Cubby notes vs the fridge sticky note: two different tools, one shared job
Somewhere on your fridge right now, there is probably a note. A reminder, a name, a time. Maybe a small smiley face in the corner. The handwriting is yours, or your partner's, or the nanny's. It is stuck there because it needed to be seen, and it is still there because no one has decided yet that it has done its job.
The fridge sticky note is one of the most durable communication technologies in existence. It has survived the smartphone era entirely intact. This piece is not an argument against it. It is a clear-eyed look at what each tool does well, and why most families end up using both.
The fridge sticky note
The sticky note is low-tech, immediate, and personal. Your handwriting. Your doodle of a heart. The fact that you had to physically find a pen, write something, and stick it somewhere is itself a small act of effort that the recipient feels. There is nothing to log into. The nanny arrives and it is right there on the counter, at eye level, impossible to miss.
It is also, for someone in the same house, the most reliable form of communication that exists. You do not need a signal. You do not need a phone. You do not need to know whether the other person has checked an app recently. The note is just there.
The problem is that it only works if you are in the same place. It falls off. It gets wet. It ends up under a magnet and no one reads it properly. There is no timestamp. The partner who left for work at 7am does not see it. The grandparent visiting from another city does not see it until they arrive. And when you need to remember what was written last Tuesday, it is gone. It was recycled with the junk mail three days ago.
What a Cubby note adds
A note in Cubby is a log entry. You type a message, save it, and it appears in the shared family log at the time you wrote it, right alongside the feed and nappy data from that part of the day. Everyone in your circle sees it, wherever they are, as soon as it is posted.
What that gives you that a sticky note cannot:
- The partner who left at 7am checks Cubby at lunch and sees the morning note in context, next to the feed data from that hour.
- The grandparent who will collect the baby at 3pm sees what happened this morning before they arrive.
- The note from last Tuesday is still there. You can scroll back and read it.
- It is timestamped automatically. You do not need to write "9:15am" at the top.
- Context and data sit together. "She only had half the bottle" appears right next to the 7:30am feed entry. The explanation and the evidence are in the same place.
You can also post a Cubby note from anywhere. On the train to work. From your desk at the office. From another country, if that is where you are. The note lands in the log at the moment you write it, seen by the whole care team.
What sticky notes do better
It would be dishonest to pretend Cubby wins on every dimension. It does not.
For someone physically in the house, a sticky note at eye level is harder to miss than a log entry in an app. Not everyone checks Cubby the moment they walk through the door. A note on the kettle or on the changing table is there, immediately, without any action required.
There is also something warmer about handwriting that a text field cannot replicate. The small heart, the lopsided smiley, the slightly rushed letters of someone who was in a hurry but still took a moment to write something down. Physical objects carry a kind of warmth that digital entries do not, and that is a real thing, not a sentimental one.
And for a carer who is not comfortable with apps, a sticky note requires nothing. No login, no account, no learning a new interface. It is the lowest possible barrier to leaving a message. Some families have carers for whom that matters, and the honest answer is that a sticky note is the right tool.
The way most families use both
The pattern that emerges in families who use Cubby is not a replacement. It is a division of labour based on distance.
A sticky note on the fridge or the counter for the person who is physically in the house. For someone walking in the door who needs to know one thing immediately, the physical note is faster and more reliable than asking them to open an app.
A Cubby note for everyone who is remote. The parent at work who left at 7am and wants to know how the morning went. The grandparent who is picking up later. The partner who is travelling this week. The note in the log reaches all of them, at the same time, with a timestamp, in the context of everything else the baby did that morning.
These are different distances, and they call for different tools. Both can coexist without contradiction.
The "love you" note
One of the things people do with Cubby notes is write something soft. "She has been a good girl today, I think she missed you." "Good morning, I left coffee in the flask, love you." "You handled last night brilliantly. She knows."
These same messages work in both forms. A sticky note version sticks to the kettle and disappears by evening. A Cubby version stays in the log and the person reads it whenever they open the app, maybe on the bus home, maybe two hours later when they finally have a moment.
Both are right. Some things deserve to be said with handwriting and stuck somewhere visible, so the first thing someone sees when they walk in is warmth. Some things deserve to be permanent, to sit in the record of the day, to still be there next week when someone scrolls back through the log and remembers that Tuesday was hard but someone noticed.
You get to choose which is which. That is not a bad problem to have.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Cubby note visible to the whole circle or just one person?
Everyone in your Cubby circle sees every note. It is a shared log entry, not a private message. If you have added a partner, a grandparent, and a nanny, all three see the note. It appears in the shared log at the time it was written, alongside the baby's feed and nappy data.
Can I write a personal note to my partner in Cubby without the nanny seeing it?
No. Notes in Cubby are visible to everyone in the circle. There is no private message feature within Cubby. If you want to send something just to your partner, use a direct message outside the app.
What is the best way to leave a handover note for a nanny?
For someone who is physically in the house, a sticky note at eye level is hard to miss. For a nanny who checks Cubby when they arrive, a note in the log gives them context alongside the baby's data from the morning. Many families use both: a physical note for anything urgent and a Cubby note for the detail that belongs with the record.
Should I use Cubby notes or WhatsApp for quick messages?
If you need an immediate response or a two-way conversation, use WhatsApp. A Cubby note is a log entry, not a chat. It is for context that belongs with the baby's record, seen by the care team when they open the log. It does not have a reply thread.
Can remote family members (e.g. grandparents abroad) see notes?
Yes. Anyone you have added to your Cubby circle can see notes, wherever they are. A grandparent in another city or country sees the same note as the nanny in your house, the moment it is posted. This is one of the main differences from a physical sticky note.
Leave a note in the log
It stays. They will read it when they open Cubby. No app store. Works on any phone or browser.
Open Cubby