Tadpoles Parent

• Free

Last verified 31 Jul 2026

2.1 987 ratings · App Store

1. 1/5Terrible App

   This app is absolutely terrible. My daughter has been in daycare for two months and it does not work for me. The daycare has tried everything and I have logged out, and even uninstalled and reinstalled the app. Every time I go in to add drop off notes, I get a notification that says, “child is not enrolled.” I’ve had a few times where it worked, but then I goes away and I have the same issue. However, I get the updates at the end of the day, but I have to email the daycare her drop off notes. I don’t like that you cannot get real-time updates and that the updates only happen at the end of the day. It would be nice to know if she is napping so that if I need to pick her up early, I could time it with that. I need better timing with these things. It’s terrible. Highly, highly, highly encourage anyone to NOT use this app. Find a better, more reliable app.

   AnnaBean15 · 31 Jul 2026

2. 1/5Unable to Message Teachers

   There is no feature to message teachers which is pretty crucial. Our previous center used Seesaw which was much better. Teachers could send us questions throughout the day (for example, questions about drainage after our son got ear tubes placed, helped alleviate any concerns). Today I wanted to notify his teachers of upcoming absences but have no way to do so. I need to remember to notify them before his 7:30 drop off or for some reason, our only means of communication gets locked. Additionally, I’m unable to like individual photos, only full days (why?) and there’s no feature to comment either. I loved seesaws ability to comment because it helped the class feel like a community. I really wish the daily reports or center announcements were in a separate tab from the photos. And lastly, I wish the homepage gave me a normal, appealing overview. Maybe the most recent photo and report. Or notifications of new items (like photos). It’s filled with random advice that I’m not able to close out of with just clutters everything.

   mcinallys · 31 Jul 2026

3. 1/5The worst app I’ve ever been forced to use

   I am so disappointed in this app. I am also not surprised that it has not been updated in over a year. A big problem that has emerged for me is that I no longer get notified throughout the day when photos are updated, even though I get notified of other updates, such as “class notes.” Sometimes the photos that are attached to the daily report that is sent home are old photos from a previous day, and teachers have shared that, on their end, there are UX issues where they aren’t able to upload photos to the correct day. When I get notified of a class-specific note, it’s always annoying to see that it’s, in fact, a center-wide announcement for the whole center and not specifically for my child’s class. The notification being labeled as a Class-specific announcement is much more anxiety-provoking, as it leads one to think that something has happened in my kid’s class. I feel that the developers of this app have completely abandoned it given it has not been updated. Also, the random tips about wellness and books to read are aggravating and presumptuous. They sort of insult your intelligence as a parent - if we wanted these tips, we can seek them out. I understand that the daycare center can toggle certain features on and off. However, there are fundamental front-end and back-end issues that make this app barely functional on the parent side of things and the care giver side of things. Also, a big safety issue is the 5 minute lag time when my kid is checked in or out of daycare. What if a child gets checked out by someone who isn’t supposed to be with the child, and the parent gets notified 5 minutes later? This is a basic communication function that needs to be addressed. I feel that the lack of regular performance updates for this app is a huge safety issue for a platform that is used to communicate the well-being of and location of children. I’m surprised my center uses it given all the holes in its functionality.

   andre@aa · 31 Jul 2026

4. 3/52.5 stars- developer suggestions included in review

   I love the convenience of this app for daily checkin (we used to manually fill this info out on a sheet of paper at drop off) and ability to keep all my kids daily records in one place (gives me the ability to go back and check sleep habits of my infant etc). HOWEVER it’s buggy and doesn’t always update properly. I usually can close the app and reopen, but this doesn’t always fix the problem. Ideas for future updates-I would love the “food provided” section to be more user friendly (allow me to select multiple food items at a time or store meals that I often send together. Also I’d like to indicate which meal the food is intended for- for example I’d like yogurt served at “lunch” or as a “snack”. Right now teachers don’t know what food should be served when and just have to guess. Also it would be great if teachers could add reminders to the app that “pop up” for parents when filling out info for the next school day. For example when we are asked to bring in more wipes, that message appears on the daily report, but might be missed or forgotten by tomorrow. I’d like the previous day’s teacher notes to pop up the next day while filling out that days drop of notes. Maybe even with a check box to indicate it was completed. Hope that makes sense!

   atgarrett · 31 Jul 2026

5. 1/5Horrible compared to others

   If I could give 0 stars I would! My child was at another daycare that used another app & I loved it so much that when I had to change daycares I made sure they had an app but this one looks the same but I don’t get real time notifications like the other one did. Not knowing how my child is doing throughout the day when I have known constantly every diaper change, feeding, how long the nap was & got to view photos & videos throughout the day of the activities that they all did as a class put me at ease. This instead does nothing for me. It’s useless. I don’t know if any of the information is true or if the teacher just quickly added in the details before the daily report was sent out. Which in the end is making me want to just change daycares completely because I need this reassurance throughout the day. Not just one notification that I dropped off my own child! This is completely pointless & useless!

   akeyes0214 · 31 Jul 2026

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