Olympia Families

[peachyc]

Some friends and I are trying to start up a website for Olympia area parents that will have resources, events, a discussion board and a place to trade items. All three of us moved to Olympia without knowing many people and all as parents of young kids. We're excited, and a little overwhelmed since most of us can't find time to poop

Comments

[alexisyael]

A discussion board is always nice to network with other crunchy/ AP/ gentle mamas... alabama has one for the state (no local ones, but different locations all have an area on the board).

But I think I just let my membership lapse (they have strict rules about how much you need to post. meh. I don't really get much out of it, except keeping up with my friend G who moved to IN).

ETA: I'd probably get more out of it if it was just for my area. As it is, there's like 5-6 of us on that are in M'ble and surrounds and I think I know all of them, at least a little.

[peachyc]

Thanks. We thought if we had specific areas for topics like a/p, un-schooling, etc., it would provide a place for people to connect without creating a dominant philosophy for the site...if that makes sense.

We thought about making it invite-only at first. Not because we don't want others to participate, but we're nervous about trying to meet a wide-spectrum of needs at first. All of us having young kids (5 and under) so we wouldn't have much info parents of older kids. We figure we'll just see how it grows.

[alexisyael]

Yeah, the AL-moms is sorta invite only (and it's big!) you have to be real life friends of someone to get into the "real" forums.

[tellinellen]

i think it's a great idea not to have a dominant philosophy. part of what is interesting about parenthood is that it allows you to connect with people you never would have befriended before, yk? if the site is for ALL parents then people can connect with different people on different topics, and be a UNITING thing, yk? this can get very hairy, i will admit. although i feel like the moderation on psp is more heavy-handed than i would like, there is something to be said for not letting things get out of control and attacking of other parenting choices. it's tough. every time vaccines comes up, for example...

[tellinellen]

here we have park slope parents, which consists of two yahoo groups (one "main" list and one classifieds) plus the website. i can't get you into the yahoo groups but the website is www.parkslopeparents.com (full disclosure, i'm a mod of both yahoo groups)

i think your idea sounds awesome. this really could become something big. psp is such an integral part of how this neighborhood functions, and it now has something like six thousand members.

[peachyc]

You know, part of this all grew out of me telling these friends about Hootenanny, which you posted about. We thought a place like that would be loved here, but figured starting with a website would be, well, cheaper.

Thanks for the link to the Park Slope Parents site. It's almost exactly the kind of thing I was thinking...and thanks for the encouragement. I think it'll be fun if we can figure out time to contribute to it.

[tellinellen]

oh yay!