Guides for busy parents

Practical fixes for the weekly logistics that pile up on one parent. Each guide works with or without Fambee.

• How to keep track of school emails without missing the important ones

  A simple system for school emails: one label, one weekly sweep, and every date on the family calendar the day you read it.

• How to turn school emails into calendar events automatically

  What Gmail and Outlook can and can't add to your calendar on their own, the fastest manual method, and how to automate the rest.

• Too many emails from your kid's school? What actually helps

  You can't make the school send less. Here is how to cut the duplicates and read only the emails that need something from you.

• A shared family calendar that updates itself

  Why shared family calendars go stale, what updating itself should actually mean, and the options available today.

• Meal planning for picky kids

  How to plan a week of dinners the whole family will eat without cooking separate meals, plus a short list of tactics that work.