Five Favorite Apps For The Digital Dad

As a guest recently on Randi Zuckerberg's SiriusXM Radio Show I was asked to provide five of my favorite apps as a "digital dad." My kids are teenagers and I don't think there are apps I use specifically for parenting, so I took a bit of a different approach in the hope that the listeners would find at least one that they liked.

We live in a mixed phone family with both iPhones and Androids in the house so I wanted to only share apps that work on both.

TripIt

Travel is a big part of my life and I'll book speaking engagements sometimes as far out as a year in advance. TripIt keeps all of my details for traveling organized and up to date.

I've been a paying customer for years and last year had the opportunity to appear in their latest commercial.

Bring!

As the person who does the majority of the grocery shopping and cooking in our house, I'm always forgetting to pick something up at the store.

After looking around and trying out several different shared grocery list apps, our family has decided on using Bring!

It works on both iOS and Android and it simply works. The kids or my wife can see and add to the lists whenever they need to. I also love that as I'm about to go to the store I can push out a notification to let them know if they have any last minute additions it needs to be now.

Snapchat

Parents need to use the tools their kids are using so that they are both educated about them, but also to communicate with them.

My teenagers use this to communicate with their friends all the time and by following their stories I get to peek a little inside of their lives outside of the house.

It also allows them to stay in touch with me when I'm on the road and to follow along on my travels by following what I create and share.

Timehop

One of the reasons I love photography and take so many photos is I love being having a way to look back at the past.

Every day I open up Timehop and I'm presented with checkins, posts and photos of what I was doing on that exact day over the past eight years.

This morning it was showing me photos from our family trip to Atlantis six years ago and tomorrow something else on it will make me smile.

If you post on social media, I can't understand why you wouldn't be using this.

Geocaching

Laura has really gotten into the world of geocaching so this app comes in handy.

No matter where we are in the world, we can open it up and see if there are any hidden treasures nearby.

This is an activity that anyone can participate in and it gets that family off of the couch and out in nature.

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I do have to add a late addition to this that might not be perfect for parenting, but it sure does help with this parent's sanity and that is the latest Verizon FiOS apps.

I recently forgot to set up recording of a few new shows and got in trouble for it, but quickly added them from my phone while away from the house. Any app that can help me calm down an angry teenager is a good one in my book and these certainly did that so thank you!

What apps are you and your family using?

Any break out hits that I've got to try?