I don’t know about you, but with three kids, as well as myself to look after (and three cats)—keeping track of information and records can be a difficult part of the single parent’s job. Whether it is dental appointments, booster shots, or even when everyone had the chicken pox—having all of this information at my finger tips can be tough. A few years ago, I decided to take the spread sheets that I love so much in my home business—and use them to organize some of my family information too. This makes the records easy for me to keep track of, and easy to share with other “entities” as needed too.
Social security numbers, shot and illness records, school records and information, etc.—all of that can be kept in spread sheets on the computer. I know this sounds a bit dorky and maybe as though I am being overly-organized—but I developed it as a system more because I needed to be reasonably and marginally organized with three kids, shared custody and my own business. I can even keep the pet records all in a spread sheet so that I know who is due for shots, how old each pet is, etc. Dorky maybe—but organized and reasonably efficient, yes.
While I haven’t used it to keep track of parenting agreements and custody plans, I think a spread sheet could be a very functional way to keep track of who spends which vacations with which parent, medical costs, travel expenses, etc.—all those family details that many single parents need to keep track of for various reasons.
So if you are looking for a way to organize all the details of a seemingly-chaotic family life, consider the simple spreadsheet—easy, accessible, and flexible. It is easy enough to set up a functional spread sheet or even a database and then to extract the information from it as needed.
Also: Pace Yourself
Look for Tasks That Go Together