How My iPhone Helps Me Parent

A couple of months ago, my three year old Palm Treo went on the fritz.  Since I was never happy with my Verizon service, I happily jumped ship to AT&T and joined my husband in the iPhone club.  I thought the ease of web browsing was cool, and I definitely thought I would like the phone, but had never considered how it could help me navigate the parenting waters.  

I know some people don't allow their kids to watch TV. I am not one of those parents.  Setting up my 2.5 year old with a YouTube episode of Thomas & Friends on my iPhone has become my "go to" move while waiting for the restaurant check to arrive.  On a recent outing for a fundraiser for my older son's preschool, it occurred to me that as far as value for the money goes, they didn't charge me nearly enough for the phone - my previously off-the-wall toddler happy, still & quiet? Priceless.   

And don't get me started on the "Clock" feature...that is the most unassuming label for the most useful tricks.  Under the "Clock" label you can find both a stopwatch function and a timer function.  My 5 year old will happily run anywhere and back, as long as I promise to time him.  Granted, he was also pretty satisfied with my pre-iPhone declarations of "13 seconds" every time I "counted" for him...but this is a much easier way for me to give him actual data without having to be in perpetual one-Mississippi mode. Besides, he was bound to catch onto my lax counting one of these days. 

The timer function works like a charm in "turn taking" facilitation.  My conflict resolution mantra has become: "when the duck quacks, it will be your brother's turn".   I set the timer for 5 minutes, and the visual confirmation that their turn is really coming keeps even the most eager brother waiting patiently (well, usually).  Even better, the person waiting for their turn can choose the notification sound....the most popular ones in my house are the duck quacking, crickets, and the motorcycle.  

Although my sons aren't very interested in looking at pictures, my nieces have been successfully distracted many a time by "who wants to look at pictures on my phone?".  They love being able to take the picture and immediate see themselves in the picture.  This tactic was possible with my Treo, as well.   

And though it doesn't help me parent, I downloaded a free application called "Lose It" that tracks calories eaten and burned.  With a 6 month old, I still have 10 lbs of baby weight to lose, and tracking calories and exercise is a great visual reminder of calorie budgeting without much effort.  My only complaint in the foods database is that they need to add "mom" meals to the list - for example, my lunch today was just the crust of a grilled cheese.   

Now that I have 1 kid in school and 2 napping, I can use the iPhone for its intended purpose - browsing Facebook.  

This is an original post for NYC Moms Blog.