The shared calendar only you open
We make Magnetday. Check the sources at the bottom. As of October 24, 2026.
Apps for iPhone, Android and the web are in development. No date yet.
Most of this page works today without us.
You set up the shared calendar. You color-coded it. You keep it up to date. And you still get the text: “is soccer today or tomorrow?”
You’re not alone. Parents describe being the family’s calendar, search engine and reminder service, even with a partner who’s a good, involved parent. “I’m just tired of being the family’s search engine.” (source) Research backs that up: in a USC study of 322 mothers of young children, mothers reported being responsible for about 73% of the household’s cognitive labor, the anticipating, planning and delegating. (USC Dornsife, 2024)
Why the shared calendar gets opened by one person
- It lives inside an app. To check it, you have to think to check it. The person who already holds the week in their head is the only one who does.
- Adding to it doesn’t tell anyone. Google Calendar’s alerts about changes to a shared calendar are emails you have to turn on, not phone notifications. So the other parent finds out when they happen to look, or at 8:40 am.
- Invites get lost. A calendar invite lands among dozens of other notifications and gets swiped away.
- There are three calendars. Hers, his work one and the school’s. Nobody knows which one is the real one.
What helps, for free, today
- Pick one calendar as the family’s. One shared Google calendar (or one shared iCloud calendar, if you’re all on iPhone). Everything about the kids goes there. Work calendars stay separate.
- Put it on the other person’s phone properly. Not as an invite, but as a calendar in their own calendar app, with its own color, so it shows next to their work meetings.
- Turn on change emails. In Google Calendar on the web: Settings, Settings for my calendars, the family calendar, Other notifications. Set “Changed events” to Email. It’s the closest free thing to a heads-up.
- Put it where people walk past it. On the fridge, by the door, next to the coffee. Paper works until it goes out of date. An old tablet works if it stays plugged in and on the week view (see our old-tablet guide).
- Point to the calendar instead of answering. That’s the most common advice parents give each other. One parent who tried it says the next two weeks were rough before it stuck. (source)
Get one email when it’s ready.
One email when there’s something you can install. That’s it.
What a calendar can’t fix
Be honest about this before you buy anything, including from us.
- A screen can’t make anyone care. The top reply in one of the biggest threads on this says it plainly: if someone won’t look at Google Calendar or the whiteboard, a new screen won’t change that. (source)
- Someone still has to notice the date and write it down. A calendar holds the plan. It doesn’t share out the planning.
What a better calendar can do is make looking take two seconds, and make adding take one line. For a partner who’s willing, that’s most of the gap.
What we’re building
Magnetday is a family calendar built for the kitchen and for the other person’s phone.
- The week is in the way, on purpose: on the kitchen tablet you already own, readable from across the room, in a color for each person.
- It’s in the calendar they already have. It’s built on your Google Calendar, with two-way sync, so the family’s events show up in the Google Calendar app on your partner’s phone. No new app they have to remember to open.
- Adding takes one line.
pickup wed samorsoccer every tue 4 leo, the way you’d text it. - No ads, no subscription.
What it doesn’t do yet: phone reminders and change alerts are planned, not built. It works with Google Calendar. Outlook support is on the way, and iCloud is on the way in the iPhone app.
Questions.
Will this make my partner check the calendar?
No app can promise that. It puts the week where they’ll walk past it and in the calendar app they already use, so checking takes two seconds instead of a text to you.
Does my partner need to install anything?
If your family calendar is in Google, the events show up in the calendar app they already use. The Magnetday apps for iPhone and Android are in development.
Does it send reminders?
Not yet. Reminders are planned. Until then, Google Calendar’s own event reminders and change emails still work.
We use iCloud. Will it work?
Not yet. We start with Google Calendar. Outlook support is on the way, and iCloud is on the way in the iPhone app.
Is it free?
Two options. Bring your own screens: free, no ads, no subscription. Or get the Magnetday Panel, a color e-ink screen for the fridge, for $199 (not on sale yet).
Get one email when it’s ready.
One email when there’s something you can install. That’s it.
Sources
- What parents say about being the family’s calendar: r/workingmoms, r/workingmoms, r/workingmoms.
- USC Dornsife: mothers’ cognitive household labor (2024).
- Change your notification settings (Google Calendar Help), checked October 24, 2026.
- Google Calendar is a trademark of Google LLC. Magnetday is not affiliated with Google.