Things I’ve learned about parenting

Because it might help someone else

Family Timestamps

Something I have learned while parenting is that sometimes it is essential to know when things happened.

My spouse and I have done this by creating a chat group called “Family Timestamps” where we record things as they happen.

What does the chat app need?

It needs to be something where you can restrict to just the people who you want to have access. It needs to keep a history that you can backup and restore.

My top suggestion is

  • WhatsApp for most people
  • Maybe

Other good suggestions include

  • Matrix/XMPP: if you run your own server.
  • SMS: if you’re not able or don’t want to use whatsapp.
  • Telegram: if you setup an encrypted chat (they aren’t encrypted by default)

I don’t recommend

  • Signal: because restoring from backup is hard to do sometimes and the point is to have a history of records. Signal is good for other things.

What do you use this for?

We primarily use this for medical and car stuff.

  1. Tracking when medication was given. If you’re giving ibuprofen or tylenol at 2am, you may not remember the time later. If you always write it down, then you don’t have to worry about it. This just helps coordinate between two parents. Dosage is also helpful. This typically looks like
    • <Person> <medicine> <dosage> <notes you might want to remember>
    • Child-1 albuterol 2 puffs after running around hay field
    • Child-2 tylenol (1.25ml/50mg) for teething
  2. Recording important health stuff, e.g. temperatures for fevers, when a cough starts, breathing rate (useful for knowing when to bring a kid to the ER for croup).
    • Child-3 fever 101.2
    • child-4 40 breaths/min
  3. Car repairs and maintenance. It is really easy to mark down milage when you get in the car after an oil change: changed <model> <make>/<car name> oil and filter at <milage> miles and at <who did it>

How has it been helpful?

One example is that we were able to use fever temps to know when we had gotten sick (it was happening every 2-3 weeks) when talking to a doctor. It was also useful when taking our kid to the ER because they were struggling to breath while having croup. The medical history can be invaluable.