If you’re a new parent, congratulations! You’re probably looking forward to all of the fun you’re going to have with your little one.
But we both know that’s not all there is. New parenthood can be chaotic and stressful. It’s hard to stay on top of everything you need to do, and sometimes it can even feel like you’re drowning in chores.
Download these apps to help make things easier for you. They’ll help make sure you don’t forget anything, and that your little one is well taken care of.
Best Apps For New Parents
Parenting is a rewarding experience, but it can also be a roller-coaster ride. Whether you have a newborn, a toddler, a preteen, or a teenager, kids can pull you in different directions. And sometimes, it’s difficult to keep up with everything.
Thankfully there’s no shortage of tools to help you survive each and every day on your parenting journey. If you need help managing your family’s schedule or looking for educational resources for the kids, here’s our list of the best parenting apps of the year.
Baby Connect
iPhone rating: 4.9
Android rating: 4.7
Price: $4.99
Whether you’re welcoming your first child or becoming a parent again, life with an infant has its ups and down. Between feedings, naps, diaper changes, and doctor appointments, you may need help organizing everything on your to-do list and maintaining your sanity. This app is an excellent tool for managing your baby’s sleeping schedule, feedings, any medication, and doctor visits. You can also set reminders for your baby’s next feeding and share this information with a nanny or relative caring for your child while you’re away.
Baby Nursing/Breastfeeding Tracker
iPhone rating: 4.3
Android rating: 4.4
Price: Free
Breastfeeding may seem like a piece of cake. But many mothers can attest to the challenges they face. Baby Nursing (also called Baby Breastfeeding) is a top-notch app for monitoring your baby’s feedings. Use the app to keep a close eye on how often your baby feeds and consumes during each feeding. You can also use the app to upload photos and maintain a record of your baby’s height, milestones, and physical development.
Cozi Family Organizer
iPhone rating: 4.8
Android rating: 4.4
Price: Free
Life gets hectic at times. And when you’re running in multiple directions, important tasks might fall through the cracks. Cozi is a sharable calendar app that every member in the family can access. It’s a must-have for keeping the family organized and on schedule.
Winnie
iPhone rating: 4.5
Android rating: 4.2
Price: Free
This app offer something for just about every parent. It’s a huge community of like-minded parents who are willing to open up and share their experiences. Are you looking for a new preschool or day care? If so, use the app for local recommendations. Connect with other parents and schedule playdates for your kids, or search for family-friendly restaurants and activities.
Kinedu
iPhone rating: 4.5
Android rating: 4.3
Price: Free with in-app purchases
You don’t always need to consult your doctor to know if your child’s meeting their milestones as they grow up. The Kinedu app gives you instant access to expert advice on how your baby compares to typical developmental milestones, including mental, physical, emotional, and linguistic health, and provides you with a big database of videos and other guided activities to help your child meet their development goals. The premium features even more videos, articles written by experts, support for up to five children to a single account, and the ability to share your account with caregivers, babysitters, and family members.
AppClose
iPhone rating: 4.7
Android rating: 4.0
Price: Free
Raising a child is hard. Period. But it can be especially tough if you’re trying to go it alone or co-parent with a partner who may not be in your life anymore. AppClose helps you manage your child-rearing as if you’re managing a major project, giving you a variety of record-keeping, scheduling, and communication tools that can help you save all of your baby’s critical information, such as appointments and expenses, and message others in your life who need to know all about your child in order to give them the best care and attention that they deserve from everyone in your life.
Parent Cue
iPhone rating: 4.8
Android rating: 4.8
Price: Free
Almost every parent wishes they knew exactly what to do or say to keep their child healthy and loved from day one to graduation day. Parent Cue wants to be your app for that: For the approximate 936 weeks from birth to the end of high school, this app gives you advice on what you can say to your child, what you can do together, and how you can recognize and understand the phase that your child is going through so that you can get a little extra boost of support through the good times and tough alike. Parenting isn’t easy, but it never hurts to have a little extra nudge as to how you can help your family move forward positively.
Speech Blubs
iPhone rating: 4.4
Android rating: 3.4
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Speech Blubs is home to thousands of language-learning tools for kids of all ages and adults who may want help with pronunciation or overcoming speech challenges. From more than 1,500 activities and games including videos and interactive flashcards to a sticker-collecting feature that helps you track your progress and stay motivated, this app is built around the science that children learn best to speak by observing other children speaking. It has no shortage of tools to help your child learn to observe and imitate the speech of other kids so that they can learn at their own pace while having fun.
Playfully Baby Development
iPhone rating: 4.8
Android rating: 4.4
Price: Free with in-app purchases
You might be thinking, “My child changes a little bit every day! How can I enjoy every single day with them while I watch them grow?” The Playfully Baby Development app helps you do just that, providing an original daily activity, keeping your child’s physical, mental, and linguistic development in mind so that they get the bonding time they need with you while also helping encourage their healthy, timely growth. The app also lets you save pictures from your activities so that you can look back at how far you and your child have come.
Sprout Baby
iPhone rating: 4.8
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Babies and children are a lot of work! There’s a lot to remember and a lot of responsibilities when it comes to feeding, bathing, health, and so much more. This app helps you keep track of all the important things you need to do for your child, from feeding and changing diapers to doctor’s visits and medications, with a tool to export your child’s data to PDF so that you can share your child’s history and needs with family, friends, or your doctor when needed. The app also contains a lot of reference information on growth milestones, tips for raising a happy and healthy child, and the ability to add more children as your family grows.
Peanut
iPhone rating: 4.2
Android rating: 4.0
Price: Free
Parenting can be a lonely experience, even with a partner, as it can be hard for others to empathize what you’re going through as you carry your child, give birth, and then balance your needs with your child’s. The Peanut app lets you connect with thousands of other women who have gone through exactly what you have, from trying to conceive to giving your child everything they need to be healthy. Try chatting in real time with other women using a swiping match tool, join group discussions, and share your own topics and advice with others.
If you want to nominate an app for this list, email us at nominations@healthline.com.
Parenthood
Written by Tim Jewell — Updated on August 25, 2020
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What Is Mindful Parenting?
Definitions
Key factors
Benefits
Examples
Differences
How to
Takeaway
Have little ones at home? If you’re feeling a bit out of control and in need of some extra guidance, you’re not alone.
Yet between all the potty accidents, early morning wake-ups, sibling spats, and waiting in the preschool pick-up line, let’s be honest — you probably have little energy left to read chock-full-of-advice parenting books.
At the same time, mindfulness is all the buzz, and some folks are incorporating it into their parenting philosophy. This helpful strategy may not be such a bad idea — so we’ll give you a brief rundown on mindful parenting and why it may be worth taking an extra moment to breathe the next time you face a situation that’s beyond frustrating.
What it means to parent mindfully
On its own, mindfulness is a practice of living in the moment. It means you’re aware of where you are in the world, what you’re thinking, and how you’re feeling on the inside and out.
Not only that, but mindfulness is also about looking at the world — your world — with less judgment and more acceptance. The idea of bringing awareness to the present moment is the core of Buddhist meditation, and it has been practiced and studied for centuries.
The idea of mindful parenting specifically has been around since 1997Trusted Source. In essence, it applies the principles of mindfulness to the many situations in your family that can feel a bit crazy at times.
The goal of bringing mindfulness to parenting is to respond thoughtfully to your child’s behaviors or actions versus simply reacting. You work to have acceptance for your child and, in turn, for yourself. Nurturing your relationship in this way may help strengthen your bond and lead to other benefits.
This isn’t to say that being a mindful parent always means thinking positively.
We’ll let you in on a little secret — parenting is never going to be all sunshine and smiles and kids eating what you fixed for dinner without complaint.
Instead, it’s about really engaging in the present moment and not letting emotions or trauma from the past or future color your experience or — more importantly — your reaction. You may still respond with anger or frustration, but it’s from a more informed place rather than one that’s purely automatic.
Key factors of mindful parenting
Much of what you might find written about mindful parenting focuses on three main qualities:
awareness and attention to the present moment
intentionality and understanding of behavior
attitude — nonjudgmental, compassionate, accepting — in response
This all sounds good, but what exactly does it mean?
To break it down even further, most ideas of mindful parenting involve these skillsTrusted Source:
Listening. This means truly listening and observing with your full attention. This can take a tremendous amount of patience and practice. And listening extends to the environment. Take in everything — the sights, smells, sounds — surrounding you and your child.
Nonjudgmental acceptance. It’s approaching the situation without judgment for your feelings or your child’s feelings. What is simply is. Nonjudgment also involves letting go of unrealistic expectations of your child. And, in the end, it’s this acceptance of “what is” that’s the goal.
Emotional awareness. Bringing about awareness to parenting interactions extends from the parent to the child and back. Modeling emotional awareness is key to teaching your child to do the same. There are always emotions affecting situations, whether they were formed a long time ago or are more fleeting.
Self-regulation. This means not letting your emotions trigger immediate reactions, like yelling or other automatic behaviors. In short: It’s thinking before acting to avoid overreacting.
Compassion. Again, you may not agree with your child’s actions or thoughts, but mindful parenting encourages parents to have compassion. This involves being empathetic and understanding for the child’s position in the moment. Compassion extends to the parent as well, as there’s ultimately less self-blame if a situation doesn’t turn out as you’d hoped.
Related: Generation snap: Parenting like a pro in the digital age
Benefits of mindful parenting
There is a multitude of studies that have looked at possible benefits related to mindfulness and mindfulness parenting. For parents, these benefits may include reducing stress and mood disorders, like depression and anxiety.
One small 2008 studyTrusted Source even explored these benefits for pregnant women in their third trimester. (Yes! You can benefit before the parenting truly begins!) The women who engaged in mindfulness had much less anxiety and reported fewer instances of negative moods.
Yet another studyTrusted Source showed that this benefit may extend to the overall well-being of parents and family. How? Adding mindfulness training to an existing parenting program appeared to strengthen the parent-child relationship.
In this particular study, it was during adolescence, when things can be particularly turbulent. The researchers share that the improvements may be due to the parent’s ability to “respond constructively” to stressors as they arise versus reacting and potentially alienating their child.
For kids, mindful parenting may help with social decision-making. ResearchersTrusted Source recently uncovered a link to decision-making and emotional regulation. So, the understanding and acceptance of emotions that this type of parenting promotes may help kids work on this important life skill from a very young age.
Mindful parenting may even reduce potential mistreatment, like physical abuse. A 2007 studyTrusted Source showed some reductions in child abuse among parents who employed different mindfulness strategies. Not only that, but parenting attitudes also improved. So did child behavior issues. It’s a win-win-win.
Other potential benefitsTrusted Source:
improves parent-child communication
reduces symptoms of hyperactivity
improves parenting satisfaction
lessens aggression
lowers feelings of depression
lessens stress and anxiety
promotes more parental involvement overall
makes parenting feel as if it takes less effort
Related: What do you want to know about parenting?
Examples of mindful parenting
So what does mindful parenting look like in action? Check out these examples of how it can influence your approach to parenting challenges.
Baby won’t sleep?
Take a moment to breathe. You may find your thoughts wandering to all the previous nights when your little one resisted sleep. You may worry they’ll never sleep again — or that you’ll never have adult time to yourself. Your emotions may snowball. But, again, breathe. You’re in this. And you’ve got this.
Pause to understand your emotions, all of which are normal. Do you feel mad or frustrated? Acknowledge this without judging yourself. Pause again to understand and accept that many babies have trouble sleeping through the night and that this night doesn’t mean every night for the rest of life.
Toddler throwing a tantrum at the store?
Take a look around. While their behavior may feel embarrassing or trigger some other negative emotions, be in the moment.
If you look around, you’ll likely see that along with the strangers whose stares may be making you stressed (ignore them!), there are many temptations for your child at the store. Maybe they want a certain toy or candy. Maybe they’re tired from a day of shopping or missing a nap.
Before grabbing your little one and storming out of the store, try to observe the root of what’s going on. Accept that children can get out of control when there are goodies involved or when they’re overtired. Accept that they’re likely dealing with some pretty big emotions of their own. And accept that while the strangers may stare, your child isn’t trying to embarrass you. (But, no. This doesn’t mean you need to buy that $100 talking doll.)
Child refusing to eat?
Newborns tend to eagerly gulp down breastmilk or formula like it’s going out of style. But at some point — and it happens to everyone eventually — your child is going to refuse to eat that delicious home-cooked meal you made. And your temptation will be to take it personally and, well, react.
Instead, take a deep breath, remind yourself that you’re a good cook, and consider what your child may be feeling. Maybe they’re feeling some apprehension over a new taste or texture. Maybe they’re remembering a time a food of a certain color made them sick and now associate all foods of that color with sickness. Ridiculous? Not to a new eater.
After you’ve stepped into their shoes and thought about the situation empathetically, have a conversation with them about what they’re feeling and why they need to eat. Set a routine where they have food choices (between healthy options — because let’s be honest, between spinach and cake, who wouldn’t choose cake?) and model trying new things so they see you eating mindfully — rather than reacting before thinking.
Related: Why it’s time to shatter the myth of the perfect mother
Differences with other parenting styles
So, what sets mindful parenting apart from other styles of parenting? Well, it’s not so much about doing something in particular as it is about taking time to simply be. If that sounds a little strange to you, don’t worry. It’s definitely a mind shift that may take some time to understand.
Other parenting styles tend to focus on how to approach this or that, or strategies to deal with certain behaviors or actions. Mindful parenting at its core is about stepping back and slowing down.
It’s about filling up the parent’s cup and recognizing internal emotions or outside stimuli that may be impacting the moment. And it’s about accepting positive and negative emotions as they come versus going against the current to accomplish a certain result.
At the heart, mindful parenting honors the experience of childhood and takes time to see the world through your child’s eyes. Kids, especially younger ones, naturally live in the moment.
Whereas other parenting styles may be more about teaching children structure and routine or right and wrong, being mindful speaks to their innate ability to be present. The end goal is giving your child the tools to deal with their own stressors in a more mindful way.
Related: The best mom blogs of 2019
How to mindfully parent
You don’t need to change your entire lifestyle to start practicing mindfulness strategies today.
Open your eyes, literally and figuratively. Pay attention to your surroundings and how you feel on the inside and out. Take in things with all your senses — touch, hearing, sight, smell, and taste.
Be in the moment. Resist living in the past or planning too intently for the future. Find the good in what’s happening right now, right in front of you.
Practice acceptance. Try your best to accept your child’s emotions and actions, even when they frustrate you. (And extend this acceptance to yourself.)
Breathe. Having a crisis moment? Focus on your breath. Take a deep breath in, filling your lungs with air and keeping your mind on your breath. Exhale and feel your breath as it enters and exits your body. Encourage your child to breathe during tough times, too.
Meditate. Focusing on the breath is a big part of meditation. You only need to carve out a few minutes each day to truly connect with yourself. Check out YouTube for free mindfulness exercises. This 10-minute guided meditation from The Honest Guys has more than 7.5 million views and tons of positive comments. You can even find practices for kids. New Horizon offers hundreds of mindfulness and relaxation exercises for children of all ages.
The takeaway
The next time you’re in a parenting situation where you feel you may blow your top, take a moment to pause. Take a deep breath in and then exhale fully. Soak in your feelings, your surroundings, and your child’s experience as well. And then work toward acceptance in this moment without wandering to thoughts of the past or future.
You may not succeed in being blissfully mindful the first few times you try this new method of parenting. And it’s OK to be skeptical. But, after a while, you may find that taking a moment to pause before reacting lessens your own stress and positively impacts your child.
Last medically reviewed on August 21, 2019
ParenthoodLife
13 sourcesexpanded
Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.
Ceder J. (2017). Mindful parenting: How to respond instead of react.
gottman.com/blog/mindful-parenting-how-to-respond-instead-of-react/
Coatsworth JD, et. al. (2009). Changing parent’s mindfulness, child management skills and relationship quality with their youth: Results from a randomized pilot intervention trial. DOI:
10.1007/s10826-009-9304-8
Corthorn C. (2015). Mindfulness and parenting: A correlational study of non-meditating mothers of preschool children.
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10826-015-0319-z
Corthorn C. (2018). Benefits
apps for baby development
Is your child’s development on track for his or her age? Now you can find out with our child development apps. These parenting apps make it easy for parents to track, support, and celebrate their young child’s development. This baby development app list gives parents tips to help their child learn and grow, a way to track developmental milestones, recognize delays, and the ability to share this information with their healthcare provider
Kids usually learn more when they’re enjoying themselves and over the years the concept of learning through play has become the norm. There are plenty of apps available with this purpose in mind and we’ve narrowed these down to our pick of 10 apps that will help with a baby’s development from pregnancy to 4 years old.
- The Wonder Weeks
Cost: $4.99
Devices: iOS and Android
This app essentially tells you what’s going on in your baby’s head from week to week by explaining all the amazing developmental changes they go through during their first 18 months.
With nearly four million downloads worldwide, it is the must-have app for every new parent. This app will provide you with the opportunity to stimulate your baby’s mental development and learn more about the magical leaps.
This one keeps parents in the loop with a baby’s mental development, with all the leaps and bounds an infant goes through that can make for some challenging behaviour. There is an easy-to-follow calendar and plenty of advice on how to handle the leap.
- Kidcoach – Questions for Kids
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS and Android
KidCoachApp is a child development app that is effective for kids to learn new skills and express all their thoughts. KidCoach helps parents stimulate children’s thinking and communication skills. Parents can choose from 300+ quick, fun, and thought-provoking questions for their children. Then start a meaningful conversation in just 5 minutes, using their prompts to help you take it deeper.
Parents can enjoy having discussions to stimulate child’s imagination, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
Download for iOS | Download for Android
- Kinedu
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS and Android
Kinedu is a child development app for Android and iOS users that provides activities, games, and milestones for your kids. It provides parents with 1600+ fun and age-specific educational activities for their child from 0 to 4 years old. You can also use it as a girl’s games app to play girls’ game with your daughter. From pregnancy to newborn to toddler, Kinedu will help you teach your child the skills he or she will need at the right time. Along with that, it also provides a personalized daily action plan with fun activities tailored to your child’s needs.
- BabySparks
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS and Android
BabySparks is a baby milestone app for Android and iOS users. This is a great app with over 1300 baby development activities and milestones for babies 0-24 months old. This application is developed by experts and used by more than a million parents around the world. It provides you with a customized program to meet your child’s specific developmental needs. One of the best features of this app is the daily balanced mix of suggested activities that touch all critical areas of development. Each session contains a short illustrative video to help you understand exactly what to do.
- Baby Connect
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS and Android
Baby Connect is our pick for the best overall parenting app due to its great child activity tracking capabilities. Parents can use the app to stay on top of a variety of necessary activities, including doctor appointments, feedings, naps, and sleep schedules. You can also record important medical information like vaccines and medications.
- Glow Baby Growth Tracker
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS
Glow Baby will help you control your feeding and sleeping schedules. It will also answer all kinds of questions, even the ones you may be embarrassed to ask or might consider being silly. For example, you will discover how to change a diaper or bathe a newborn. It literally teaches you about the basics of motherhood.
In addition, the app has a chat room where you can communicate with other parents. You will receive useful tips every day, which are especially important for a young mother. There are plenty of different trackers to help you keep an eye on your health. These trackers also allow you to record your baby’s temperature, height, and weight. Also Glow Baby gives useful tips that are especially appropriate for first-time parents.
- Baby Tracker & Breast Feeding
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS and Android
This app will give you easy control over feeding your children in a smart way. You can use this app to set a timer that will remind you of upcoming feedings. It is also worth noting that the app is ideal for those who have more than one child, for instance, twins.
You will be able to add a baby and its own schedule. The program is also equipped with a schedule of necessary medications. Also, you will be able to keep track of the number of diapers you use. So you will know exactly how many packs of diapers you need to buy per week.
- Sprout Baby Tracker
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS
This cute app tracks milestones and measurements for one or more child. You can track feeding, medical details, immunisation, sleeping and more. It also features monthly developmental updates, to keep you informed about ages and stages. It’s super lovely to look at and you can store photos and all kinds of details about your child’s growth and progress.
This all-in-one baby tool helps you keep tabs on your infant’s daily activities (like diaper changing and sleep), growth, and developmental milestones. If you’re breastfeeding, you’ll enjoy the tools for tracking feedings, summaries that identify patterns, and the ability to share data across devices.
- Peanut
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS and Android
Peanut is a social networking app for current and soon-to-be moms so they can connect with other mamas. Sync up with women in the same life stage to share tips like how to keep kids entertained and balancing work and life.
This app is for moms, women who are pregnant, and for women trying to get pregnant. When you sign up for Peanut it’ll ask you questions so that it can customize your experience just for you! You can also find moms who use the app and live near your area. Peanut is a great place where you can meet friends, ask questions, and give advice.
- Hatch Baby
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS and Android
There’s not much this app leaves out. It’ll track your baby’s growth and health data as well as with feedings, nappy changes and sleep and give you daily, weeks and monthly summary charts on all of it.
If you have the Hatch Baby Smart Changing Pad, it links up to automatically weigh your baby at every change so you know how much feeds and poops have changed it. Take a photo every day and it’ll create a slideshow to share with invited family and friends.
- Growth: baby and child charts
Cost: Free with in-app purchases
Devices: iOS
This app lets you track the baby’s growth right up until they’re 20 years old. There’s a separate chart for parents of premature babies to track their progress too.
Any of these apps that will help your child develop as well as play, will help them with their fine motor skills, imagination, creativity, and learning. Happy playtime!
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