November 2009
1 post
Take a night off -- on us!
townhall:
As busy parents ourselves, we know how hard it is to juggle everything. Weeks (and months!) can go by easily without having quality time with your spouse. That’s why Parentville is offering a lucky member a chance to win free babysitting (5 hours) each month, courtesy of College Nannies and Tutors!
Maybe you need to run an errand. Maybe it’s an unexpected meeting. Maybe you just...
August 2009
1 post
Parentville has launched in Public Beta!
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...
February 2009
1 post
New "Digital Mom" Report
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...
January 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Parents value trusted recommendations
In this post, Lisa Belkin of the Motherlode Blog talks about how Moms (in particular) value trusted recommendations when it comes to their children. She sites a study from Cookie magazine that really demonstrates how parents share, and more importantly, act on, the kinds of recommendations which Parentville.com will enable.
Here’s one quick nugget (Click on the quote to see the full post.)
...
The cost of raising children
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.
December 2008
5 posts
What is Parentville?
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...
Chuck E. Cheese safety issues
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...
A trip to FAO Schwartz for under $10
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...
1 tag
Design your own Muppet
I wonder if little Sophie would be freaked out by a up close muppet.
Muppets Kit at FAO Schwarz
1 tag
HandMeDowns.com - Classifieds for Moms
You can buy, sell, give, or donate your children’s items. The site integrates searches on Ebay and Craiglist with it’s own listing. Much of it seems to be from Craigslist. So the site right now is more a cool Craigslist search results page.
New York Classifieds for Moms | HandMeDowns
November 2008
5 posts
Melamine found in US-made baby formula. →
This is very disconcerting news. According to the article, it includes brands from the company that makes the formula which we use for our son. Unfortunately, they do not indicate specific brands. Please post if you find any further information.
Good article on toy safety.
Most toys are too small and dangerous for my little one, as she loves to stick everything in her mouth.
How to tell if toys are too small for tots - Nov. 25, 2008
1 tag
Boston College is no longer going to host email. Instead new students will get an alias (something@bc.edu) and have mail forward to their personal email -gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc.
It’s a great move to save money on hardware and personnel.
Now parents have to get those coveted emails that acutally resemble your child’s name.
College Stops Giving Students New Email Accounts - Start...
2 tags
This quote really sums up what we need to do as we...
“Good entrepreneurs are crafty and will figure out how to navigate this new reality. They’ll do what they are already doing, which is to figure out how to bootstrap and build a business without VC, or they’ll wait longer to tap into VC. In the web sector, that’s a very good approach and I recommend it to every entrepreneur I meet with.”
- Fred Wilson
ECHOage →
Gift to a cause instead of getting wrapped presents on the next birthday party you throw
October 2008
14 posts
Happy First Halloween
pr0t0typ3:
Sophie’s First Halloween
©2008 All Rights Reserved
Daylight Savings Time -- NOT!! →
In this timely entry Lisa Belkin, author of the Motherlode blog on www.nytimes.com gives some strategies for helping the kids adjust. This used to my favorite night of the Fall season…no more!
Consumer Advisory - Halloween Candy Recall →
Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Consumer Advisory - Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins may be Contaminated with Melamine
It was recalled on Oct 8, but just a FYI for the trick-or-treaters.
1 tag
Reblogging: "Start Em Young - Three Web Apps for... →
In this Mashable post Chris Brogan highlights some very interesting new sites (and business models) for the parenting set.
Buying a house - Yard, Playroom or something else
My wife and I have been looking at houses out in the suburbs over the past few weeks. We’re not ready to make the move just yet, but thought that we might find some good deals in this real estate market and wanted to see what was out there.
While we were looking, we had a lot of different criteria that we paid attention to — one thing that we hadn’t been as focused on were...
Separation issues
Mondays are my day to take my son to pre-school. Today was an especially tough day getting him dressed and out of the house, not to mention the tantrum he threw before walking into the building. Finally, I got him — kicking and screaming — to the doorway of the classroom.
As soon as he saw his class and teachers he threw his backpack and jacket at me and ran into the room immediatey...
Kids on a plane (they're better than snakes!)
As one of the co-founders of Parentville… and the only one who isn’t yet a parent, I still try to be sensitive to the needs of parents and the issues that come along with having kids. I’m also working full time in IR, as I have for the past 8 years.
I just got back from Chicago this morning… The flight was fine — it was on time and pretty smooth. However, in the...
2 tags
Hello Ello: Random Funny Things My Kids Say - Part... →
Somehow I wandered on to Ellen’s blog. Her kids are hiliarious.
I started tearing here at my desk while reading her funny posts.
Keep them coming Ellen.
1 tag
Sophie has a cold
Regular Sophie
+ =
Sophie with a cold
+ =
2 tags
Too much information, too little time
As funny as it sounds, one of the main reasons we started Parentville.com is because there are so many good parenting sites. In fact, there are too many!
From content-rich sites such as iVillage.com, BabyCenter.com, and ParentsConnect.com to the myriad of parenting blogs such as dooce.com and thepioneerwoman.com, there is simply too much information for a busy parent to digest. And lets be...
2 tags
New Parenting Blog on NYTimes
Lisa Belkin started a new blog “Welcome to The Motherlode - Adventures in Parenting” on NYtimes.com.
It’s been less than a month and about 10 posts, but so far it’s been interesting reading.
Keep on bloggin’
2 tags
Running out of bedtime stories
In the last few months, my son has been requesting what we have come to call “Red Carpet Stories” before bed instead of the usual picture books. The Red Carpet Stories are made up narratives that end up with the main characters being saved from trouble and whisked safely home by the Red Carpet. I’ve been telling these stories before bed for a while now and its becoming harder...
2 tags
The user life-cycle of online communities
As we build the site and think about how we are going to market and build the community, we need to think about the type of users we have to attract.
With the proliferation with online communities (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn), it should be relatively easy to find commentors, contributors, and commentators for Parentville. Our target audience has embraced sharing online on those sites as we...
1 tag
Kids hear everything you say....
I am continually reminding myself to watch what I say around the kids…as I’m sure most parents find themselves doing. But there is the occasional slip up and yesterday my soon-to-be 3 year old reminded me of this. After telling him that he had to eat his dinner before he got a cookie, he yelled back, looking almost offended: “Your KIDDING me! Jeez Christ…your KIDDING...
September 2008
1 post
1 tag
