Moms Gone Viral

We all know about videos going viral on the web (like this hot mess of a song)....the internet and its powers are far reaching, for sure.  And for good or bad (music).

But, moms who hang out on internet mom boards and blogs can take not just videos, but a toy recall, a new recommendation or a deal on Ergos and spread the word just as quickly as Rebecca Black became a household name.  The strength of mom board should not be underestimated, as I have seen boycotts of several products originate from a few scathing threads and re-posts.

Strangely though, I don't see this among my real life mom circle.  Occasionally, I'll receive the odd email forward about the drop side crib ban or something similar but not with the vigilance or frequency of some of the recent hot parent topics floating around the web.

Last week, the AAP released a new recommendation on the length of time a child should rear face in his or her carseat.

Extended rear facing (or, ERF) is a standard mom board debate (discussion? argument? DRAMA?) and has been for several years.  When this article came out last week, birth boards all over the web were posting the new recommendations.

On Facebook, the link kept being shared, over and over in my news feed....but curiously, the only moms posting it, were other internet mom friends.

None of my non-internet mom friends posted it...zero.

Now, this isn't a statement against my non-internet mom friends, who clearly, have better things to do with their time than waste away on the internet, as I do.  But, this is important information about a safety issue that clearly, isn't reaching them. (The other explanation would be that they don't care and I'm certain that's not the case.)

So, without spending time on mom boards, how does this information - ERF and other hot topics -  get to non-internet parents?  From a ped during a 15 minute well check?  I don't think so.

I don't have a grand solution to better disseminating this information to parents who aren't spending their online time on mom blogs and boards.  Starting a website for the non-internet parent?  The traffic would be close to zero.  Magazines are nearly dead (and the free Parenting mag we get after a newborn only comes a few times).  And if they aren't looking for the info, these parents may just never hear about these types of recommendations and other relevant kid topics.

At least I can say that all this time online has made me a more informed parent.  And hopefully, there are enough internet moms sharing this stuff on Facebook so their non-internet friends can learn too.

See, my kid DOES benefit from my internet addiction!  And yours can too.

One Ticket (and a "lapchild") to Paradise

We all know the problem with vacations is that...well...you have to come back from them.

I spent nearly the whole last week in Florida.  Sun.  Heat.  Warm.  Florida.

With my in-laws.

Normally, that would make most people cringe but I love my in-laws and we get along very well.

My son and I left a few days before my husband would join us and this meant two things.

My in-laws would be spending quality time with their grandson and I would be spending quality time alone.

Lounging on the dock.

Going for walks.

Reading books.

(Tiny white lie, I read two actual books and two books on my Kindle.  You can put the girl in paradise but you can't completely take away her technology.  I'm not primitive, people.)

Limited laptop.  Limited cell phone.  No TV.

And for a person addicted to her "mom boards" and Facebook, this was a big proverbial cord cutting, albeit a temporary one.

But man alive, coming back from a long vacation is brutal.  I feel completely out of touch.  I was so far gone into relaxation mode that my inspiration pool, my well of future blog ideas, was all but dried up.

I had such big plans to gaze over the river, have a glass of wine and let my conscious flow into a Hawaiian Tropic-scented haze of creativity.

Eh.  Not so much.

I think my brain may have actually shut off and didn't produce one thought that wasn't related to the book I was reading or whether I was starting to burn.

As much as this vacation was necessary to ctrl-alt-del my soul, I'm happy to be back in Delaware, where spring hasn't yet sprung but it certainly is trying. Back to routine and normal things, like doing laundry and stress.

Vacations are vacations for a reason.  I'm quite certain if I lived my life the way I did the past five days (with constant free childcare, at the drop of a hat), I wouldn't really do anything productive, other than burn calories from long walks and check books of my reading list.

So basically, I would be healthy, tan and well-read.

Psssh....who am I kidding?  That sounds fantastic.

   

just a bit of a break from the norm

Call 1-800....playgroup?

They (there they are again) say that the internet and electronic communication are making us socially inept.  The "us", I assume, can't really be nailed down to one demographic but rather, is anyone with a Facebook account, anyone that prefers text message over phone call or email over mailing a letter.

Putting all the debates about this phenomenon aside, I would have to say that moms everywhere, with children of any age, are forever in debt to the internet and in fact, the internet is making us MORE social, not less.

My family and I recently located from Chicago to Delaware.  We know a few people here, one family in particular that we see somewhat regularly, but for the most part, we don't have a ton of friends with kids within a close proximity.

As a new stay at home mom, I figured it would only be a matter of time before I totally lost my mind from lack of adult interaction from the hours of 8AM to 5PM.

That time was last week.

It was a subtle breakdown...no dramatics of Hollywood nervous breakdowns but it happened.

First instinct?

Google.

(Not Dr. Google, the family practitioner, OB and pediatrician that we all know and hate, just Mr. Google, the friendly purveyor of finding anything you want on the web).

Search terms including variations of mom, playgroup, toddler, Delaware, etc.

I made my way onto one site and found a playgroup in my area. Bam.  Kid gets playtime, I get adult conversation.  Done and done.

Now, 20 years ago, my options would have included the following:

1. Church

We don't do church.  Not even a little bit enough to feign interest in joining any sort of congregation, only to infiltrate the circle of moms.

2. The Yellow Pages.

Nevermind.  Pretty sure that was never a Yellow Pages category.

3. Making conversation with moms in public places, like the gym, the park or the library.

I'm probably one of the most outgoing people you will ever meet but other moms intimidate the hell outta me. You must tread so lightly with other new mom friends anyway (avoiding the hot button mom topics just to build your mom-friend foundation) that trying to make something out of nothing in a public situation is just....frightening.   I don't want to do it, they don't want to do it, but secretly, while we stand with our arms crossed watching our kids, we want the conversation.  But no mom wants to strike first.

Now jump to present day and the internet has given us the more comfortable alternative to starting those scary, awkward first conversations.  A few clicks and you have "introduced" yourself to other moms and can easily show up to a playdate and hopefully mesh with the existing group.

It may not be a match made in heaven but the point is, you can find another group that easily.  

So, maybe I frequently prefer to email over making a phone call.  And my non-Facebooked husband does get irritated that I spend so much time online.  But now?

He's thanking the internet for getting me OUT of the house and meeting new people, instead of wearing yoga pants every day and "forgetting" to shower.  And my son is thanking me (well, not really, but maybe some day he will appreciate it) for getting him out to play with other kids, lest he be a weird, clingy mommy's boy into his adolescent years because he hung out with me 24/7 for too long.

So, as much as my life is online these days, the offline time that I needed so badly, is because of the internet anyway.  Funny how that works.