There comes a time in every parent’s life when they realise that the reason for their overpowering eyebags is no longer a night at the club or staying up to cram for an exam, but: kids.

Being a parent, especially in a dual-income family, is a constant struggle to try to get enough sleep, while ensuring everyone gets home from school in one piece and nobody fails the PSLE.

In other words, you need all the help you can get. So here are five things parents of school-going kids can use to save time, money and their sanity.

SCHOOLBER

Making sure your child makes it through the school gates in time every morning is more stressful for parents than it is for the kids.

Not only do you have to be up before everyone else, after you drop the kids off you have to make sure that you get to work before your boss starts complaining.

Unfortunately, for some parents, using the school bus service may not be practical, especially if the kid has lots of remedial lessons or CCAs, since the bus will still have to be paid for on days the kid doesn’t manage to take it.

That’s when Schoolber can save the day. It’s a car-sharing service that matches you up with other parents with kids who go to the same school as yours. Bus-pooling is also possible on the platform if there are enough interested parents.

Schoolber saves you from having to drop your child off at school every single day or, if you prefer, you can able to earn a bit of money sending other parents’ kids to and from school.

The app helps you choose between having more money and more time.

ONLINE TUTORING

So your kid isn’t doing too well in math or whatever, and you’ve decided that the time is right to join the ranks of parents with kids enrolled in tuition.

The problem is, tuition can get mighty expensive. If you want to save your kid from the hassle and time-wastage of travelling to a tuition centre, you’ll have to bear the extra cost of paying for a private tutor who comes to your home.

You might want to consider an online tutor instead. You’ll be paying tuition centre prices for one-on-one attention, while saving time that would otherwise be wasted ferrying your kid to and from tuition.

SLOW COOKER

It’s baffling how parents who work full-time still find the time to cook for their families at the end of a long and exhausting day.

Before your kids are old enough to start hanging out all night long at Starbucks outlets, you’ll have to make sure they get fed nutritious meals every day.

The answer to that is a slow cooker. All you have to do is cut up the ingredients, dump them into the machine and wait. There is no need to watch the slow cooker or worry about things burning, so you’re free to do other things

You can toss your ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning before you leave for work. Pick recipes according to how long you’ll be gone-there are some recipes that are still edible even if you return 10 hours later.

CAROUSELL

The amount Singaporean parents spend on kid-related stuff is mind-boggling, especially when children outgrow their toys, clothes, etc so quickly that before you know it, you’re already trying to get rid of the stuff.

Unless you’re planning on having enough kids to rival the brood in The Sound of Music, there are only so many times you can turn what you’ve bought into hand-me-downs.

So use Carousell to sell all your unwanted kid-related purchases. Even better, before you buy anything your kid will need, check to see if someone else is selling it on Carousell.

You can even find textbooks, assessment books and past year papers being sold on the platform.

SCHOOL PICKER

When it comes time for your kid to take the PSLE and fill up that form indicating his top choices of secondary school, many parents spend hours and hours poring over the various options.

The School Picker application helps parents and students pick primary and secondary schools and JCs based on their location and desired CCAs. You can also use the map to find all the schools in a certain area.

Of course, we all know many parents are just going to put RGS / RI and other top schools at the top of their forms. But the school picking app might be able to save you a few minutes/hours of your life when picking the last few schools on the list.

Do you have any other recommendations for parents of school-going children? Share them with us in the comments!