FamStand — The Ultimate Parent User Guide 🚀

Welcome to FamStand, your family's new favorite kitchen command center! Say goodbye to nagging, messy sticker charts, and endless arguments about whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher.

FamStand transforms daily routines, chores, and good habits into an exciting game where your kids are eager to earn points, unlock real-world rewards, and keep the household running smoothly.

1. What is FamStand?

At its heart, FamStand is a rock-solid digital chore board built specifically for a shared family tablet (like an Android tablet or Game Console sitting on your kitchen counter, fridge, or hallway wall). It’s designed to be always on, bright, and easy for kids of all ages to read and use independently.

Here is why parents love it: * Drop-Proof Reliability (Even with Wonky Wi-Fi): We know family life is hectic and kitchen Wi-Fi can be temperamental. If your internet blinks out or drops completely, FamStand keeps humming along without missing a beat. Kids can still check off chores, and everything syncs up quietly the moment Wi-Fi reconnects. * Midnight Magic: While your whole house is sound asleep, FamStand quietly gets tomorrow ready. Every night at midnight (based on your family’s home timezone), the app tucks away yesterday’s completed chores, handles missed chores, and stamps out a fresh, sparkling to-do list ready for breakfast. * Smart & Fair (No Double-Penalties): Ever had an app glitch and charge you twice? We hate that too. FamStand is built with smart safeguards so that even if the tablet restarts or updates in the middle of the night, your kids will never be double-penalized for a missed chore. Fair is fair! * First-Run Tour: The first time the kid board opens on a device, a quick, dark overlay shows you where everything is. It points first to the rewards store in the top-left, then to the settings gear in the top-right so you can set your Parent PIN and set up your family. It runs once per install and stays remembered even if you switch families.

2. Core Concepts: Parents vs. Minions

FamStand keeps family roles crystal clear:

🏠 Families

Your household! Everything belongs to your Family account—your kids, your chore templates, your reward shop, and your settings.

👑 Parents (The Admins)

Parents are the household commanders-in-chief. You hold the master keys to create chores, set point values, adjust schedules, approve rewards, and enforce house rules. * The Parent PIN: Your private 4-to-6-digit secret code. This is your impenetrable digital lock. It ensures curious, tech-savvy little fingers can’t sneak into settings, give themselves a million points, or approve their own ice cream rewards behind your back! * Parent Phone Mode: When running FamStand on your personal smartphone, you can choose to skip entering your Parent PIN on your own trusted device while keeping the shared kitchen tablet tightly locked down.

🎒 Minions (The Kids)

Minions are your hard-working crew members! Each child has their own dedicated column on the family board, complete with their name, a custom avatar, and a personalized accent color. * The Child PIN: Each kid gets their own simple 4-digit secret PIN (like 1234 or 7788). This gives children a wonderful sense of personal responsibility and "grown-up" ownership. More importantly, it keeps mischievous siblings from accidentally—or sneakily—checking off each other's chores! * Available Points Chip (Daily Potential Tracker): Right next to each kid's name on the main dashboard, you'll see a bright green points chip (like +15 pts). This acts as a daily potential tracker, showing kids exactly how many points they can still earn today if they finish their remaining open chores. As chores are completed throughout the day, the number updates in real time to show what's left to win! * Reordering Columns: Want columns arranged by age or bedroom order? In Settings > Manage Minions, parents can drag each child's card to reorder their columns across the main kid board.

🛡️ Strict Mode: The Sibling Peacekeeper

Tired of kids fighting over who gets to do the easy chore first? Turn on Strict Mode in Parent Settings! * When Strict Mode is ON: Children can only check off chores that have been specifically assigned to them. Emma cannot touch Timmy’s "Make Bed" chore, and Timmy’s PIN won’t work on Emma’s "Practice Piano" chore. * When Strict Mode is OFF: Any chore can be completed by any eligible child on a first-come, first-served basis, even if a chore is assigned to one. * (Psst... check out Section 4 to see the wild gamification twist when Strict Mode meets the "Point Heist!)

3. The Chore Engine: Getting Stuff Done

FamStand makes chore management effortless with a simple distinction:

📋 Templates vs. Instances

Recurring Chores (The Master Plan): Think of templates as your recurring recipe cards. Set them up under Settings > Manage Recurring Chores (e.g., "Feed the Dog every day for 10 points", "Clean Rabbit Hutch every Saturday for 25 points"). Tap the + button on this screen to create a new recurring chore.
Chore Instances (Today's To-Do List): Every night at midnight, FamStand reads your recurring chores and stamps out fresh chore cards onto the board. Parents can also tap the + button on the main board to add a quick one-off chore for today.
Chore Structure: Every chore has a Chore Title (required) and optional Instructions / Details. Tapping a chore card opens its details so kids or parents can review the full instructions.

📅 Plain-English Schedules

When creating a recurring chore under Manage Recurring Chores, select the rhythm that matches your home: * Daily: Generates every single day for everyday habits like brushing teeth or making beds. * Weekdays Only: Monday through Friday for school-year routines like packing backpacks and finishing homework. * Weekends Only: Saturday and Sunday for weekend cleanup tasks and yard chores. * Specific Weekdays: Select one or more days of the week (e.g., taking out recycling every Tuesday and Friday). * Monthly (Nth Day): Triggers once a month on a specific calendar day (e.g., give pet medication on the 1st). * Every X Days: Repeats on a custom interval (e.g., every 2 or 3 days).

🔄 Fixed Chores vs. Rolling Chores

When you select Every X Days, a Rolling Completion checkbox appears:

Fixed Cadence (Rolling Completion OFF):
The chore repeats strictly on its calendar interval, regardless of when it is completed.
Rolling Cadence (Rolling Completion ON):
The Rolling Completion checkbox exists only under Every X Days (and automatically turns off if you switch to any other schedule). Other schedules (Daily, Weekdays Only, Weekends Only, Specific Weekdays, Monthly) follow their calendar days.
When enabled, the countdown clock starts only after the chore is marked complete. FamStand waits that exact number of family-local calendar days after completion before putting the chore back on the board.
Example: "Water the delicate house plants every 4 days." If it was due on Tuesday, but Timmy didn't water them until Friday, FamStand waits 4 full calendar days from Friday. The chore will next appear on Tuesday. Your plants don't drown, and Timmy isn't nagged the next morning!

📌 The Kid Board & Shared Chores

The family board organizes daily chores clearly for everyone: * Assigned Chores: Chores assigned to a child appear directly in that child's column. * Bounties & Shared Chores: Unassigned chores and redo bounties sit in the top shared row, open to any eligible child. Parents can tap the shared row header to open Customize Shared Row, choose a custom row color, or center the chore cards. * Completed Cards: When a child completes a chore—whether assigned or shared—the completed card appears in the completing child's column for that family-local day. It displays a check mark, the points awarded, and the completion time (e.g., Completed 12:37 PM, with no date). At family-local midnight, yesterday's completed cards leave the active board and are preserved in history.

✂️ Split Shared Chores: Divide & Conquer (No More Sibling Fights!)

We’ve all heard the classic bedtime squabble: "I cleaned up almost the whole room, but he barely did anything, so why does he get the points?!"

When multiple kids are assigned to a single pending chore, parents can now split it up so everyone gets their own card and takes personal ownership of their share:

Open the Chore: Long-press the chore card right on the main family board (or tap it in Settings > Review & Edit Chores).
Assign the Kids: Under Assign To:, make sure two or more children are checked.
Flip the "Split" Switch: Split stays at the right of Assign To: on an open chore. It is dimmed until two or more children are checked. Turn it on, and a preview of each child's point share appears under the switch.
Automatic, Fair Math: The app handles the math automatically, dividing the points evenly between each child. In true FamStand fashion, fractional points are always rounded up in favor of the kids (for example, splitting a 15-point chore between two kids gives each child 8 points!).
Separate Cards for Everyone: Tap Save, and the single chore splits into individual chore cards—one for each child—appearing directly in their respective columns (tagged with an (S) in the title, like "Clean Playroom (S)").

Each child gets their own individual chore card to check off with their private PIN, completely eliminating fights over who did the work!

⏳ Chore Lifecycle, Persistence & Expiration

How do chore cards live, lock, age, and expire on the family board? FamStand handles nonrecurring one-offs and recurring habits with crystal-clear rules:

Nonrecurring Chores:

An undated chore stays either in the shared row or in an assigned column indefinitely until completed or deleted.
A chore with a deadline stays in a locked state on the board until it enters your family's Chore Unlock Lead Time (to prevent kids from rushing ahead on tasks meant for later). When the lead window opens, it automatically unlocks to available (or transitions directly to late if past grace).
A chore with a deadline is marked Late once it passes its due time plus your family's grace period. Completing a late chore awards half the base points (fractions are always rounded UP in favor of the kid! For example, a 5-point chore completed late awards 3 points).
Uncompleted nonrecurring chores stay on the board as late indefinitely until completed or deleted.

Recurring Chores:

Recurring chores are due at 11:59 PM in your family's home timezone.
If a recurring chore is incomplete at midnight when a new instance is due to be generated for the next day, the unfinished chore is marked Missed, disappears from the dashboard, and applies your family's missed chore penalty. A fresh instance then appears on the board.
If a recurring chore is incomplete at midnight, but NO new instance is scheduled for tomorrow, it remains on the board as Late until completed, deleted, or replaced when a new instance is due.
Deleting a completed chore deletes only the card instance; earned points remain safely in the child's balance.

4. Economy & The Point Heist: Real Consequences!

FamStand turns good habits into hard currency and introduces healthy, game-like accountability. Built into our math is a core "Favor the Child" philosophy: whenever points or penalties result in fractions, awards are rounded UP and penalties are rounded DOWN to keep the momentum encouraging and fair!

🏦 The Digital Bank Account

At the very top of the board is the family scoreboard. Each child’s live point wallet is front and center. Whenever a chore is completed, points are instantly credited with cheerful fanfare. Kids love watching their balance grow! * Banked Points vs. Available Points: While the main wallet displays points already safely in the bank, the green chip next to each child's name shows their Available Points—the daily potential points still waiting to be earned today. It gives kids an immediate answer to: "How many points can I make today if I finish all my chores?" * Child Dashboard: A child opens their own dashboard with their Child PIN. The big number is the full wallet. Below it is recent point activity, newest first, with tabs for All, Earned, and Spent. The complete period-by-period record is in History.

⏳ Missed Chore Penalties: Teaching Follow-Through

What happens if bedtime arrives, the lights go out, and little Timmy completely neglected his chore? During the Midnight Sweep, FamStand marks unfinished chores as Missed and applies your family's house rules: * Half Points (Default & Recommended): Deducts 50% of the chore’s value from their bank account (fractions are rounded DOWN in favor of the kid. For example, missing a 5-point chore deducts 2 points). If 'Feed the Dog' was worth 10 points, Timmy loses 5 points for forgetting. A gentle, constructive nudge. * Full Points: For stricter households or high-stakes responsibilities—deducts 100% of the chore's value. * Fixed Penalty: Applies a flat fine chosen by you (e.g., -5 points for any missed chore, big or small). * Unassigned Missed Chores: Unassigned missed chores follow the same penalty calculation, but divide the penalty between all kids equally, rounding down. (Example: A 10-point missed chore with a 'half' penalty equals a 5-point total penalty. Divided between 3 kids, that's 5/3 = 1.66. We round down, so 1 point is deducted from each kid. Note: There is always a strict minimum deduction of 1 point per kid for missed shared chores—even if a 1-point chore is missed and the math equals 0.16, the system will deduct exactly 1 point from each child.) * The Zero-Floor Guard: FamStand has heart! A child's wallet balance will never drop below zero points. No child bankruptcy in this house! * No Double-Penalties: FamStand records unique completion and missed cutoff entries in the ledger. Even if a tablet restarts or syncs multiple times, penalties are never charged twice.

🕵️ The Point Heist (Redos): The Ultimate Parenting Superpower!

We’ve all been there: your child claims their room is spotless, taps in their PIN, collects 20 points, and bounds off to play. You open their bedroom door, only to find toys hastily shoved under the rug and dirty socks jammed behind the dresser!

Enter The Point Heist—FamStand’s secret weapon against sloppy work:

Step 1: Mom or Dad Calls "Redo!"

Tap the completed chore card, enter your Parent PIN, and select Needs Redo.

Step 2: The Immediate Reversal & Penalty

FamStand instantly: 1. Strips away the points the child fraudulently earned for their rush-job. 2. Deducts a redo penalty from their balance (based on your family settings: Half, Full, or Fixed). 3. The Zero-Floor Guard: If the child does not have enough points to cover the full penalty, the deduction stops safely at zero.

Step 3: The Floating Bounty & Sibling Free-For-All!

Here is where the magic happens: * The points stripped from the child's wallet are placed onto the chore as a shiny Floating Bounty! * The chore immediately shoots up to the Bounties & Shared Chores row at the top of the board. * Strict Mode is Bypassed! The chore becomes a household Free-For-All.

Step 4: The Heist, The Redemption, or Aged Salvage!

The Sibling Heist: If Timmy’s sister Maya spots the bounty on the board, she can swoop in, tidy Timmy’s room properly, punch in her own Child PIN, and pull off the ultimate Point Heist—pocketing the original chore points PLUS the floating bounty bonus that came from Timmy's account!
The Redemption ("Stopping the Bleeding"): If Timmy realizes his sister is eyeballing his bounty, he can hustle back to his room, do the job right, and re-enter his PIN before she gets there. But here is the crucial parenting genius: Timmy does NOT get awarded new chore points! He only claws back his own deducted points. He is essentially forced to finish the entire job properly for zero net gain, purely to stop the bleeding and keep his sister from walking away with his points!
Aged Redos: If a redo chore with a bounty ages past its cutoff without being completed, siblings can no longer claim the expired bounty. However, the original child can still complete the chore to salvage half of their forfeited bounty (rounded down).
Cascading Redos & Anti-Collusion:
If a child's second attempt at a redo still causes a redo, another round of penalty is docked and added to the bounty pool.
If ANY re-doer eventually completes the chore, they can only recover their own contributed bounty. Contributed bounties from other children evaporate rather than enabling collusion.

📖 The Ledger: History & Manual Point Adjustments

Every point earned, missed deduction, redo reversal, and reward purchase is recorded in the family history ledger:

Filtering History: Open History from Settings or the board. Filter your family's records using three dropdown menus:
Time: View activity from Today, This Week, Last Week, Last 7 Days, or Last 30 Days. The net is the whole period. Scroll to load older rows from that period.
Category: Filter by All, Earned, Missed, Redo, Store, or Grants (manual adjustments).
Kid: Filter by All Kids or view a single child's records.
Read-Only Chore Details: Tap any chore row in history to open Task Details, showing a read-only snapshot of the chore title, status, and full instructions.
Manual Point Adjustments: Need to grant bonus points for great behavior or fix a balance? In Settings > Manage Minions, tap Adjust Points on any child's card. Choose Add or Remove, enter the amount, and add an optional note. The adjustment immediately logs in history under Grants.

5. The Storefront: Motivation Made Tangible

Points are fun, but real-world motivation is what gets kids jumping off the sofa!

🛍️ Browsing the Shop

Kids can tap the Store icon right on the family board to browse colorful, tempting rewards set up by parents: * 15 Minutes of Screen Time (10 pts) * Pick Tonight’s Dinner or Movie (30 pts) * Trip to the Ice Cream Parlor (50 pts) * Stay Up 30 Minutes Past Bedtime (40 pts) * Special LEGO Set or Toy (200 pts)

🚀 Goal-Gradient Motivation ("Almost There!")

Kids love having goals to work toward. If Timmy taps on the Ice Cream reward costing 50 points, but only has 35 points in his wallet, FamStand doesn’t just show a boring error.

Instead, a cheerful rocket dialog pops up with an animated progress bar:

"Almost there, Timmy! You just need 15 more points for Ice Cream. Go crush some chores!"

It gives kids that extra burst of energy to look at the board and tackle whatever chores are waiting!

🤝 The Delivery Handshake: Real-World Safety

When a child does have enough points and taps "Buy," FamStand does not instantly give them unfettered access to the Game Console or hand them an ice cream cone!

Here is how the Delivery Handshake protects parents:

Moved to The Stash: When a reward is purchased, the points are deducted from the child's wallet, and the item is safely placed into the child's personal Stash (visible inside their personal dashboard).
The Physical Handover: When the family is ready to enjoy the reward, Mom or Dad physically delivers the real-world treat (e.g., handing over the game controller or scooping the ice cream).
Kids in control of their stash: To keep kids in control of their stash, they open their stash by entering their Child PIN to allow the parent to deliver the prize.
Parent PIN Verification: The parent taps the pending item in the child's Stash, punches in the Parent PIN, and taps Mark Delivered. The reward is officially checked off and logged into the history ledger.
The "Life Happens" Refund: What if the ice cream parlor is closed? Or dinner is ready and screen time has to wait? No problem! In the same handshake window, Mom or Dad can simply tap Refund Points. FamStand immediately returns every single point back to the child’s wallet. Zero tears, zero fuss.

⭐ Premium: Supporting FamStand

FamStand offers an optional Premium upgrade: * Upgrade to Premium: A one-time purchase offering Lifetime Unlock for the whole family (or restore purchases). * * Active Premium: Once unlocked, your Settings screen displays: "Thank you for purchasing premium & supporting our work. We hope our app helps you raise great kids!"

Quick Reference: Everyday Parent Cheat Sheet

Situation	What to Do
A child finished a chore	Child taps their chore card, enters their 4-digit Child PIN, and collects points! The card displays Completed [time] and remains on the board until midnight.
Sloppy or incomplete job	Parent taps the chore, enters Parent PIN, and selects Needs Redo. Points are stripped and a floating bounty is posted!
Kid wants to buy a reward	Child opens the Store, taps the item, and confirms purchase into their Stash.
Handing over the real reward	Child unlocks their Stash with Child PIN, then Parent taps the item, enters Parent PIN, and taps Mark Delivered (or Refund Points).
Adding a recurring chore	Parent taps the ⚙ Settings gear, enters Parent PIN, taps Manage Recurring Chores, and taps +.
Creating a quick today chore	Tap the + button on the main board to add a one-off chore directly to the shared row or an assigned child.
Splitting a shared chore	Long-press the chore on the main board (or tap it in Settings > Review & Edit Chores), make sure the kids are selected, and flip the Split switch. FamStand divides the points evenly (rounded up) and gives each kid their own card!
Checking daily potential points	Look at the green points chip next to each child's name at the top of their column on the main dashboard to see how many points they can still earn today.
Adjusting points by hand	In Settings > Manage Minions, tap Adjust Points on a child's card, choose Add or Remove, enter the amount, and confirm.
Reordering kid columns	In Settings > Manage Minions, drag children up or down to set their column sequence on the main board.
Customizing the shared row	Tap the shared row header to open Customize Shared Row, choose an accent color, or center cards.
Viewing chore details in history	Open History, filter by time, category, or child, and tap any chore row to view read-only task details.
Stopping sibling interference	In Settings, turn on Strict Mode so kids can only complete chores assigned specifically to them.

📞 Support & Feedback

Have questions, suggestions, or need assistance? We're here to help! * Support Email: [email protected]

Thank you for bringing FamStand into your home. Here’s to cleaner bedrooms, self-motivated kids, and more peaceful mornings!