Co-parenting tools: OurFamilyWizard Message Board
In the digital age, methods of communication have evolved to fit the needs of our technological world. Emails and text messages are two particular innovations that make it easier for divorced or separated parents to communicate important family details between homes. While convenient, emails can be lost in cyberspace, and texts can be deleted or sent to a wrong number. In a contentious situation with a co-parent, keeping a full and accurate record of communication can be very important. To prevent these issues, the OurFamilyWizard Message Board is a useful tool to aid in communication when accuracy is imperative for divorced or separated parents.
The OurFamilyWizard Message Board provides a messaging forum for parents and other family members to use to communicate. Each user has an inbox and sent messages folder to track every sent and received message. Parent users have two additional folders in their Message Board: Action Items and System Messages. As the OurFamilyWizard Message Board is integrated with the other features of the site, these folders alert parents when different actions take place by their co-parent. Action Item messages will alert parents about new expenses, schedule change requests and any calendar conflicts involving events; System Messages will notify parents when other actions take place on the site such as new events and journal entries posted to the Calendar, edited entries in the Info Bank, and much more.
Every user is able to customize folders in the Message Board to organize messages in whatever way they would like. A Trash folder is also provided in each Message Board, and this acts as another place to organize and store messages. After a message is sent through OurFamilyWizard, it cannot be fully deleted from the website. Even if a message is moved to the Trash folder, it will be cleared from that folder after 30 days, yet it is able to be recovered and retrieved anytime. This inability to completely remove a message from the complete record is part of what makes the OurFamilyWizard Message Board unique and quite useful for keeping an accurate record of communication.
Another unique function that the OurFamilyWizard Message Board provides is always showing read receipts on every sent message. Parents can always review messages they send and check the first viewed time for the message to see when the other parent first opened that message. As there is not a way to disable this function on any message, this feature can help to increase accountability between parents. These first viewed times are also viewable when messages are saved as PDF documents or printed from the website, so the complete record of when messages were sent and first viewed is shown on printed copies of messages as well as on the website.
In addition to always showing first viewed information, the OurFamilyWizard Message Board offers an exclusive add-on for parents: ToneMeter. ToneMeter is like an emotional spell check that will analyze new messages a parent will compose and identify any emotionally charged phrases within that message. Once flagged, ToneMeter will offer a suggestion as to how the tone of the phrase in question may be perceived by the recipient. ToneMeter will not adjust what a parent has written, so it acts as more of a sign post to make the author aware of how their tone may be made out by the person receiving the message. ToneMeter is especially helpful for parents in highly contentious divorced or separated parenting situations where the tone of any correspondence can make or break lines of communication. Even if a family is not in this type of situation, ToneMeter can still be a useful tool to help any person become more aware of how their tone of voice in writing may be perceived.
For over ten years, the OurFamilyWizard Message Board has been helping families in divorced or separated parenting situations to communicate. This messaging tool offers several elements that make it unique and more accountable than email or text messaging, so parents can have peace of mind that their communication is secure and accurately documented.