Monday, May 21, 2007

Tapping Into the Source

Whenever I talk with a new mom I always offer the same advice; find support. Immediately. Although Motherhood is Universal, it can be unbearably isolating which is nothing you can fathom until you're in it and you convince yourself that you are the only one on this planet who has ever been up at 3 am with a inconsolable baby. I remember thoughts racing through my delirious mind about falling asleep standing up, being sure my friends with children never had it as hard as I did and wondering how it was I felt so alone. Sigh.

The only thing that got me through the first few months (OK, years) of Motherhood was my connection to my mommy friends. And even more specifically, the mommy friends that had children the same age as mine. Those kind of friends are essential to surviving. Sounds simple but it's not. At all. Unless you're one of the lucky few who's BFF had a baby at the same time as you did--green with envy--finding another mother who is in the trenches with you can sometimes seem impossible. Especially when you can barely button your blouse long enough to meet to mailman at the door. Since you're not getting out much in those first few months the Internet comes in mighty handy. No matter what time of day or night, no matter what subject you are struggling with, no matter if you've showered in the past week, there are community websites for parents at your fingertips. Bless you Internet.



One new site that caters to moms and is open 24/7 is called Mamasource. Because MotherTalk is on the blog tour train again, I hopped aboard as I so often do, this time because my little sister is due with her first baby in August and I thought it's be cool to test out the mom-community website waters for her. I know what to look for, what is helpful, what you need and what you don't and because I know how badly she's going to need support and connectedness, I want to get her all set up. Don't mean to scare you sissy but, um...it can be scary.

Back to Mamasource. From the get go you can pop over and look for answers to questions on a variety of topics that you'll really need as a new mom (from baby's health, to your health, etc). But, what I think is really nice about this site is that you won't outgrow it because as your parenting needs/questions/concerns change and grow, so do the resources found at Mamasource. Once you're out of newborn hell (sorry, does that offend anyone?) you've got solid foods to talk about, and then potty training, oh goodness, then preschools, activities, sports, orthodontists, college...OK, maybe not college, but you get the picture. Mamasource not only offers the request and response approach (where you ask a question and you get some answers) but they offer a whole other dimension of stuff that's local to you (stores, restaurants, parks, doctors, etc). As in, what gems can be found in your own neighborhood. That's sweet. And it means that you find other moms in your community (not half way across the country) that will tell you where to take your baby to get their first hair cut, or what swim school worked for them, or where to get the best cup of coffee. Coffee? I'm giddy just thinking about it.

For moms that really want to tap into a fantastic resource and actually get the chance to communicate with other moms in their area (yes, you can even plan to meet for that awesome cup of coffee) Mamasource is a perfect place to frequent and as the site's community grows, it's only going to get better.

Hear that little sister? You might not get any sleep come August, but at least you'll be connected.

6 comments:

Jessica Fuselier said...

Thanks for all of the advice & finding this really cool momsite... I'll be sure to check it out!!

P.S. What exactly do you mean by "NO SLEEP"
So are you telling me that I'm going to be tired??? LOL... Well it's too late to turn back now! Ha!
Love U, Jay

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvVZegDnbJU&mode=related&search=

Left-handed Trees... said...

Newborn hell? NO way, sister--you didn't offend me at all (been there, done that times three). I am surrounded by pregant women right now though--so this is a good resource...thanks.
Love,
D.

Left-handed Trees... said...

By the way, I do know how to spell...pregnant. There!

Anonymous said...

Yet another site I'll have to check out. Thanks.

Best wishes to your sis.

Mama What? said...

Plant a Tree, Spam a Friend!

I received an email from Mamasource two weeks ago and stupidly I clicked the link so I could send a tree to one of my girlfriends. I've still been getting email from people in my address book, some have been saying thanks for the tree and others have been pretty mad that they got an email like that from me. I did not get a chance to select the one person I wanted to send the email to, instead every single one of my addresses were harvested from my gmail account. What B.S! This is totally illegal and unethical.

When I went to unsubscribe from the email, there was no way to unsubscribe. The "unsubscribe link" went to an email preferences page, not to an unsubscribe link, another direct violation of the CAN-SPAM act, which regulates commercial email. I wrote to support@mamasource.com and got an auto-generated response saying:

Dear Sucker - This is Anne at Mamasource Member Support. Thanks for your message and we are very sorry for any inconvenience. Contacts from your email address book that are checked and highlighted in bright yellow are only contacted during the registration process if you click the button to "Select Moms and Invite". In this case, those highlighted contacts receive an invitation to join Mamasource. Just so you know, although the invitations have already gone out, from now on your contacts will not receive any additional Mamasource invitation emails from you. Again, we are very sorry for any inconvenience. Please let me know if you need any assistance and I will be happy to help you. Warmly, Anne Mamasource Member Support

What a blatant lie, there were never any highlighted contacts, once I hit send, everyone, and I mean everyone got that stupid invite, even my 10 year old nephew...how embarrasing!

How do I know the reply was auto-generated? Because I've received the same email from them every single time I wrote to them to ask them about this situation, all with different Support names. Try it yourself!

If this is such a great site, how come they are resorting to such unethical practices? A lot of women like Mamasource, and if you are one of them, please email (because there is no phone number) them at support@mamasource.com and tell them to stop this unethical practice immediately!

I highly recommend reporting all emails to the FTC. Simply forward the email, in its entirety to spam@uce.gov

Please get more information and read my story at http://mamasource.blogspot.com/