Google Calendar – One Big Happy Linked Family

Hi, my name is Allison and I am calendar-challenged. Additionally, I suffer from calendar-envy.

My friend (a fellow homeschool mom) has six children, a husband, a mother-in-law, a dog, and a brood of chickens living under her roof. On the back of her door hangs the object of my calendar-desire! Her beautifully color coordinated calendar has ample box and line space for every activity, for every family member, for every day. She hangs permanent markers in an assortment of hues from a hook alongside it so that everyone has their own personal color.

She forgets nothing, misses nothing, and neither does her family since it is centrally located for all to see. Finally, she is so gifted in this area, she even keeps a duplicate pocketbook sized calendar on her at all times – so she can add and subtract events on the fly. The real marvel in that she never forgets to transfer from portable to permanent and vice-versa!

Personally, I am lucky if I could keep one calendar of just my own appointments and commitments, never mind adding in my husband, three children, and the fish. Hence my overjoy at the invention of Google Calendar and these features that save me from leaving a kid behind, missing important engagements, and no longer having to be the only one who knows stuff:

Each family member can enter their own information. No longer am I anyone’s scapegoat!
We can share every appointment between the entire “technology packing” family – including our computers, tablets, and smartphones. Nothing makes me giddier than adding my next year’s dentist cleaning right onto my Galaxy S5 (no more lost appointment cards) and knowing it now on my laptop – as well as alerting the entire family where I’ll be next July 20th. This is especially helpful with my teenage, driving, working, not always “home like before” son, who will also have to be there on that day for his cleaning!
As I am placing the occasion on my Google Calendar, I can invite my husband to said event, eliminating the dreaded “how was I supposed to know to be there, you never told me” argument!
The ‘bestest’ feature – the alarms, notifications, and pop-ups! I can email myself numerous reminders or set up a series of pop-up alerts – because as I have learned, no calendar is helpful if you don’t remember to look at it!

The only downside – I am 100% technology dependent now. I have gone completely away from the cute kitten adorned paper calendars. If my electricity goes out or my phone battery runs out, who knows what I’ll miss or fail to do but I have decided for the convenience and general efficiency Google Calendar allows me (and my calendar-challenged family) that I am willing to take that chance.