In Search of a Good Family Calendar!

So I am highly anticipating next year…okay not really, I’m actually just on the hunt for a new calendar that will help me manage our household a little bit better.  My hubby and I recently starting living by the “If it’s not on the calendar, then it’s not happening” rule that my girlfriend Erin taught me. 

See it all started with several misunderstandings over who was going to watch Lil’ C.  Here is the low down.

First Challenge:  It’s not called babysitting if it’s your own child
I’d say, “Hey honey, I’m going to do ____ on Thursday night” and he’d say, “well who is watching Lil’C?”  I started off hiding all my fury and just respond with, “well honey, do you have any plans?” and he’d respond ever so kindly… “no, I guess I could babysit.”  Please tell me I’m not alone in this…but whenever my husband has to watch our son he refers to it as babysitting!  Ugh, doesn’t that drive you nuts?  News flash!  It’s not called babysitting if it’s your own kids!  So we worked on that and he responds much more appropriately now!  So once I learned to squeeze that lemon, I moved on to the next thing….

Second Challenge:  Double Booked
So the next calendar challenge would be when I’d have plans and so would my husband, so we’d have to battle it out and someone would end up very unhappy.  This even happens when something over laps in times.  For instance, he’d have planned on fishing and told me he was going to fish the morning and I would have planned on going to cooking club that evening.  We’d communicate those details and thing we’d have it covered, but wouldn’t necessarily talk about the times.  So he’d get home 30 minutes after I was suppose to leave!  I know your thinking, “Another easily avoidable misunderstanding,” but we were still learning okay?

The Solution: 
So after several of these situations, my girlfriend shared with me her arrangement at home with the calendar…  She said (in some funnier, not so polite words) “If it’s not on the calendar then it’s not happening”.  So I started implementing that at home.  And it has really started to work.  I write things down once I know about them and my husband (who remember, is type A all the way), looks at the calendar every day and knows what is coming up! 

So long story short, right now we just use this regular old wall calendar, which works, but could be a lot better.  I’ve started looking online for something that is a little more family friendly.  With a new baby coming next year, I need more space on each day.  I’d like to find one that allows for each member of our family to have a line.  Kind of like this one:  http://www.calendars.com/Moms-Organizers/Household-Manager-2012-Wall-Calendar/prod201200000860/?categoryId=cat00153

Since I really feel like you’re only as good as the tools you have, I thought I’d ask other moms!  Does anyone else use a calendar like this?  And if so, how do you like it?  Or what do you not like about it??