I cannot claim to have experience as a parent. However, being around my nieces and nephew, and friends that are pregnant or have children, I wondered what people in general think about all the books available for expecting parents and even the ones about how to handle raising teenagers. I recall my mom telling me as a child how many expecting mothers relied on Dr. Benjamin Spock’s books for parenting advice. In today’s world, many people rely on their iPads, tablets and smartphones to look up information. Can mobile apps that provide parenting advice influence so many just like Dr. Spock did?
It makes perfect sense that an expecting mom would like to track her progress to better communicate with her doctor and to address any questions or concerns. It also makes sense for parents or anyone caring for a child to want to have easy access to information. Carrying around too many books is not always practical. Therefore, medical apps that provide parenting advice, answer common pregnancy questions or ones that provide tips on how to deal with children going through adolescence have the ability to become promising apps.
Concluding Thoughts
I do not think I could ever replace my book collection and solely transfer to reading everything on a device. However, I do see the impracticality of sorting through books to find information that I could likely find on an app. I see the necessity of using an app that could pull from a variety of sources so expecting parents and anyone interested in childcare could find helpful information. I would never advocate solely relying on apps in all these cases. Medical professionals should still address major concerns. At the same time, an app the works like a parenting or childcare search engine would help everyone – from parents to babysitters and teachers.
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