Whether you're for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, get out and vote, people. There's really nothing that should stand in between you and the polls tomorrow (unless you've already voted, and then kudos! You've done your duty as an American citizen!) -- even astronauts can do it. 

NASA can beam electronic ballots up to the American astronauts on the International Space Station so that they can vote in tomorrow's election. And if the two American astronauts floating out in orbit can find a way to vote in space, there's no good reason the rest of us can't find a way to make it to the polls, even if we have to take the kids with us. 

It seems like there's an app for everything these days. Need to determine a paint color from nothing but a flower petal? Done! Find the best Indian restaurant in a three mile radius with reservations for tonght? You got it! Track your dreams, food intake and footsteps? Easy-peasy.

But, how about the apps you really need? The ones that would make parenting easier? Below are ten apps I dream of ...

During a late afternoon Target run last week, I popped in the toy section to shop for my 2-year-old daughter's birthday and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a baby-friendly cover for a real iPhone or iPod Touch.

Because that's exactly what babies need to be playing with these days.

Parents of kids with autism are always searching for new ways to help their children. Well, apps for the iPhone and iPad are some of the best tools around for simultaneously entertaining and teaching social, communication, and cognitive skills. With so many choices, I asked parents of children on the spectrum to share the games they found most helpful with addressing their kid's developmental delays.

Check out the 5 best apps for autistic kids:

Image via flickingerbrad/Flickr

My boys have lots of age-appropriate tech devices, can set the DVR by themselves, and know about the latest viral YouTube videos before I do. But sometimes I worry I am ruining them with technology. What are all these "convenience tools" doing to their "sponge-like" kid brains? Squelching their innate talents? Robbing them of the glory that comes from good old-fashioned benign neglect and boredom?

When I think back to my childhood, spent pretending my bike was a horse and making eraser people, I do think my kids are getting a little screwed. We had no technology (unless you count Lite Brite); we had to learn to make do. We were boredom survivors. Some of our best days revolved around playing House (the only one left standing in a nuclear war) and making great duct tape things, which we then sold to strangers from mom's card table. It was a wonderful time. Life's answers weren't a Google search away, and we, no doubt, came out brighter (briter?) because of it. Didn't we?

One moment you're serving up some Crunch Wrap Supremes, the next some guy from a news channel is asking you about your town's UFO. Google Street View caught a mysterious red object in the sky above Jacksonville, Texas, and CNN's on the beat. Their video has left people all over the nation wondering if it's a bird, a plane, or an alien spaceship that was photographed hovering about the small town's Taco Bell.

I mean, it looks like an extraterrestrial transportation device if I've ever seen one. You gotta check it out:

Forget board game night, guys -- it's all about video game night nowadays, and it's the perfect way to bring the family together for serious fun. Why? It's cheaper than a night out at the movies or the arcade, less boring than watching a DVD or movie on cable, and everybody gets to wear their pajamas! 

Maybe your family is planning its very first video game night -- maybe your group has been gaming together since Super Mario was the Big Cheese. Either way, here are some great tips for a most excellent evening:

I use my computer and phone a lot at home. For work, primarily, but also for researching prices, checking movie reviews, digging up how-to articles for home repair, looking at weather forecasts, performing rudimentary mathematical functions I'm too dumb to do in my own head, and checking in with friends and family.

Look, I'm typing now. Clatter clatter type-y type-y click clack. My face is slightly illuminated via MacBook screen, my finger is poised to hold upright in the air when my kids inevitably interrupt me: just a sec.

Given how relentlessly plugged-in I am, I suppose it's pretty hypocritical of me to rage against my children for their moth-like attraction to electronic devices.