Nanny Needs an Assistant: Essential Tech for Caregivers

First, start with the best tech. The iPad 3 mini is the perfect new toy to keep kids entertained and keep you on track no matter what challenges your nanny responsibilities throw at you. Even though it’s compact, it’s got a kid-friendly 8-inch display and 10 whole hours of battery life. Keep parents happy with HD Facetime for when they’re out of town and an iSight camera to record the precious moments they miss.

Even more than that, the iPad 3 mini comes equipped with apps and toolsgeared toward creativity and productivity, two things that every savvy nanny knows are crucial to keeping kids on track and you sane. Here are the best apps that caregivers can use to reduce stress and make your day a little easier.

Put Kid-Friendly on the Map

Mom Maps will save you on the road. If you’re constantly running the kids around town and especially when traveling out of town, use this app to find everything from the closest playground to kid-friendly restaurants. And it makes rainy summer days a lot more tolerable with suggestions for local museums and indoor play areas. And don’t forget about Sit or Squat! It’s a lifesaver that not only finds you the nearest bathroom but rates how clean it is, and if there’s a changing station.

Get Yourself Organized

Keep track of your hours logged digitally too with Hours Tracker. It’s free, but the pro version for $8.99 has more than 5,000 reviews and a five-star rating, so it might be worth the investment if it saves you a major headache once tax time rolls around. Pair Hours Tracker with Shoeboxed Receipt and Mileage Tracker, which comes highly recommended for independent contractors, and makes it easy to track your mileage business expense receipts.

Keep Them Entertained & Educated

GettingSmart.com has a list of 30 of the best educational games online for kids of all ages. Give kids options and they won’t get bored enough to figure out how to get the risque games that parents won’t approve of. Earn bonus points by suggesting games for each child specific to what they are learning and/or struggling with already like Math Ninja or geography with Stack The Countries. But don’t forget to throw some creativity into the mix with apps like Dr. Frankenstein‘s Body Lab and Lets Create! Pottery.

An Easy Grocery Guide

If you’re doing the shopping for more than one household you know it can get complicated. Keep things organized and on budget with one of these grocery apps. Our favorite just happens to be free! It’s called GroceryIQ and it’s got a time-saving barcode scanner and integrates coupons easily. But our favorite feature is called list sharing and it lets anyone in the family with an Internet connection to update so you know for sure how much milk is left in the fridge. Finally grocery stores go high-tech and the long lines at self-checkout won’t seem quite so frustrating.

Search Smart

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, and Siri cops an attitude, you might melt down quicker than a teething two-year-old. That’s why Google Now is a smarter way to search your email, calendar, maps, YouTube and searches to give you smarter search results that your need now! Treat Google Now as your non-intrusive, impressively clever personal nanny assistant.