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Kidcredible: An App for Parents, by Parents
Parents everywhere: Raise your hand if you’ve ever changed a diaper on a dirty gas station floor? (GAG, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures!) Raise both of your hands if you’ve had multiple screaming children on a road trip who needed to get some energy out?
If I could take my arms off and throw them in the air in agreement, I would. As the mom of two young children, and a husband who is moving around through medical residency, we are on the road a lot, and I’m husband-less most of the time.
When we’re outside the 20-mile comfort radius of our own neighborhood, it’s basically the Wild West. I don’t have my locations. I don’t know the restaurants with play places, I don’t know where the safe parks are, let alone know places that are specifically good for toddlers. What happens when we travel to a residency interview with daddy and need to kill a few hours while he’s in meetings? We find ourselves in a random town, knowing nothing about our surroundings…meltdowns are coming, I can feel it.
Finally, something to fix that. The app, Kidcredible, is just what parents on the go need. I’ve always felt like there are tons of review websites/apps (Rotten Tomatoes, Google, Amazon, etc.) for everything under the sun, except for parenthood! A place that gives parents the information they actually want (clean bathrooms, changing tables, kids’ menu, etc.) and to make it filterable! Finally, there is. Kidcredible is the first app that is created for parents, by parents. Among the 5 current team members, there are 25 children….so they get it. Started right here in Ft Worth, they sure have done their research (well, let’s be honest, mostly just listened to their wives) to give us what we actually need.
Photo courtesy of Kidcredible
We all have THAT friend who knows all the places (shout out to you, Jen!). The only problem is I want THAT friend, anywhere I go! With Kidcredible, you can finally have those “insider tips” for any location throughout the entire world! When I leave a review for a location, I’m at, which takes about a minute, there are actually 6 different star ratings (overall, kid-friendliness, cleanliness, bathrooms, location safety, and cost), not just one like every other website! Even if Hooters is a 4.7 on Google or Yelp, it’s still not a great place for my 3-year-old! After the star ratings, you actually say which age group the location is great for (infant, toddler, pre-school, school aged, pre-teen, etc) because some parks have the completely enclosed swings and some don’t. To a mama of littles, that makes a difference! Next you get to choose from 10 amenities that each location might have (play place, changing table, wifi, free parking, kids menu, etc). When you’re on the road, finding fast food with a place place is the difference between life and “toddler”. And last but not least, you can filter an entire city, by any of these choices! So if I’m in a new city, within 3 clicks I can have every single location narrowed down to just restaurants with actual play places in them. If only this was around for my parents, I wouldn’t have given them such a hard time!
The app is still new which means it’s up to parents to go in and leave reviews of the places they go! I love sharing information with other parents when I find it, because then everyone, especially the children, win. Parents helping parents. It’s an aged old necessity. Finally, someone has taken that word-of-mouth, and often outdated process, and put it in one location for everyone to benefit! My parents, who seem to have forgotten the attention span of a toddler, love it for when the grandbabies do swing over and need to go somewhere to unleash the wiggles! For foster or adoptive parents, who’s lives can change in an instant, for grandparents or aunts or uncles who aren’t around children very often, or to parents of children who need sensory friendly locations, Kidcredible is for you.
Kidcredible is currently available in the iOS App Store and will soon be available for Android. Download and start helping other parents, like me, find those little gem locations that you know and love!
Brookelyn Smith grew up in McKinney, TX, and has been in Fort Worth for the last five years as her husband attended medical school and began residency. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Human Development from Brigham Young University in 2014 and has since developed two perfect humans, her 3-year old daredevil and 1-year old little princess. She spends her days searching for the best Tex-Mex, finding fun places to beat the Texas heat, and counting down the minutes until nap time!
