Very happy to say that we have opened the doors to Parentville.com in public beta!  Please take a look, sign up, invite friends, and start sharing recommendations.    We have a lot of fine-tuning still to do, but we thought it was best to open up the site and let you (our users!) help us refine the site and let us know what new features and functions we should build next. Please let us know what you think, we welcome the feedback!

A very interesting new report on the “Digital Mom” produced by Razorfish and Cafemom was released today.

Among many other things, the report’s findings show that Mom’s “highly value social media, mobile and other digital technologies as a convenient means to stay connected, seek advice and information, shop and learn about products, meet others like themselves, and simplify the many dimensions of their lives.”

See the entire report here.

Here’s an interesting article from MSN Moneycentral on the cost of raising children:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/family/kids/tlkidscost.asp

It got me thinking that now, more than ever, Parentville can help by allowing you to quickly tap your trusted networks to find what you need for your children at the right price.

Parentville is the recommendation network that allows parents to quickly and easily find and share trusted recommendations for anything from caregivers and pediatricians, articles and websites, to products and services.  Parents can choose to share with friends, their extended network (friends of friends), groups, local parents, similar parents, or the entire community. Our mission is to simplify and enhance the parenting experience and empower busy parents by addressing real-world needs with practical tools. 

We found through our personal experiences and subsequent research that there are a lot of parent-focused sites out there — both content sites and social networks — but none really address the way busy parents actually use the web. Parents are constantly scouring the web for answers and recommendations to specific needs, such as: “find a babysitter”, “find a child-friendly vacation option”, or “what’s the best stroller to take on the plane?”. In fact, our research shows that most parents use the web more than four times per week for something child-related.

Parents want the best information fast

With the explosion of media over the last several years, parents today are faced with an overabundance of information which ironically results in more (rather than less) frustration and confusion.  At the same time, families are busier than ever with work, school, and activities.  Whether searching for childcare, buying a stroller, or planning their weekend, parents want to be able to find the best information fast. Parents look first to fellow parent-friends and family to act as filters of all the information available and give recommendations based on their experiences. This simply cannot be accomplished through an impersonal web search or message board posting.  Nor are the leading social networks built to facilitate this type of interaction for parents. The Parentville.com recommendation network and related tools are built by parents for parents to address these problems.

Parentville.com launched in public beta in August 2009.  Stop by, sign up for free, and start finding and sharing recommendations with your trusted networks! If you have any questions please contact us at info@parentville.com.  To leave feedback, report a problem, or share an idea go to our dedicated support forum.

Quotes from a WSJ article about Chuck E. Cheese.  It’s just plain scary what happens when you mix parents, kids, and alcohol.  You get Agression (from the alcohol) and protective instincts of the parents don’t mix well.

“The biggest problem is you have a bunch of adults acting like juveniles,” says Town of Brookfield Police Capt. Timothy Imler. “There’s a biker bar down the street, and we rarely get calls there.”

“The biggest melee broke out in April, when an uninvited adult disrupted a child’s birthday party. Seven officers arrived and found as many as 40 people knocking over chairs and yelling in front of the restaurant’s music stage, where a robotic singing chicken and the chain’s namesake mouse perform.”

Link here.

Yesterday, in the pouring rain, my cousin and I decided to take our kids to one of the best indoor playgrounds in the city — FAO Schwartz.  It had been a long while since I had been there but besides the crowds, its still a great place to go with your kids in NYC.

My only concern was that my son would want everything he saw and we would have a big scene culminating in multiple compromises (or capitulations) on my part with the end result being a large bill at the checkout counter.  Turns out, we got out of there for under $10…and one geniune classic slinky!  My son had more fun playing with different toys, putting them back, and running from one area to the other.  Watching the staff play the life-size piano (the same one in the movie Big — price tag of $250,000!) was also a highlight.

All in all, it was a successful rainy trip to the toy store for less then going to the movies!  We might wait until after the holidays to go again though….