As a parent, how many times have you had to relay important information to the other parent? Or how many times have you forgotten to do it?
Miscommunication and lack of communication are reasons parents drop the ball when it comes to co-parenting and keeping both involved.
Communicating important dates and information can be challenging for the custodial parent if they are the main point of contact for everything dealing with their children.
Doctor and dentist appointments and parent-teacher conferences are just a few of the notifications that the primary parent has to remember. A family email can make it easier to manage these appointments and keep both families in the loop.
With the current economic climate, many parents are working at least two jobs to provide for their families. So remembering to tell the other parent about an appointment can be challenging when you have to remember a hundred other things. Below we will detail all the ways that a family email can benefit you.
What is the function of a family email?
Unfortunately, not everyone has the advantage of experiencing the benefits of remote employment. So a family email can function as a tool to connect your family even when you are working out of an office.
A family email address should help inform both parents of events such as procedures, meetings, and school supply needs so they can share the effort.
It may appear that the person who traditionally manages the bulk of the household administrative planning is still doing so. But when they need a break from being in charge, they can let the other person handle it.
Using a family email could also help the primary parent deal with information overload and frustration while also making the other parent feel more involved and informed.
This is a particularly useful strategy for co-parents who no longer live together, as it ensures that all information reaches both sides.
How to Use a Family Email Address to Your Advantage
Implement a family email account when your child begins attending childcare or school or another scenario where people may need to reach a parent. Give the family address instead of a Parent No. 1 email and a Parent No. 2 email.
This guarantees that the other parent is as aware of what is going on as you are and that you can remind one another of what needs to happen. You shouldn't have to go through dozens of emails to locate the right one to forward if you want the other to follow up or address anything.
To set up a family email, choose a basic email address like "ClarkeFamily@gmail.com" or "AnnesParents@gmail.com" that clearly identifies who you are.
To prevent the trouble of checking a different email address every day or deleting an essential email, have those emails forwarded to your primary email address so you don't miss anything.
Use the Family Email as the Preferred Contact Option
No one wants to have a conversation over the phone about something that could've been communicated through one simple email. Many stay-at-home moms are even working from home now, so they don't have the time to chat about something minuscule.
While some people enjoy talking on the phone, others may not. They may just be too busy to entertain every insignificant phone call that their child's daycare makes.
This is why you should set the family email as your preferred method of contact. Obviously, you will still receive a phone call when it comes to more pressing matters like a medical emergency, but you don't need a phone call about that week's book fair.
Using a family email as the primary contact prevents you from having to answer every phone call from your child's school. It also makes keeping everyone in the loop easier and preserves your sanity.
Benefits of a Family Email
When you consider how you'll have to set up a new family email, remember a new password, and then have to change your current email to the new one, it may all seem like too much.
Maybe it is too much for some families, but think about how many times you spent searching endlessly for a school email that got lost in the shuffle of your personal emails.
How often does a school or doctor's office send emails to both parents with two different email addresses? A family email simplifies communication between parents and childcare or others.
Having a separate family email also lessens the chances of sending sensitive information to the wrong person. It also lowers the chance of hackers accessing private information. A family email can also be helpful if you have taken out a child's auto insurance policy in a parent's name.
When a person logs in with the same email address for all of their accounts, the chances of a mishap are increased. A malicious attacker can use the same email address to compromise an account using several approaches such as brute force, spray assaults, and credential stuffing.
Any critical information about your child's school, age, or birthday can be used to cause harm to them and their financial future if their identity is stolen.
These types of breaches can be prevented if the person uses multiple email addresses to log on to different services. If they can't link all your email addresses back to your identity, the malicious attacker has no email address to work with.
The Potential Pitfalls of a Family Email
Things can be tricky when you have your family emails forwarded automatically to your personal email. For example, if one parent accidentally answers, signs up, or starts a conversation with a teacher from their personal email account without cc'ing the other parent, confusion might arise.
Another area where things might become a little murky is when you're unsure of which emails you have yet to read. With a shared email account, if one person opens an email, it may be changed from "unread" to "read" on your end.
So if the other parent has already opened the email in a shared inbox, it will be more challenging to figure out what you haven't seen yet.
To ensure you don't miss anything, you'll need to pay closer attention to all that is coming through the family email. Quickly skimming through your family's emails at the end of the day can help with this issue.
Imani Francies writes and researches for the legal site, FreeAdvice.com. She enjoys educating people on how to be fully engaged with their families with a busy work schedule.
© 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of jobsnhire.com
