Tame Your Co-Parent’s Emails With This Easy Hack
Are you filled with nervous energy or even anxiety when you open your inbox - in case there’s a message from your ex? Anything that takes the hard work out of communicating with a co-parent is a win in our books, and we love simple tech solutions. To keep your co-parent out of your inbox, no matter how often they want to message you, we recommend creating a new email address solely to communicate with your co-parent.
This means you never need to be nervous when opening your usual inbox and provides you with full control over when you access the inbox and hear from your co-parent.
If you have a co-parent who doesn’t like to follow your lead and is likely to keep emailing your work and personal emails, use this guide to create an automated rule that will automatically forward all emails from your ex, to your new address, and then remove the email from your usual inbox.
For this example let’s use the following fake email addresses:
- coparent@gmail.com: this is your co-parent's email address
- my-coparenting-inbox@gmail.com: this is the new email address you have created specifically for communications with your co-parent
Here's how to do this in Gmail, Outlook and Hotmail. We recommend using a desktop browser for these changes.
Gmail
First, configure a forwarding address
1. Access your Gmail settings
2. Open the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab and click “Add a forwarding address”
3. Add your new my-coparenting-inbox@gmail.com address and click next.
4. Gmail will send a confirmation email to my-coparenting-inbox@gmail.com. Follow the instructions to confirm the forwarding address.
Second, create a filter to automatically forward emails from your co-parent.
1. Open Gmail and locate an email from your coparent
2. Click the checkbox next to the email
3. Click the "More" dropdown menu (three vertical dots) in the top toolbar and select "Filter messages like these"
4. Confirm the search bar and the “From” option show your co-parent's email (coparent@gmail.com) address and click "Create filter"
5. Select the checkbox beside “Forward it” and then select the forwarding address you created earlier (my-coparenting-inbox@gmail.com)
6. Select the checkbox beside "Delete it."
7. Click "Create filter" to confirm
Outlook and Hotmail
1. Open Outlook or Hotmail and locate an email from your co-parent
2. Right-click the email and select "Rules" > "Create Rule."
3. Select “More Options”
4. Confirm the "From" address contains your co-parent's email (coparent@gmail.com)
5. Under "Actions”, add “Forward to” your new inbox (my-coparenting-inbox@gmail.com) and “Delete”
6. Keep “Stop processing more rules” selected
7. Click “Save”
Note: You can forward emails to different services. In this example, we are forwarding from an Outlook inbox to Gmail.
Other Email Services
Many email providers offer similar rule functionality to forward and delete emails, please check the help and support documentation of your provider to see if it is possible. Unfortunately, it is not currently possible to create a similar rule in Apple iCloud due to limited rule functionality.
Co-Parenting Resources
This, and other tips, are available in our Free Six Steps to Reduce Co-Parenting Stress course. Please check out our range of other free resources and tech tips to help your co-parenting journey.
Cameron Rochester
Tech Guy
Cameron is passionate about technology and has decades of experience in the software industry across many sectors and in many roles. He believes software is not just a tool; it should make a real difference to peoples lives. Whether it is helping you find a job, improving your quality of life, or helping kids grow up safe and slow across two homes.
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