Children and family settings

This article explains how to add children to your family and what the different child statuses mean. Children are managed from the Children screen inside Settings. You can do this on web, iOS, and Android.

Add a child

Open Children, enter the child's first name, and pick a birth year. Choose Save Child to add them; the button stays disabled until both a name and a birth year are filled in. SharedAnchor quietly checks whether your co-parent has already added a matching child, so both parents end up with one shared record rather than two.

Connect with a co-parent first

You can only add children once you are connected with a co-parent. Until then the screen shows "Connect with a co-parent first, then add children here." and the form stays disabled. Connect with your co-parent, then come back to the Children screen to add your children.

Child status: verified, waiting, and needs review

Each child shows a status so you know where it stands. A child marked Verified matched a record your co-parent already added, so it is confirmed for both of you. A child marked Waiting for co-parent is saved and simply waiting for your co-parent to add a matching entry. A child marked Needs review did not match yet, which is a soft warning only and never blocks you from adding the child.

States and recovery

While the list loads you see a brief loading spinner. If the list cannot load, SharedAnchor shows "Could not load children. Please refresh." and nothing is changed. If a save fails, SharedAnchor shows the reason and keeps what you entered so you can try Save Child again.