Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, therefore I may be compensated if you purchase when clicking through my links. This helps keep the website running.
I have my own set of personal cards in case it's easier to hand over my card to another parent who wishes to exchange contact details to set up a playdate for the kids. For example, at a kids sports match outdoors - the sun glare on the cellphone can make it hard to type in each other's contact numbers. Here are some do's and don'ts for what to put on your personal business cards (also known as parent cards):
Do
- Have the important things listed on your card: typically this would be your first and last name, your cellphone number and email.
- Use an easy-to-read font for phone number and email. This need not mean a boring generic font - slab fonts combine a fun look with readability, for example. You don't want your new contact to accidentally reach out to a stranger due to reading the phone number or email incorrectly.
- In particular, make sure the number 1 and the letter l are clearly distinguishable, and likewise the number 0 and the letter o. If only one of these appears in your email address, it should be clear at a glance which one it is.
- On the other hand feel free to get creative with a fancy or decorative font for your name, and use any designs or colors you wish to put on your card to express yourself.
Don't
- Include your address unless you have a good reason to do so. I prefer omitting the address, because if you need to exchange addresses at a later point to set up a playdate, you can do that via text message. This way, your parent contact card can double up as a personal card for other reasons e.g. as a grown-up contact card; for example if you're in a book club and wish to pass along just your phone number and email address to the others. This way you can simply hand out your card without handing out more personal details than you might want. In general, don't put too much information on your personal business card, especially considering you might be handing it out to someone you don't yet know really well.
Here are a few of my fave designs from affordable US company Evermine - all of these are editable, and you can pick the colors, and also they ship internationally (tap/click for options and pricing):
Let's move on and take a look at other things to think about:
Other important things to consider on a parent card
Children's names
Think whether you wish to include your children's name(s) on the card. That choice is personal. I don't have my kids listed on mine, and I recommend that approach for several reasons:
- What if you're not done having kids?
- Often times, the contact between you and another parent might be mainly via one of your kids and not the other(s). Having more than one name there might be confusing to the other parent because they then have to remember which one is their child's contact.
- Having your children's names there might make you less likely to want to also use the card for grown-up purposes (e.g. the book club contact example I mentioned earlier) if that is important to you.
If you do choose to include your children's names, I recommend omitting their ages (which will change) and their birthdates (which is private information). Here is an example of the writing on a parent card with the children's names on:
Sally Jackson
mom to Ezra, Jamie and Addison
[phone number] [email]
Your hobbies or interests
If you have a hobby or interest you're particularly passionate about you should think whether you want to include it on your card. On mine, I did this using hashtags to make it look upbeat. If you do crafts, for example, you can put #Crafter. More than one interest is fine, although you won't want to overwhelm your personal card (or the other parent!) with every last one of your interests. I would recommend keeping it from 1 to 3 main interests. This approach also helpful if you want to mention a side business without necessarily giving the other parent your actual formal business card, for example if you do freelance graphic design you can put #GraphicDesign or #GraphicDesigner.
If you're a private person, you might not necessarily want to trumpet your interests and instead have this information come out organically as you get to know the other parent and kid. But if you have a niche interest or hobby (e.g. in my case #Linux), it can be helpful to list it in case the other parent happens to also have that interest. I don't otherwise tend to bring up the niche stuff in conversation because I'm aware that not everyone is going to have that in common or want to know much about it. In general, having your interests shown on your card can help build friendships easier with other parents and have something you can talk about on the adult level, and it lets you ask about their interests without seeming nosy since yours are already listed there. But ultimately it's a personal decision whether to include this on your parent card.
I would not recommend putting your children's interests on the cards because these can change quickly, and the other parent presumably knows you through one of those interests anyway (e.g. sports team, dance class, etc).
Where to buy personal business cards for parents
Besides the gorgeous pics we saw above from Evermine, you can also buy parent cards from Etsy.com, and if you're willing to put in extra time and effort you can create your own designs from scratch at print services such as UPrinting.
