Googling Motherhood

If you’re like me, you spend half your waking hours as a new mom online–specifically, doing Google searches. On any given day, I’ll search anything from “what causes bright green baby poop?” to “my 8-month old is standing in the crib screaming and won’t nap!” It’s amazing how much material is out there, and over the months my desperate search for answers has led me to hundreds of different baby-related sites and blogs. But there’s one place I keep ending up–The Berkeley Parents Network.  

It’s the website of a parent-run email forum based in Berkeley, California, and it features their most informative email discussions. It’s real parents offering their experiences, advice and opinions about parenting issues big and small, covering children of all ages but with the bulk of the material related to infants and toddlers. While expert advice–whether in the form of books or online–is definitely useful, I’ve found that hearing directly from other parents about what they’re going through is what helps me the most. And this site is one of the best resources I’ve found.

When I was looking to wean my son out of the swaddle, which he’d kick out of but at the same time couldn’t sleep without, I found their discussions on the topic informative. And now, when he is more interested in standing in his crib and screaming than sleeping, reading about other parents who’ve gone through the same thing makes it slightly more tolerable. The site is well organized–all the email discussions are categorized by topic–making it easy to browse. And the advice is mixed in with lots of support–just the thing a new mom like myself needs when she’s trolling the internet in the dark at 3:30am.

So, in the event that any moms or dads from Berkeley have ended up on this site in search of their own answers to pressing parenting concerns, a big thanks from the east coast for all your great advice!