For the one who coordinates everything
In every family, one person ends up running a parent's care: the appointments, the medications, the paperwork, and the reminding. Default Child is built for that one person. You keep the record and assign the work. The system does the chasing. Everyone else just answers text messages.
Apply for the founding pilotNow recruiting 5 founding families for a free, 2 week pilot, run by hand over text message.
The problem
The work itself is not the heaviest part of coordinating a parent's care. The heaviest part is the chasing.
You hold the medication list in your head. The doctor's number lives in a note nobody else can find. The schedule sits on a fridge whiteboard that only you update. When a sibling is supposed to handle something, you send the reminder, then the follow-up, then the awkward third text.
Asking for help starts to feel like a second job, so a lot of coordinators quietly stop asking and just do it all themselves.
That tax has a name in most families: the coordinator becomes the nag, and resents it, and the siblings resent being nagged. Default Child removes the tax by moving the reminding off you and onto a system.
How it works
No app to install, no account, no password. Your brother gets a plain text message with his assignment and replies DONE when it is handled. A photo works too: the pharmacy bag, the signed form, Dad back home safe.
Default Child sends the reminders, follows up, and keeps the record straight, so you never have to write the nag. If a commitment slips, it lands back in your queue with the full history attached. You decide the next move. You just never have to be the one who chased.
Every Sunday, every participant gets one text: what got done, who did it, and what money was spent. The invisible work becomes visible without you writing a word of it. Here is what that text looks like:
Family Care Digest (Nov 2 to Nov 8): Total tasks completed: 6 Mark: 2 tasks (cardiology ride, pharmacy run) Sarah (Captain): 4 tasks (doctor follow-up call, grocery delivery, Medicare paperwork, pill organizer setup) Total out-of-pocket logged: $64.20 (Mark: $18.50, Sarah: $45.70) Have a great week ahead!
A sample Sunday digest, using the same format the pilot runs.
Appointments and errands
A ride to a 10:00 AM oncology appointment cannot ride on a morning-of surprise. Whoever owns an appointment must confirm by an absolute cutoff, 24 hours ahead by default. If they have not confirmed by then, you are flagged immediately, while there is still time to book another ride.
Flexible jobs, like a prescription pickup due by Friday, get a text the day before, one the morning of, and one overdue nudge. If the promise breaks, the task re-queues itself the same morning and escalates to you with everything that happened attached.
How we treat your family
When you add a family member, Default Child hands you a short message to send from your own phone, in the family chat you already use, saying an introduction text is coming. Only after that person replies YES to the introduction does any assignment ever get sent to them. Anyone who replies STOP is out, instantly and permanently.
Clean replies like DONE, CONFIRM, or CAN'T are handled automatically. Anything messier, a reschedule, a "ask Dave, he is closer," a frustrated paragraph, is never answered by a bot. It goes straight to your queue, word for word, so a person handles it like a person.
Default Child stores what your family enters and repeats it back: the medication list, the doctors, the schedule. It does not give medical advice, check medications, or make care decisions. Your family's information is never sold, and you can export it or delete it at any time.
The founding pilot
We are not building an app first and hoping families show up. We are running this service by hand, over text message, for a small first group, and proving it works before any software gets built.
Not coordinating a parent's care right now, but willing to help us learn? We are also holding 30 minute interview conversations with coordinators, and keeping a launch waitlist for everyone else. Our goal is 25 signups across all three groups.
Raise your hand
Tell us where you fit. We read every signup ourselves and reply by email.
We have your signup. We read every one ourselves and will reach out by email. If you raised your hand for the founding pilot, watch your inbox for a note about next steps.
Guides
Practical, plain spoken help for the sibling running a parent's care. No jargon, no guilt trips.
What the default child is, why the job lands on one sibling, and how to start sharing it.
Read guideSpecific, dated asks and calm follow-through when your siblings are not showing up.
Read guideInventory the work, match it to distance and ability, and give everything an owner and a date.
Read guideWhat to capture on a parent's medication list, where it should live, and how to keep it current.
Read guideDoctors, insurance cards, documents, and visit notes, gathered into one findable home.
Read guideThe signs of burnout, the resentment cycle, and what genuinely helps, in plain words.
Read guideAn agenda, the decisions to make, and the follow-up rhythm that makes a care meeting stick.
Read guideSimple logging habits and a weekly summary that make invisible work visible.
Read guide