---
title: "What parents see in the app"
description: "A tour of the parent experience so you know exactly what families can and can't see in NestliCare."
type: overview
updated: 2026-10-09
canonical_url: https://help.nestlicare.com/owners/communication/what-parents-see
roles: ["super_admin", "center_admin", "teacher"]
platforms: [web, ios, android]
---
Knowing what a parent sees answers a whole category of questions ("will they see this?", "can they do that?") before they come up. Parents use the NestliCare mobile app; here's what's in it.

## What parents can see

- **Their child's feed**: photos, meals, naps, diaper changes, and notes that teachers post during the day. Each parent sees only their own child's feed.
- **Announcements and newsletters** you send to their center or room. Illness notices arrive as announcements too.
- **Messages** with your staff (unless you've [turned off parent messaging](/owners/communication/turn-off-parent-messaging), in which case the Messages tab is hidden). These are not private from the office: while **Admin Oversight of Parent Messages** is on (the default), owners and center admins can read and reply to parent conversations. See [Message a parent](/owners/communication/message-a-parent#who-can-read-a-conversation).
- **Your calendar**: events, closures and holidays you share with parents.
- **Menus and meals** for their child.
- **Incident reports** about their own child, which they read and, where your state requires it, sign in the app.
- **Progress reports** you publish for their child.
- **Invoices and payment history** for their family, plus an annual payment statement they can download. When you take online payments, they can also pay from the app.
- **Documents and forms** you send them to read, acknowledge, or sign.
- **Their personal pickup code**, plus the codes of the pickup contacts they've added to their family.
- **Their own family profile**: their contact details and the other members on the family.

## What parents cannot see

- **Anything about other families or children.** A parent only ever sees their own family.
- **Your staff-only spaces.** The staff messageboard, staff schedules, timesheets, and internal notes are invisible to parents.
- **Your business data.** Reports, other families' billing, your CRM and leads, and center settings are admin-only.
- **Incidents for other children,** or the full incident list. When an incident is filed about their own child, the parent is notified automatically.

## What parents can do

- Read and reply to messages.
- Sign incident reports when you ask for a signature.
- View and pay invoices, save a payment method, and turn on auto-pay (when online payments are enabled).
- Read, acknowledge, or sign documents you send.
- Manage their pickup contacts and see their pickup code.

<Callout kind="tip" title="Want to see it yourself?">
The fastest way to understand the parent view is to install the app and log in as a test parent on your own account. What you post as a teacher or admin is what they'll see moments later in the feed.
</Callout>

## A note on transparency

Parents see a clean, focused version of their child's day, never your operations. That separation is deliberate: families get exactly what's theirs, and nothing about how you run the business or about other families.