shared photo library crossed 40,000 photos and videos this year. It felt like my options were to keep increasing our cloud storage plan or pay for apps with short free trials that turn into subscriptions. I haven't developed anything for iOS since the Objective-C days, so I decided to learn a new stack and solve a personal problem. Goal: build a daily habit of cleaning up my photos and videos, reviewing each one to make sure I don't lose something valuable. The app is Ph”
“I actually want all the advice - just wasn’t a good flair option. Our little guy (26 months) is a runner. This summer he figured out how to climb on the ledge and squeeze between the 4inch gap of where our fence and our neighbors fence starts. So we blocked that off. Lately he’s been putting his outdoor chair up against our gate to unlock it. Today I was inside making dinner and my husband was outside talking to a neighbor- and next thing we know - no one knew where he was - panicking we luckily”
“Trying to get our home clean is always such a big deal. It isn't horrible, but I never have a picture worthy clean home due to lack of organization. submitted by /u/Obvious-Remote2355 [link] [comments]”
“Love that you built this out of a real problem you experienced as a parent. For onboarding, I'd make sure adding twins is super intuitive and each baby is visually distinct when logging feeds or naps. One thing I'd be curious about is whether a first-time user immediately understands how to track both babies with one tap. Great idea! [re: Feedback Friday: Rate My Ideas | October 16, 2026]”
Our son was born at 35 weeks, so every ml counted and we were logging every feed anyway. I wanted to see it like my GitHub contributions: a square for every hour,…
“I’m looking for cleaning schedules that actual families are using. How often do you do the different tasks? I’ve tried setting up a couple of apps like Tody, but they don’t really give me the structure I’m after. One suggested that I vacuum the hallway every other week 😳 which I feel isn’t really enough (and I’m by no means a clean freak). I’d love to make a weekly plan that we can put on the wall and not have to think about when it’s time to clean the bathroom or mop the floors. (We’re a famil”
“TLDR: who currently uses what? And how are you finding it? My use case is probably similar to lots of people. Wife uses an iPhone, I use a pixel, we want a shared household calendar/system to manage bookings meals, shopping lists etc. On top of the phones, I'd like to have a tablet in the kitchen that anyone can update shopping lists etc and look at. If I can selfhost then that would be perfect as I'm already running a sensible setup with Ubuntu etc. submitted by /u/crashgogg”
“Looking for suggestions on software to monitor my sons’ phones. Ages 15 & 12. They’ve had the MMGuardian Android phone for several years and it’s gone well but they want to move on to an iPhone. I’m not sure what works best with iOS. Had nothing but issues with Bark before we switched to MMGuardian. Need to be able to approve/block apps, implement time limits for when the phone can be used, and get alerts to concerning issues. Thank you. submitted by /u/Realistic_Grab7003 [link]”
“Love that, the projector idea is brilliant! Hope your kids enjoy it. Let me know what they find. [re: I built a little interactive globe for my two boys. Somehow, they became my entire dev team.]”
“Hey guys! First time posting on here! I'm absolutely tired of our Wi-Fi camera setup because of its unreliability. I have two kids and my wife and I heavily rely on our two Roku cameras to make sure they are not doing anything unsafe. The problem is, when our Internet goes down, so does our Roku cameras 95% of the time. Additionally, when we pull them up on our Roku TVs or phones, it takes time to establish that connection, and sometimes it fails for a few minutes, and then connects. We'”
“I’m new to Home Assistant and this is my first post here. I’ve managed to create a family calendar dashboard a chore system and a shopping list integration along side the calendar. My wife is happy with how it all looks…”
“Hey Daddy-Os! Starting a project to get my kiddos off the streams. The goal is to enable our nanny to show curated (by us) media to our kid in a way that avoids ads, slop (both human and AI-generated...), and the nonsense that needs to be waded through on streaming sites to even get to the content. I'd consider myself somewhat tech-literate (if not savvy) but haven't worked on this kind of thing before so looking for advice on a basic but functional and smooth setup. Or recommendations b”
“I love the idea! Next app should be for the mom to auto reply to your good mornings. [re: Today’s Thought About an Idea]”
“There's an app called EverDue (Android) that has basically this exact flow for a different use case (couples/families managing a shared pantry), and it maps onto what you're describing pretty closely. How it works: when you're down to the last few of something, you mark it "running low" and it auto-adds to a shared shopping list everyone on the share can see — so whoever does the next supply run just opens that list instead of guessing or walking upstairs to check. Pairing”
“Hi! I’m a busy mom of 4, and I’m looking into getting a Skylight Calendar or something similar. I really want to create a family command center that helps us keep track of schedules, chores, and rewards for the kids. I’d also love for it to be something everyone can easily check themselves, including my partner, so I’m not the only one keeping track of everything! Has anyone purchased the Skylight Calendar or a similar system? Do you feel like it’s worth the money? I’d love to hear your honest o”
“Do It For The XP turns chores into quests. A parent plays the Game Master: they write the quests ("take out the bins", "read for 20 minutes"), choose what each one pays and which ones need their OK. Each kid plays a hero. A chore shows up as a beast on a deadline clock, finishing it wins the fight, and the XP, gold and ability points they earn go toward levels, gear and shops in town. Beyond that there are dungeons with keys and boss doors, daily streaks, a Hero Records page”
“Basically the title. I’ve set up Mealie, Plex (and Plexamp), a family planner (weekly meals, budget, calendar, etc.), and more. She discovered a fantastic family planning app that we started using yesterday. However, after reading about the data it collects, I was quite concerned. It gathers our addresses, emails, check-in notes, menstrual cycles, full calendar access, and more. I found a self-hosted alternative that looked very similar to the app she found, explained it to her, and demonstrated”
“We self-host multiple calendars: one for each person, one for the house, and one for our parents. Shared shopping lists are in HedgeDoc. I'm not sure what you want out of a mealplanning app. We tend to wing it and adjust the grocery list accordingly. [re: Is there any self hosted application with iOS app for family planning?]”
“Basically the title. There are plenty of these apps on the AppStore that are pretty great. But they all have the same issue. I’m not controlling the data and they usually cost money. I.e an app that: * Has date scheduling * Todo lists * Long term todo * What to buy * Mealplanning/grocery list * Can be shared between users. I.e updates on my end reflect on the partners end * etc. I hope I’m asking the right questions, and that you understand what I’m after. submitted by /u/aomajgad [l”
“Hey everyone! Like many of you, my family has an overflowing folder stuffed with paper prescriptions and lab reports dating back years. Every time my parents visit a doctor, we face the same three headaches: Nobody can read the doctor’s scribbled handwriting. The doctor asks what medicines were prescribed 6 months ago, and we have to dig through messy paper slips. Keeping track of daily pill schedules (before/after meals, dosages) across multiple specialists is a mess. I couldn't find a clea”
It’s been a journey, but started because I just got annoyed that my parents had multiple cards and didn’t use them well and stores don’t broadcast discounts available… I have a growing…
“Thanks for the feedback! Really appreciate the tip from the founder directly. I'll definitely give that a try! [re: Pori's Picture Book - a free read-aloud picture-book app for little kids where every character has its own voice, in 4 languages]”
“you set up/schedule a party, share a link, and bam, guests can RSVP without making an account. RSVPing is optional, so if you already did it(or if there are no guests), thats fine too. Later, when the party is active, hosts and guests can participate in party "missions", e.g taking photos and capture the memories. The guest still does all this without making any account. After the party all of the content ends up in a digital memory book, which can be shared by the host with a select f”
“A task manager app where you can group tasks by tags instead of just lists. Not super original but you can add real-time collaboration with SignalR, that gives you something to talk about with concurrency and state management. Throw in a background service that sends reminders for overdue tasks and you got async patterns covered too. [re: Looking for a small C#/.NET project idea]”
“We’re developers, and this started as a personal frustration with keeping our households organized. Whenever we needed an appliance warranty, an old repair invoice or an insurance policy, we knew we had it somewhere. Finding it was another story. Even when we found it, nothing connected the warranty to the repair to the renewal coming up next year. So we started building Lucidi. You forward an email or upload a document, and Lucidi works out what it is and connects it to the right thing in your”
“Yeah, the grandparents scenario was exactly why I immediately bought it. Younger kids with limited screen time. The grandparents call our phones to talk to them and vice versa. I'm curious how this will work for my kids who don't have apple devices/accounts.We're old school and use a dry erase board on the fridge for our calendar, so a centralized device would be nice. We tried using an old iPad, but it was more clunky to turn it on, click on the app each time. We did try kiosk mode, but it was”
“So, Tableful came out of personal frustration; I've been saving screenshots and playlists of recipe reels over the years with no decent way of searching through eventually hundreds of recipes.. What started as an import-only app, grew into being able to customize your saved recipes to your needs, building meal plan and grocery lists, nutrition info / goals / macros, and cooking steps (on-screen and hands-free). It's what it says on the tin really. If you're asking why this vs a ton o”
“Just spun this up, the Jellyfin user sync is slick, been wanting something that handles that without making everyone re-register. The calendar view alone might get my housemates to actually check what's new instead of texting me [re: OmniArr - Sharing my unified UI take for Jellyfin, Sonarr & Radarr]”
“I think that's actually one of the features they show for this product on their page. It's made to link with Home Assistant which has calendars and other functionality for exactly that type of use case. I personally opted for the Arduino option ;) [re: Anyone I've told about this irl wasn't as excited as me, so I figured I'd share it here :)]”
“Hi, erstmal lieben Dank für die Erstellung dieser Komponente. Hab sie installiert und hat tatsächlich auf Anhieb einfach funktioniert. Das war cool. Konnte das jetzt schon für meine beiden Kinder nutzen. Was jetzt noch toll wäre, wäre eine Möglichkeit eine weitere Datenquelle hinzuzufügen in der man ein Datum und das Fach hinterlegen kann. Wenn der entsprechende Tag ansteht sollte der Vermerk "Schulaufgabe" oder "kleiner Leistungsnachweis" oder "Referat" bei dem Fach mit angezeigt werden. Leider”
“The Planiko leave by time thing sounds properly useful for the days where everything runs late and the afternoon turns into a mess [re: [Android] Seeking beta testers for 3 apps: Calendar day planner, GTD capture & TV │ tracker]”
“First. I am proud of this! I wanted to make a Halloween calendar for my kiddo. She needed help with the idea between Halloween time and Halloween day. There was several on makerworld but none quite what I wanted so I spent the afternoon designing this and printing. I am so excited with it how it came out. Still working out the kinks with the ghost but overall it’s what I envisioned. Second. You probably know this but just a reminder. Don’t be me. I was so excited to try my design that I printed”
“Our babies are getting older & we just want to make sure we are monitoring them to the best of our abilities. Does anyone know of any food bowls with cameras that connect to an app? We have 3 cats and would love to be able to monitor their food consumption throughout the day. Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/TaylorSwiftIsACat [link] [comments]”
“i made a simple 5-day dinner planner with a grocery list. nothing fancy, every meal is around 15 min and i tried to include stuff kids actually eat (the "ew" factor was a big theme lol)full disclosure, i made it, and it's free. i'm working on a submitted by /u/OkElderberry1042 [link] [comments]”
“AnyList does this. Great app. Use it for our family groceries and household items. [re: Somebody make a one-tap "we're running low" button for shared supplies at work]”
“My door partner just introduced me to Focus through GoGuardian. I cannot wait to use it! The kids have to stay on the assigned website and you can't go anywhere else. This is going to be amazing! [re: Seriously considering moving to solely paper to be petty]”
“I have spent so many hours banging my head, please help. We use android phones (google pixels) and want a standalone smart watch for a 10-yr old. I would go Apple but don't know how I would see his location as we aren't in the ecosystem and I think you need an iPhone to set it up which we also don't have. I have tried using a Samsung Smart Watch 8 but if you don't use Samsung phones it also is annoying as fuck. Is there a straight-forward way to setup a standalone android phone t”
“a shared family dashboard with reminders, bills, and grocery lists would be useful. keep setup so it doesnt become another task to manage [re: Personal Assistant]”
“I have 2 kids, and 2 mostly empty baby books with no photos stuck in them. Maybe its a me problem but i think a lot of parents struggle to find the time to get a physical baby book out, find a pen, then write in it. And if you want to put photos in you need to physically go print them out somewhere 🤮 gross. So i decided to build an app for it. The idea is it is not social media, it's purely for a parent's own memories, so it is low pressure and theres no need to make it perfect. Optiona”
“Hey, your app looks cool, could you send me a copy? [re: Looking for one single plugin to organize tasks, calendar and life projects?]”
“Father of twins. We burned through every tracker out there. Nara was the clean simple one, then they put a $7/month toll on it in September. Huckleberry is a sleep product with a tracker attached. Nothing handled multiples well, so I built Moro. iPhone and Apple Watch. Both parents on the same log. One tap logs a feed or diaper for every kid at once instead of once per kid. Built it with Claude Code. CloudKit for family sync, no server. Daily logging is free, history and nap predictions are paid”
“I've got 8 testers so far and most of them are related to me, so I need some outside opinions. GroceryGret is a shared grocery list for a household. Everyone adds from their own phone and it stays in sync. It also tells you which nearby store is cheapest for your list, based on real receipt prices and store sale emails. What I'd love feedback on: - Is setup easy to get through? - Does joining a family list make sense? - The fridge photo scan, does it find what's actually in there? iP”
“Parents have age ratings, Common Sense Media is helping a lot, but nothing says whether a title actually helps a kid grow. My son is turning 6. Though I played GTA on the back of my parents as a kid, I keep wondering what kind of entertainment will actually help him grow. Now that I know GTA is rated +18 and with AI showing up everywhere, I want my son 1- gets entertained 2- by content that make him grow in a safe way. So I've built the Marble Index to measure that. Does this respect his att”
“i juggle google and outlook for work and icloud for personal stuff so this sounds exactly what i been looking for, send me the link [re: [iOS] Looking for beta testers — OCTRuTA, a calendar app that combines Google, Outlook & iCloud in one view (with booking links that check all of them)]”
“Hi, I'd like to suggest adding customizable gesture controls and support for multiple home screen pages. Currently, having everything on a single dashboard can get a bit crowded, especially when using several widgets. It would be nice to have multiple pages, similar to a regular Android launcher, where users could swipe left or right to switch between different widget layouts. For example, one page could have the usual clock, speedometer, and music controls, while another could be dedicated to n”
“I downloaded it yesterday and it’s finally available for iPhone. Sound the alarm boys . Make sure everyone knows about it!! Best for cherry picking in my opinion and no violations possible . submitted by /u/Holiday_Heron5268 [link] [comments]”
“I am a mom of 7 in a blended family, including 3 stepchildren. With kids ranging from babies to young adults, I’ve learned that parenting isn’t always intuitive, and I’m constantly trying to become a better parent myself. I’ve been developing a parenting app to help parents navigate everyday challenges, from toddler meltdowns to teenage attitudes and everything in between. The idea is simple: instead of just telling parents what to do, it helps them understand what might be behind their child’s”
“My son has been an absolute handful these past few days, and I’ve noticed that listening to or reading about child development really helps me understand what he’s going through as he grows up. I usually spend my free time drowning myself in Reddit threads or true crime videos (lol), but I’d love to make that time a little more productive, or at least use it to better understand my little guy and all the changes he’s going through. I’m open to any suggestions! Podcasts, books, audiobooks, whatev”
“My girlfriend created Alkateia, a private communication app for families. We have two young kids, and the idea came from a fear a lot of parents probably have: how do you keep your kids connected and reachable without exposing them to the risks of social media? The idea is simple: No exposure — no public profiles, usernames, followers or searching for strangers. Private entry — family members join through temporary, revocable invitations. 🚨 SOS — one button sends an alarm + real-time location t”
“Long story short, I don't entirely trust everyone in our immediate families to not share photos of our baby when the time comes but I want to spare myself the drama of some people being grey-rocked vs. others not. -- I've heard of TinyNest and I'm wondering, if you used it, how did people react? Did you find it was actually beneficial? First grandchild on both sides of the family so everyone is extremely excited. Please spare me the "if you don't trust them you need to addre”
“yeah, this is important to us. we use this app ourselves so we want to be able to trust that our own data is safe. We were both data engineers in a former life and are confident we're doing a good job here. We've spent tons of time wordsmithing the language on [our privacy page]( https://tothevo.id/privacy ) - I hope that answers a lot of potential concerns?”
“Try it! If you add specific things he likes to the description, the app will build a story around them, complete with illustrations. We just need to make sure kids and parents get the most out of it and enjoy the experience.”
“I was asking Screen Routine's maker, so I can't confirm the device setup. For a shared iPad, another useful test is whether switching between children resets or carries over the break timer. The earlier plan is there if useful.”
“softr works fine for basic stuff but if you need anything resembling a real app with search and averages youll hit a wall fast”
“For kinCore’s first testers, give two household members one shared chore: create it, complete it from the second account, then check whether both see the same completion and XP. That tests the multiplayer foundation before mystery achievements add complexity. Ask whether the leaderboard encouraged another chore or made one person feel behind. By the way, I make ThreadFox: it finds Reddit communities whose rules allow a post about an app like kinCore, and the plan for one product is free. https:/”