Raising Children in the Digital Age: How Apps Impact Parenting Style of New Parents

The flood of smartphones and use of cloud technology into the consumer market has transformed the way that parents raise their children. It seems as though a new app is released each day, designed to improve the efficiency of some aspect of our lives, and many new apps enable parents to take a greater control in how they choose to raise their children. There are seven dominant classes of apps that are used widely by parents.

Medical Apps

Few things in life have the potential to disrupt the milieu and flow of our lives like an illness, and an ill child requires parents to rearrange work schedules, schedule appointments, fill medications, and care for their children. Some apps have streamlined this process by allowing parents to enter the symptoms of their child, and review the potential diagnoses. Although medical apps should not be used in potentially life-threatening situations, they can help parents rule out symptoms or signs of normal behavior or minor illnesses, which do not require medical intervention. Furthermore, these apps can help parents who need advice when treating common medical concerns, such as a mild temperature, excessive crying, or constipation.

Tracking Children’s Supplies

Children come with a lot of baggage–literally–parents find themselves carrying diaper bags, wipes, drinks, snacks, toys, bottles, pacifiers, blankets, wash clothes, and many more items. A whole array of apps exists to help parents ensure they have all the necessary supplies for their children before the leaving the house. This results in fewer return trips to the house or expenses incurred by purchasing additional items in the store while away.

Monitoring Healthy Food Choices

The childhood obesity epidemic continues to plague the United States, and millions of parents want to make healthier food choices for their children. In addition, some children may have special dietary needs, such as gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, or other food allergies. Apps can help parents track the caloric intake of foods for their children, as well as provide tips regarding healthy or diet-restrictive food choices.

Improved Baby Monitoring

Remember the old, bulky baby monitors that only let parents hear the baby? A whole class of apps has risen that can provide both video and sound streaming to your mobile device from literally any location. However, parents must ensure they do not use these apps as a reason to leave a baby at home unattended.

Collecting All of Your Images of Your Children

We all have photo albums full of our childhood memories, and in the digital age, everyone will be taking pictures or videos of their little ones. Apps enable parents, family, and friends to connect and share digital media amongst one another, which enables every precious moment to be captured in its entirety.

Connecting With Other First-Time Parents

Having a child is a stressful, life-changing event, and many parents may find themselves struggling with making the best decisions or the stress of becoming a parent. Apps allow first-time parents to connect with other first-timers or experienced parents, which gives the child a greater chance of having a joyous, productive, and fulfilling childhood. It also boosts parental moral and alleviates societal pressures on parents.

Educational Opportunities for Children

The most significant change in parenting has come as a direct result of the smartphone craze: greater educational opportunities for children. There are hundreds of apps that teach children how to count, draw, or even write, and other apps focus on identifying colors, shapes, the letters of the alphabet, and many more objects. Some apps have even taken the place of proverbial “pet” to “teach a child responsibility.”

Although parents face thousands of challenges throughout their lifetime with their children, they have access to a much larger resource for helping them make sure every facet of their children’s childhood is taken care of. Not only do the parents of today have the peace of mind associated with a mobile lifestyle, but their actual job of parenting has become much simpler, albeit more complicated in their smart phone app store, than the parents of the past.

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Bonnie Woodrum’s background is eclectic to say the least. In the 80’s, she spent 10 years driving a semi-truck traveling the highways across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, at a time where that type of work was (and still is) dominated by men. During the 90’s, Bonnie moved into a business altogether different and spent a decade as an accredited daycare owner and operator. Today, Bonnie (or LeahSay as she’s also known as), is a full time writer and owns her own blog, LeahSaysViews.com. LeahSaysViews has been active daily for the last five years and is focused on family-friendly topics that include reviews for products and services.

Bonnie blogs for a number of children’s entertainment and mom-targeted/kid-centric brands such as Purex, Safety 1st, National Geographic, PBSKids, American Greetings Properties, owners of Care Bears & Strawberry Shortcake, Outfit7 Limited, producers of Talking Tom and Friends and Talking Angela, and Bandai America, one of the largest public toy companies in the world and makers of Power Rangers action figures, Tamagotchi and more.

Bonnie attended Crowder College with studies in transport technology and agriculture. Mother to five, and grandmother to ten, Bonnie enjoys gardening, cooking, reading, traveling and spending time with her family. Bonnie lives the American dream in Joplin, MO in a farm complete with barns, livestock and hay.

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