By Gajal Gupta

New Delhi: With technology fast becoming an integral part of people’s lives, parenting has also undergone a sea change in the last few years. In nuclear families, parenting apps are helping couples raise their offspring in a much more efficient and secure way.

Today there are a number of smartphone apps to make parents’ life simple and more organised as far as kids are concerned.

For example, the “mycity4kids Family Organiser” app helps parents search for right activities and content related to their kids.

Launched in October 2010, “mycity4kids” has become an indispensable mobile platform for several mothers.

“The idea for ‘mycity4kids’ struck me when my kids were six and two, respectively. Like other parents, we also used to dwell on how difficult it is to find appropriate things to do or places to go to where our kids could acquire new skills or just have a fun time,” said Vishal Gupta, the co-founder of the app.

The USP lies in the app’s unique mother-focussed content around which it has built the largest community of parents.

“We would like to become the indispensable mobile platform for today’s multi-tasking mother by giving her access in one place to everything she needs and can learn from the shared experiences of other parents,” explained 40-year-old Gupta who lives in Gurgaon.

The app offers highly utilitarian features like a “Family Calendar”, to-do lists, upcoming events, kids resources and parenting blogs that parents can access on the go to share their parenting responsibilities actively with others.

“Being the first-movers in this category, we had to face many challenges in its initial stages and to create a unique business model,” Gupta added.

This app is available for both Apple and Android users for downloading.

The app currently caters to parents in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

Soon, it will expand its reach in other cities. In the last one year, “mycity4kids” website has received 20 million page views by nearly 3.5 million parents.

There are some other apps too for parents.

For instance, “Family Tracker” helps parents track the whereabouts of their children and keep a tab on their activities inside home or while they play in the neighbourhood park.

Considering child safety as a main concern, another app “Northstar” provides a platform for parents and schools which can be used to track the location of school buses.

This mobile app is used to keep track of the children’s location as they commute between school and home.

There are also apps like “Dr. Panda’s Hospital” that teach kids how to nurture pets at a young age and help them become sensitive to others.

Another app named “10 Monkeys Multiplication” helps children master tables from two to 10 in a fun and engaging way.