Get back into your kids' world.
Light Bulb Ideas makes family apps that help busy and single parents speak their kids' digital language, win back time, and turn ordinary weekdays into small adventures together.
Does this sound like your week?
Pick the one closest to home. We'll show you what part of the apps was made for it.
It was never the screens. It's the drift.
Screen time gets the blame. But look closer and a quieter problem shows up. Nobody planned it, and nobody is the villain.
Parents are stretched thin
Work, admin and a loud, complicated world leave little room. Family time shrinks to the holidays, even though most of the year is ordinary weeks.
Kids moved fast
They picked up digital in a heartbeat. Many parents feel left behind and unsure how to catch up, so they stand at the edge of the kids' world.
So everyone drifts
Same house, different worlds. Busy parents and fast kids simply stop meeting in the middle. The good news is that this can be changed.
A year of weeks
Parents get on their kids' level, and the home changes.
Picture the kind of house you see in Bluey: parents who get down on the floor and play, and kids who are trusted to lead. Our apps give you a way in, and the trust follows.
Learn their language
XP, levels and quests are explained in plain words. You learn as you play, so the games your kids love stop feeling foreign.
Be challenged by them
Your kids set you a quest: cook something new, fix something with a life hack. You level up, and they get to be the expert.
Celebrate together
When the family hits a goal, you unlock an adventure and celebrate the win as a team. Even a Tuesday can end with a small party.
The result: time freed up, a parent who is growing, kids who feel trusted, and a home that laughs together.
Most apps try to control screen time. This one teaches kids to earn it.
Locks and timers say no. They turn parents into police and kids into negotiators. XP2Play does something different: children learn responsibility, see that effort leads to a reward, and get screen time that is truly theirs.
Responsibility they own
Chores and routines become quests. Kids tick them off themselves, and a parent approves with a tap.
Effort comes first, then the reward
They earn XP for what they do, then choose how to spend it. They learn cause and effect without a lecture.
Creativity stays free
Drawing, building, music and cooking are never turned into points. They are celebrated, and they keep the balance healthy.
Screens and family time stay in balance
Screen time that moves with creative and together time. Parents set the rules once, and the app keeps them.
Screens are not the enemy. Large studies find moderate use is not harmful in itself. What matters is what they replace. See the research
Why it's different: it teaches instead of controls.
Five ideas sit under every feature. Each one is backed by published research, and we say plainly where the evidence is limited.
| Apps that control | The XP2Play method | |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | The parent locks it | The child earns it, within limits the parent sets |
| What the child learns | To work around the rules | Responsibility, and that effort pays off |
| Creativity | Ignored | Protected and celebrated |
| The family | Arguments at the lock screen | Shared quests and wins |
| The parent | Police | Player, coach and cheerleader |
Try the balance
Do a chore to earn XP. Spend XP on screen time. Notice what keeps the scale level.
Start with a quest.
A simplified illustration of the idea. Real limits are set by parents.
One action leads to the next.
Our apps are built to feed each other. Nothing you do disappears into a screen. You can see what it led to. Here is one evening.
Then tomorrow's chores start it all over again.
Every quest has its colour.
Chores, cooking, walks and weekend projects become quests. Kids have quests, parents have quests, and some are for everyone. Finish enough of them and the family unlocks an adventure to take together.
A family adventure is waiting
Earn 100 XP together to open it.
Adventure unlocked: Saturday picnic
Earned by the whole family, so you get to spend it together.
Parents grow alongside their kids.
The usual app asks the child to level up while the parent supervises. Ours give both of you something to learn. Here it is in the kitchen.
One ecosystem, built around family time.
Each app feeds the others, and all of them point at the same place: time spent together.
- XP2Play and My Recipes. XP earned on chores lets the kids pick dinner, and helping cook earns XP back.
- Life Hacks and XP2Play. A weekend project you save becomes a quest the family does together.
- All of them. Every flow ends at the same place: the family doing something together.
The apps
Each app works on its own. Together they become one family system.
XP2Play
Kids earn XP for chores, parents approve, and XP unlocks screen time. Parent and child accounts are linked, so nobody has to nag or negotiate.
In developmentMy Recipes
Save recipes from links and PDFs in one place. The app pulls out ingredients and steps, builds your shopping list, and suggests meals that fit your diet, your location and your cooking level. Kids can challenge a parent to try something new.
PlannedLife Hacks
Practical tips and DIY projects are saved from social media and kept in one searchable place, with a link back to the original. It starts with a shared library, and you add your own finds. Good for weekend projects with the kids.
PlannedOn the workbench
- A private diary for girls aged 9 to 10. Write down your feelings and lock them away, with the feel of a paper diary.
- A first-step app. For the task you keep putting off. It helps you find the smallest first action, then counts you in: five, four, three, two, one.
One home for all of them.
Later, a single umbrella app, My Life, will bring the apps together. You switch on only the ones you need, or take a bundle for less.
Yearly subscriptions keep the apps running and improving. They pay for the work, and they are never the reason for it.
- Start with one appEach app is complete on its own.
- Add what you needSwitch on the apps that fit your family.
- Pay once a yearA fee per app, with a discount when you combine them.
How we decide what to build
Every idea has to pass three questions before it goes into an app.
Does it reconnect the family?
Digital should lead people toward each other, never into separate rooms.
Can you see what it caused?
Every action has a visible result somewhere in the family's day. Nothing is left floating.
Does it bring people together, or split them?
If a feature pulls attention away from the people in the room, it does not go in.
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Tell us what steals your family's time.
The best ideas come from real daily struggles. If something wears you down every week, we would like to hear about it.