Simple Shared Calendaring for Distant Parent

By:  Editorial Team   |  Posted: May 14, 2021   |  Updated: April 18, 2023

Problem Description

 

It’s a common situation: an aging parent starts needing help from family members organizing things like doctors visits, or other care-related or social activities.

How do you set up and maintain some type of mutually convenient calendaring solution that maintains the right balance between “collaborating” and “helping” and “keeping things simple”?

 

Going Beyond the Obvious

Of course, there are some obvious solutions. The problem is, they often clash with the realities of actual, real world situations.

People say things like:

  • Apple (or Google) calendaring allow you to maintain both personal calendars and shared calendars.
  • Use Alexa calendaring to get a simple voice interface.
  • “Senior tablets” come with built-in calendaring solutions.

Anyone thinking of implementing these approaches rapidly runs into some challenges. Such as:

  • My parent doesn’t use an electronic calendar. They prefer a paper version.
  • Alexa calendaring might work for my father, but I am not sure how I integrate that with my own preferred calendaring solution, which is Apple (or Google) calendars.
  • If my parent has a senior tablet, how do I connect that calendaring solution with my own preferred calendaring tool?

Have a good real-world solution? Please share it.

 

2 thoughts on “Simple Shared Calendaring for Distant Parent”

  1. Not a solution I’ve tried but

    Not a solution I've tried but one I've wondered about for my mom… DakBoard. It can display a calendar and other stuff. If I go this route, I'd maintain the digital calendar and update the "other stuff" (such as notes saying who is the caregiver for the day, things she needs to remember) from my home and it would display on Mom's DakBoard setup (which I'd have to set up and maintain, but I live only 15 miles away).

  2. Hello SongOfRuth,

    Hello SongOfRuth,

    This is a great idea, and it's encouraging me to look into using this for a "Dementia Day-Date-Clock" display.

    Are you planning to set this up on an old tablet for your mom? DakBoard has some good instructions on how to do that.

    Please post how the results of your setup