Share the info, share the wealth

The first thing you learn when you have any sort of non-nuclear family is that even now, in 2009, the world has no idea how to deal with you. I’ve talked til I’m blue in the face, and even offered to pay for the privilege, but it’s quite clear that our school system isn’t going to send home 2 copies of anything. I have met very few forms in the past 8 years that give me adequate room to share parental contact information. And on and on.

So instead, we make our own systems. And I’ve found that many of the online tools I use at work are also well-suited for running our blended family. Here are my top 2:

Google Calendar: Each member of the family has his/her own calendar, and we’re all subscribed [so we can see what everyone else is up to, as well]. It makes it easy to keep track of my daughter’s calendar, for instance — she lives at my house one week, then at her dad’s the next. And we all have to know when Girl Scouts meets, what day camp she’s attending, etc. I have a family birthday calendar I share with my mom and sisters. I could go on all day about shared calendars.

Backpack: Here’s another seemingly corporate tool that we use for family management. Great for keep track of lists and planning events. There’s a free version, but we quickly found it worth our money to pay $5 a month for a few more features. We’ve planned several holiday gatherings with Backpack, and we’re keeping our baby-name list there.

Laura Creekmore is mom to the 9yo, the 3yo and the player to be named by mid-May. She and her husband live in Nashville, TN, where she blogs about cooking and random things that strike her fancy at Fixin’ Supper. She’s a web strategist by trade and runs her own company, Creekmore Consulting.