The Best Way to Organize Your Family Calendar
There are many things I wish I knew before becoming a parent. An incredible amount of Band-Aids to be wasted. How many photos in my film roll would be defocused selfies of my baby’s head. First of all, the amount of time I would spend on mind-boggling logistical acrobatics to manage my family’s day-to-day business.
Between work, business trips, doctor visits, soccer practice, piano lessons, teeth brushing, gymnastics lessons, birthday parties, kindergarten meetings, and school events, managing your family’s schedule can feel like air traffic control in Kennedy airport.
The “best way” to organize will depend on your preferences and those of your partner. You may need a large wall calendar or dry-erase board to remember things; your spouse can thrive in a fully digital environment. But there are a few ironclad rules that will apply regardless of your schedule format.
Choose one place for the family calendar (and format)
The first step is to decide where the main family calendar will be stored: on the wall or on your devices? Admittedly, paper or dry-wipe calendars can seem archaic. But for some (for me), literally almost looking at their calendars is the only way to adequately remind them of what’s coming next.
However, digital storage has many benefits, from all calendar app options to built-in color coding options, automatic sync across devices, and push notifications before every action. However, if you and your partner have previously used different digital calendars, you will need to agree on which one will be used for the whole family.
In our house, we do both: a digital calendar that my husband and I keep, and a wall calendar that my old school paper version creates as a backup. (Note: young children usually love to see what events are coming up, mentally prepare, and count the days.) Children in middle school and older can and should take an active role in maintaining their part of the family calendar.
Set a rule that everything (no, everything) must be entered on the calendar.
First of all, make sure that you and your partner agree on the need to maintain a joint family calendar. (After all, you’ll need their support and input to be successful.) Once you both take personal responsibility for making sure your family schedule runs smoothly, set a rule that each parent should keep track of all their personal events. , work trips, poker nights, after-hours gym visits, and social events in a shared family calendar —unless you happen to be with someone who loves and excels at managing it all. In that case, bless.
If one child’s entire football schedule is hosted in TeamSnap, and the other child’s baseball season and group practices exist in two additional apps, develop a system with your spouse to enter all those practices and game times into a central family calendar. Either hire one parent who agrees to enter all the data all the time, or rotate duties weekly or monthly.
Use color coding to your advantage
One way to make your family calendar easier to interpret is to use color coding. Choose a different color for each child, activity, or parent whose responsibility it is to prepare said child and get them to their activity. Digital apps make this easy; but keeping a stash of markers or dry-erase markers in different colors near the central office works for those who love a material calendar.
Have weekly family “gatherings”
Feel free to interpret the word “meeting” loosely. This can either be a regularly scheduled meeting with all employees, during which all family activities are broadcast to the entire group, or it can be a 10-minute meeting with your spouse every Sunday evening to discuss basic logistics and any other issues. changes from the norm for this week (and also, of course, who will be in charge of transport and dinner each night).
Practice night or morning checks
In addition to weekly meetings, every night before bed or every morning, touch the base not only with your partner, but also with your children to remind them of upcoming workouts and other events. This ensures that there are no surprises (such as contractions when the child thought he might just vegetate after school).
And don’t forget, among all the racing around, make time for relaxation and family activities that you can enjoy together. Dare we say you should put them on your calendar?