Mobile Apps Dads Should TRULY Have

There are a lot of mobile apps on the market that cater to parents, and dads specifically. Alright, I admittedly have downloaded one or two of them. I've gotten my weekly baby developmental updates from the Parenting app. I've logged my son's naps into the Weissbluth app. I've even embarrassingly downloaded a "pregnancy for dads" app when my wife was still expecting (the only thing I learned from this one was that in my wife's eyes, this wasn't an acceptable substitute for reading all the pregnancy books she tossed my way).

I kind of consider myself an "app-slut" in a way. I love 'em and leave 'em in a very short period of time. As a dad, and a hard-working one at that, I have little time to keep useless icons on my phones dashboard. My mobile real estate is valuable and I always make the most of it.

After almost 6-months of parenting, I've narrowed down a handful of truly useful apps for dads to keep around for a multitude of reasons:

Comcast - I know, you're saying, "What? Comcast sucks!". But I love TV, I truly do. And because of the unpredictable nature of having a baby, I miss a lot of the shows I love. But with this app, I can program my DVR from any place and at anytime! I will never miss another game or episode of The Office.

Crock-Pot - Between my job and my wife's job, who has time to cook? But at the same time, we have a mortgage and nanny to pay for. What's the answer? The almighty crock-pot! This handy little app has thousands of great recipes I can throw together and save some serious cash...ordering out every night gets to be real pricy!

Flashlight - Do you have any idea how many times I've gone into my son's nursery in the middle of the night only to step on something and practically puncture my foot? This great little tool gives me a solid beam from the camera flash while keeping the rest of the room dark.

Family Guy - This is just plain funny! I challenge any dad (or any guy in general) to tell me he doesn't laugh at this. Giggity giggity giggity!

Ragdoll Blaster - Between the full-time job, the bottles, baths, diapers, cleaning the house, and finding time to sleep, you can always count on one time to be alone with your thoughts (and phone). Yes with fatherhood comes a new appreciation for bathroom breaks. This amazing and time consuming game lets you shoot little guys out of cannons through a plethora of mind numbing puzzles and mazes. Maybe I'll play just one more level? Yeah, I think I will.

The Nanny Cam Debate

We have a full-time nanny starting this week. I won't get into the sheer guilt I feel about having to leave my son with someone on a daily basis, I'll let you scroll down to my posting "The Nanny Guilt" to read more about that. But my wife is going back to work this week after 5 months of maternity leave, and this is just a fact of our life right now.

A few weeks ago when we hired our nanny, we started wondering how we know he will be alright with her. Background checks, driving checks, reference checks, those are all fine and necessary. But how do we really know what's going on when we're not there? Then we thought about a nanny cam.

You know what a nanny cam is. They can be anywhere and look like anything. Hidden in clocks, teddy bears, even in a mirror! You can watch tape when you get home or live streaming from your computer or iPhone. It's all very easy. I've seen some horrifying stories in the news about parents who have caught their nannies abusing the kids all thanks to a nanny cam. But apparently not everyone feels so great about these little spy gadgets.

Right after we hired the nanny, my wife posted a question on Facebook. Very simply, she asked:

"What do you think of nanny cams?"

You would think that someone just asked about the pro-life/pro-choice issue or evolution vs. creationism, because the holy floodgates of hell opened up and she was chastised! This is quite the hot topic apparently. Some responses included:

"COMPLETELY NOT OKAY!!!! as a professional nanny not cool! If you can't trust u'r nanny then don't have them"

"If you don't trust the babysitter enough to have a camera on her while she is with your son, you definitely need a new nanny."

So I wonder....how do you build trust? With my wife and I, trust was built over time. I saw how she was towards me on a day-to-day basis. With my job, I've built trust with my boss over time. She has seen how hard and competently I work on a day-to-day basis. What if you're not there on a day-to-day basis to see how someone works? What if a camera is the only way to build the trust that your child is in safe hands?

Please let me know your thoughts on "Nanny Cam-gate", I'd love to hear which side of the fence you're on. And please feel free to forward to your friends, all opinions are welcome.