Mamasource: The Non-Abbreviation Zone

I’m not really a message board kind of girl. When I was pregnant for the first time I was teaching high school English. Unfortunately, I can’t count on one hand how many students handed in research papers or essays that included instant message lingo. Many of my students used "2" for "to" and I’m pretty sure that I had several "LOL"’s in essays when they obviously shouldn’t have been there. Laughing out loud, I certainly was NOT.

So, when I went looking for pregnant friends online, I found none. I had enough "lingo" to deal with in the classroom. Parenting and Pregnancy message boards left much to be desired. I assumed "DH" meant, well, nickname for Richard plus add "head". I never saw "Dear Husband" coming. "TTC" which I’ve since learned is "trying to conceive" had me scratching my head and thinking that the person maybe had some spelling issues? Trying to use the word tickle and took a very wrong turn? Tank top and capri’s? I had no clue. So I left them well enough alone.

When I was asked to do a review of Mamasource by Mother Talk, I fully expected to need a decoder key on the message boards. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the Mom’s online had no such code lingo, but instead use actual words and English.

The other pleasant thing about Mamasource is that when you sign up, you are immediately put into a "community" with other Mom’s from your area. Since I don’t live in San Francisco, NYC, or Philadelphia, I expected to be disappointed. Instead, I found a great many reviews of local attractions, restaurants, and things to do from real live Mom’s in my area. Apparently I have one less excuse for having no local friends.

I spent time reading reviews of parks, doctors, restaurants, etc. I also spent some time on the sight reading questions and posting answers on things I felt comfortable throwing my two cents in about. To test it, I posted a question myself but I haven’t received any responses as of yet. (I asked about a certain neighborhood and it’s reputation.)

Although many of the Mom’s in my area seem to be in their early to mid twenties, there were several I saw in their 40’s and beyond. Although I haven’t made any real connections from the site as of yet, I think that it’s entirely possible that I might. Of course, the demographics of Mom’s who actually take karate to those who just drive their kids to karate is probably a bit lacking, so I realize I probably just need to start being a bit less picky in choosing my friends. Of course, the single 23-year old with four kids and mascara issues and I are probably not going to become fast friends; but I’m sure there are other Mom’s out there like me who haven’t had a shower since Sunday and could care less about which brand of mascara makes lashes longer, y’all (totally her words, not mine).

Unlike many of the other parenting hot-spots online, Mamasource sends out a daily email that includes the latest requests and online reviews from Mom’s in my area. Although at first I was a bit annoyed at another intrusion on my inbox, I’ve found that the daily email has forced me to try to make connections. With all the blogs I read each day, it would be entirely possible to just skip visiting Mamasource. Instead, I have a daily reminder and can go visit the site if something piques my interest in the daily email.

Despite the daily email, your identity and email is completely protected since the site has a strong anti-spam stance. So, you can rest assured that no one will be asking you if you’d like to purchase some cialis. Mary Kay products? Entirely possible on the boards, but when it comes to enhancement drugs, it’s a safe zone.

There’s one last thing I’d like to add about Mamasource that I thought was pretty nice. A Mom posted a question about how she could get her kids to sleep later since they wake at the crack of dawn. One Mom responded with some snarky comment about her being selfish for wanting to sleep later. (My area is known for being pretty rude, and we like to live up to that label.) My response was that the sleep-deprived Mom should pull her daughter into bed with her and say "It’s too early" and then pretend to be asleep. It always worked for me, and was important because I likes me some sleep. The next day, I saw that I was given a "flower" for my response. Another random Mom out there liked my answer enough to award me a flower and I thought that was super sweet. A message board with flowers for rewards and no abbreviations is pretty cool as far as my standards go.

If you’re a Mom and looking for a community of other Mom’s in your area, Mamasource is the place to be. TTYL, DR. TTCM ("Talk to you Later, Dear Readers. Time to Check Mamasource" for those of you who are completely clueless.)