(to be delivered to Child 1, Mom, and Dad).not to not to practice, when we each give out unique or disposable addresses, we tend to use the formats:.will exclude messages to will exclude messages to These patterns can be combined in a single filter to:(child1* matching messages:.-child1* will exclude messages that match the wildcard pattern above.

Gmail filters can also exclude messages already sent to an actual address by putting a - before the pattern

Email to any unrecognized address is routed to Gmail filters can identify the following patterns by using a child1* wildcard match in the filter.

is also a User configured within the domain.

Email properly addressed to their actual address is delivered directly to their account.

Each family member has a user account configured on the domain.

With these utilities, our catch-all addresses look and work like this:

This allows all messages received in a Gmail account to be forwarded to a single address.

This allows forwarding of messages based on matching rules.

Gmail Filters support powerful (but ill-documented) wildcard matching.

Domains managed through Google Workspace support routing email to unrecognized addresses to a catch-all account.

The setup utilizes three different mechanisms for routing email that work in concert with one another in our setup.

Mom also has a Gmail account email to it gets forwarded to Dad also has an account email to it gets forwarded to Addresses.

Mom uses her address is represented as Dad uses Gmail his address is represented as The children also use Gmail their addresses are represented as and couple examples of the forwarding set up:.

All email destined for them, regardless of the address used, will ultimately be delivered to their primary email account.

dad.com (you might correctly guess this one is )Īt the core of the setup, each family member has a single email account that they check.

While the setup illustration below masks the domains and email addresses we use on them with generic names, this list represents all of the domains we own and use.

Our first implementation used subdomains and it confused every human we tried to give an email address to.

No subdomains are required on the email addresses.

The setup supports using addresses on domains that we own for both incoming and outgoing email.

This will give them an opportunity for a “clean slate” when they become independent, if they desire.

Each child has a separate account and email address provisioned for when they reach adulthood.

Parents get copies of children’s inbound email.Each child has their own account and email address to use during their childhood.We can block email sent to an address that becomes compromised.Default catch-all routing (if not addressed to anyone specifically) sends messages to both parents.The addresses route to the right person.We also use 1Password to create strong, unique passwords for websites.This guards against compromised accounts since email addresses are never reused across sites.Each family member can give out unique or disposable email addresses.Each family member gets their own catch-all inbox.Each parent retains their existing account and email address.These goals include aspects of the children’s email as well as other use cases. We had several goals in mind when we devised the setup. While our setup has been tweaked a few times, it’s proven to durably meet our needs. When they first needed email addresses, we wanted to grant them autonomy while being able to monitor what they received and coach them to identify suspicious activity. I’m married and we have 2 children who have been online for several years. Over the years, our family’s technology setup has grown and evolved.

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