Tools to Maintain a Shared Family Calendar
Whether all living nearby or far apart, families have a lot that they must plan for as a group. Family dinners, birthday parties and other important events are best arranged if everyone is made aware of the schedule. More than the schedule, many family members just want to know what's been going on in the lives of their relatives like when a child's music recitals are going to be or how an aging parent's doctor's appointment went. All in all, families need a convenient method of staying in touch and on top of their shared and individual calendars.
Many people use personal online calendaring apps to track individual schedules and sometimes, if the option is available, share that calendar with other members of their family. Yet when sharing a family calendar, choosing the right one to use is important for a number of reasons. You want to make sure that the calendar you choose is secure enough to let you share your family agenda while keeping your schedule private from those who aren't invited to see it. You also should choose a calendar that fits the needs of each family member. For example, you may have family members who know little about technology and would prefer to use paper calendars, but they want to be a part of the shared family calendar. Moreover, family members who often face conflict between each other may have concerns over their relatives making adjustments to the calendar and creating confusion.
Families concerned with each of these matters should consider using the shared family calendaring tools on the OurFamilyWizard® website. Built to help co-parents document and share schedules and other important family information, this toolset can help any family stay connected in any circumstance. Of its four main features, the OurFamilyWizard® calendar provides families with templates to share information about all sorts of upcoming family events and activities. Since it was built to accommodate all sorts of parenting time schedules, it is equipped with tools to organise different types of scheduling information in such a way that is easy to read. One tool, in particular, is built to help families show who has parenting time over which days while leaving space for other entries. While especially helpful for co-parents, this tool can also be useful for children of an aging parent who share care responsibilities. This kind of tool helps to keep a family's care schedule organised and easy to read while also leaving plenty of room for the other important details like events for family dinners, meetings, holidays, and more.
Thorough documentation is a key element of the OurFamilyWizard® calendaring system. All entries are time stamped and dated, plus events and other scheduled items cannot be edited or deleted once they have taken place. Having a permanent, clear history of what the schedule was can make a big difference in helping to avoid future arguments or confusion over what happened. While several family members can be granted access to the calendar, the ability to create posts is managed by a limited number of people. This can help to control the chaos that other shared online calendaring systems sometimes lead to when everyone has access to post whatever they'd like in the schedule. Still, the OurFamilyWizard® calendar is built to let all family members post journal entries as a way to take notes and make comments relating to specific dates in the past or future.
When it comes to coordinating a shared family calendar, using the right tools can greatly simplify the process. The OurFamilyWizard® calendar makes it easy for families to share agendas in such a way that is highly organised and clearly communicated. Tech savvy or not, family members can access their shared family calendar using a device like a tablet or smartphone, or it can be easily printed.
Since 2001, the OurFamilyWizard® website and its suite of tools have helped families communicate in a clear, organised manner. Learn more about the tools available on the OurFamilyWizard® shared family calendar and get started today by creating an account for your family.