I am still observing Twitter from the outside; too timid to take any big steps.  Although, considering where I started from, I should join the Olympics for long jump.  Hello, I put up a profile picture! Or, as I have been told, an avatar.  It took me a year to do that on Facebook.  And I love Facebook.

I must admit I had a strong aversion to Twitter from the moment I heard of it.  To me it meant entering a barn yard of nonstop ‘quacks,’ ‘moos,’ ‘baas,’ ‘oinks,’ and what not.  Being an avid fan of Facebook, I often felt like redirecting friends with too many status updates for me to handle, to Twitter.  It did not occur to me that it would be a silent barnyard, considering you know how to use it.

Well, I am not being completely honest.  The real truth is that I am the queen of procrastination, and I honestly feared that I would get sucked into the stream of useless chatter, even contribute to it.  Kind of like the way I lose my husband to the endless pit of information floating deeply in the web. Just imagine how dysfunctional we would be if I was not there to pull him out, occasionally?

Well, I decided it was time to put my pride aside, and submit.  There have been some pleasant surprises, and I have even learned how to ignore some of the buzz on the ‘sidewalk.’  The advantage I noticed was that Twitter enables you to easily build the network that works for you.  It really is a phenomenal marketing tool, and there are many ways Twitter can benefit your business.

I’m finding it fun to explore and figure out the world of Twitter.  I did, however, feel quiet foolish when I initially responded to those automated messages.

I cannot help but wonder what twitter would be like if it limited your amount of tweets per day.  I tend to ignore people who talk too much.  It especially bothers me when people waste words.  Thankfully, there is a 140 character limit.  I guess it wouldn’t work otherwise.  How would you improve Twitter?

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I was sitting in class with a mother of four whom works full time, is a full time student, and tutors in whatever spare time she has. While most people find this admirable I was, to put it mildly, a little scared. I myself am a mother of one, a full time student, and working part time. Motherhood alone is a full time job. I am not able to fully concentrate on my studies, and am exhausted all the time, not to mention the constant pressure I feel in needing to contribute financially. Unfortunately, it cost money to live, and life demands a double income, so mothers are compelled to join the work force. Today, the media glorifies the working mother, and many women feel pressured to fill that lofty societal image that demands women to be superheroes.

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This year’s economic challenges have made it especially harder for woman, demanding longer hours at work, and out of the house. Studies show that 14% of women have taken second jobs to make ends meet. Being a working mom may make you feel like a superhero, but it eventually takes its toll. It is extremely important to realize your limits, and actually delegate in order to normalize your workload.

In aiming to create equality for the female plight, feminists failed to acknowledge the fact that only women can be child bearers. More importantly, fathers cannot replace the role of a mother. Here is a great video explaining the importance of a mother being at home the first 3 years of their child’s life.

Luckily, advances in social media allow us mothers to work from home. This has lightened our load considerably. It cuts out the commute. There are more part time jobs available, and women can be more flexible and available to attend to home duties as well.

How Diet and Mental Health Connect

I’ve just recently been introduced to Mamapedia.com and already find myself  hooked! It is extremely user-friendly; to start with, I was able to use my Facebook account to sign up. Meaning, I have one less set of account information to remember. Like most online accounts they send out a “Daily Digest,” but unlike most I receive, I actually read theirs from beginning to end. I actually find every bit of text interesting and useful.

To fully understand what I mean, I am going to explain the various attributes of their site. To begin with, you are able to set your profile to your specific location, allowing you to obtain local information relevant to you. Each member is able to ask questions of other mothers, who may not be professionals, but definitely have the necessary experience in the mothering field. There is a full range of categories that are subcategorized to ease your search for previously asked questions as well. You can then view currently asked questions and help others by sharing your own advice and solutions. This creates a beautiful ‘give and take’ community. And because of the large volume of members, your questions are bound to be answered. I just love the assortment of questions! An example of a current question:
“Am I Asking Too Much?

My husband and I both work full time. He works at least 50hrs a week, I work at least 35 usually 40. My home is not immaculate by any means, but I try to keep it together the best I can. My days off are filled with cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, bills ect. Which doesn’t leave a lot of free time for fun. My question is am I expecting too much help from my husband. For example… we are both off today. He let me sleep in until 9am and he got our son ready and off to school. Super nice of him. However, now I am getting irritated because there is so much to get done around the house and he is just sitting and watching tv. He asked what we should do today and I said that I wanted to get the family room and our bedroom up to snuff. Which means dusted, vacuumed, laundry put away, this is in addition to my other daily “chores”. He thinks I am overly clean. Am I being a jerk because I feel like he should find something productive to do around the house, instead of sitting around?”

Click on the link to the question to view responses. Many of us lead similar lives: married, children, and working – we are bound to overlap experiences. Some questions are very tempting to respond to, especially when you feel you can relate. While I am not a very active member, I love reading people’s responses and am very grateful to those who do take the time to help others.

Another great component of Mamapedia.com that initially got me excited was the timeline. It allows you to add your children to your profile and record their developments on individual timelines. I always worried about forgetting to write down when my son took his first steps, or losing the book I recorded it in. Thankfully my fears have been relayed because I can automatically enter these events into the site, and I can always find a computer!

Being a new member of Mamapedia, I’m sure there’s more to this site than I’ve listed: forums, current event articles, local searches. I strongly recommend all mothers try it out, and while you do, check out the Member Perks!

I love good old-fashioned snail mail donation request envelopes that come with a free page of address labels adorned with flowers or puppies, but lately giving online has become more exciting seeing than “free gift enclosed” printed on the outside of some of my envelopes.  This may stem from the fact that sometimes its even FREE (for me) to give to charities.

This all started on December 28th, when I realized I had forgotten an old friend’s birthday.  I rushed to her Facebook page and noticed she had asked all of her Facebook well-wishers to donate what they could at Unite for Sight with whom she will be volunteering in Ghana.  I donated $5, which was nice of me, I know, but the really cool thing was that the website actually tracks the monies donated, so I’ve been looking to see how close Emily is to her goal!

Since you’re on Facebook already (I know I am), you might consider taking a look at the Causes application, instead of feeding your chickens on Farmville or whatever meaningless applications you may have been sucked into.

Giving my own money was good, but when several of my friends invited me (to put it nicely) via Facebook to vote for Friendship Circle, which matches teenage volunteers with special needs children, to win $1 Million through Chase Community Giving Program I was hooked.  With a click of a button, I could direct major corporations to donate to charities I deem important.  I happy to note that the recent tragedy in Haiti, wasn’t on the ballot Chase is giving a matching $1 million to fund Haitian relief.

It gets simpler, with hundreds of non-profits providing ‘click to donate’ buttons on sites like care2.com, which provides ample information about the cause, the sponsors and how get more involved, or click to donate directories for organizations near and far.

Apparently giving online, in any form, is quite trendy right now, but to me giving economic direction to large corporations is quite a novelty.  As a life-long environmentalist, I have often seen conglomerate businesses portrayed as the bad guy, but ‘click to give’ is bringing everyone together!

I’ve always stereotyped the ‘work at home’ mom scenario. I’ve seen plenty of hard-working and hopeful women try their hand at Avon and Mary Kay (both of which now have representatives selling their products online).  Other moms get tangled in phony ‘business opportunities’ that leave them hundreds of dollars poorer with not much to show for it.

I love my job as a preschool teacher, but I am wondering if moving to Baltimore could be an opportunity for a new career for me. As the internet becomes streamlined in all aspects of our lives. This transformation doesn’t just benefit moms, it also causes less resources to be wasted in transportation and office management. In other words, working at home doesn’t just set a good home environment, it also saves the global environment! Sounds too good to be true? Well maybe it is. Like any technology, the internet is what you make of it. It can be a invaluable educational and professional resource or it can consume your time, money and energy.  How is a naive mom to know which business opportunities are right for her?  Many of these ‘legitimate jobs’ have advanced requirements and low pay.  Of those, which require set-up fees or an advanced knowledge of communications? To try to make sense of the options out there, I’ve organized the types of work at home positions I found and tried to give a few examples of seemingly credible employers.  Please feel free to add your own examples or tips!

• The Franchiser – this includes selling Tupperware, knives or cosmetics.  These usually involve an initial payment to get you started.
• The Do-it-your-selfer – be your own boss and explore your own creativity.  This can range from making your own gift baskets to running a childcare service out of your home. Just because you’re not paying for a start-up kit, however, your own start up kit and business maintenance may cost you more than you expect.
• The Internet Technician – these kinds of positions require training and a perfected resume.  The good news is you can find them at career and job websites like Monster.com. The bad news is that some of them require hefty experience and training (unless you’re interested in telemarketing)
• The Blogger/Writer – these jobs vary by content, qualifications and even pay.  Many of the positions I saw paid around $10/hr, though guides for about.com are paid around $2000/mo.  For a mommy blogger, families.com hires moms at a measly $4 per blog, but there’s plenty of freedom in content and timing.

All in all, I love writing here as a Social Media Mom and maybe elsewhere online, but I don’t think I’ll quit looking for a day job.

www.babycenter.com

In the not so distant past newly minted mommies had to *gasp* figure out their problems for themselves.  Thankfully new moms aren’t alone anymore.  Through any number of online networks, mothers (and fathers) can share their post-baby body woes or compare notes about their wild nights.

When I had my son last May, my mother was my lifeline for the first few days of his life.  As I struggled with my son’s lack of dirty diapers and inability to ‘latch on‘ during nursing sessions, my mother assuaged my fears and told me of her own difficulties as a new, single mother.

“You barely ate anything for the first few weeks, but I never gave up trying,” she told me. The day after I left the hospital, my husband, newborn and I drove my mother to the airport. I was hysterical. When I got home I sought female comfort, but due to third-degree laceration, I could barely move and wasn’t up to entertaining company.   I reached out to the easiest and most open nurturer I could find: the huge society of mommies online. I signed up for several baby and mommy e-newsletters. Some of them, like Facebook’s Circle of Moms, didn’t calaculate my son’s birth appropriately and sent me way too many updates.  Others, like Baby Center,  were gently empathetic, helpful and sent me coupons!  Speaking of coupons, I also signed up online to get freebies from Gerber and Huggies and have been well rewarded!  Gerber sends me coupons for up $15 off of formula and Huggies regularly sends me $3 off any mega-pack or larger.  Just a note, beware of the 10% and $25 off code at Diaper.com.  I’m not saying its a disreputable site, but that particular coupon is misleading.  I would only recommend them for hard-to-find diaper and baby products.  More recently, I’ve been more interested in a more global community of women and found some interesting groups and blogging personalities at Twittermoms.com.

As I head towards my new home in Baltimore, and consequently temporary unemployment, I have also stumbled on a site called Mommies Online that may keep me busy in my new community.  Mothers from all backgrounds and countries are uniting on a professional level, as seen at the Haredi Women Professionals Network.  If you know of similar sites please share!

FemNetism. Add that to your Urban Dictionary and smoke it!  Finally, an employer that doesn’t wonder whether we’ll take maternity leave or quit after two years to get married.  The world wide web doesn’t look down its nose at us ‘Mommy Bloggers’ in our spit-up stained sweatshirts and unpainted faces or raise on eyebrow at the BlogHers who may or may not be burning their brassieres.  Equal opportunity employer has a new meaning when it comes to those of us employed by the web, or facets thereof.  Although technology has been traditionally seen as a man’s vocation and vice, the flexible hours and content matter that social media affords is too tempting to pass up.  According to the 2009 Women and Social Media Study done by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, women all over the world are not just taking the world wide web by storm via blogging and other social media outlets, but they also care very much about what their fellow woman bloggers have to say.  85% of the nearly 4000 women when asked, said they had made purchases influenced by reports written by another woman through her own social media avenue.

This evening, I listened to Women in Media Predictions via Radio Blog by Tech in Twenty and was interested to hear the dialogue of three female bloggers who have made their pastimes into their professions.  An interesting note made by one of the guests speakers was that blogging is not just a means to a paycheck, but a very real way to create a social network.  I happen to agree.  As people read each other’s blogs for simple intentions (whether its advice about a product or travel or whatever), we begin to imagine the person typing at the other end of the screen.  Indeed, a form of  interaction that was taking a downturn in recent times has been reinstated: writing.  There was once a time when pen pals were popular and exciting, when hand-written thank you notes and letters to our grandmothers were everyday.  And its back, only this time instead of one pen pal we have millions and Grandma doesn’t have to wait five business days to hear from you! Blogging has become a modern day beauty parlor, where one can gossip and relate stories and take care of business simultaneously.

The boots are in the shopping cart –  I like the way they look, I like the price, I am ready to purchase.  Then my husband walks through the door.  Before he buys anything online, he searches for the cheapest price, for coupon codes, for promotions, and first time account holder promos.  Very often we end up saving up to 20% or even more.

To start with, we enter the item we wish to buy in Google shopping. Pictures of the item appear with links to every store that sells it online.  By simply looking through we are able to find it for the cheapest selling price of the moment.

We then search for coupon codes of stores selling the item. Retail Me Not and Coupon Cabin are great sites that allow you to search for coupons by typing in the website, or finding the store in alphabetical order.  Not all coupons work, some expire, but we get lucky enough times to come back!

Lots of online stores give you a discount with your first purchase.  For example Shoe Buy gives a 10% discount on your first purchase when you sign up.  So I sometimes find my husband opening new accounts for me that he already opened for himself.  Gilt gives you a $25 gift when you invite a friend and they purchase their first item.

Cashback sites such as Fat Wallet and Bing allow you to keep an account with them.  Anytime you purchase something by clicking a link on their website to a particular store, you receive a percentage, depending on the store, of cash back.  You can elect to have the check sent to you straight away, or wait till you have accumulated a substantial amount.  This is particularly good for large purchases.

Deal News is another favorite for my husband.  I often catch him scrolling down a long list of literal steals ’till something catches his eye.  I think we bought our toaster oven there.

Yes it is very time consuming, and I do not usually have the patience.  I try to make an effort, and my husband is usually happy to finish off what I have started!

My son is about to turn  seven months and I’ve made two parenting goals for my winter vacation: teach my baby to sleep in his own bed and finally compile and update his baby book.  As I scrolled through the countless pictures and videos we’ve taken, moving them to a “to print” file, to later be placed in the pre-determined pages of my baby book, I realized the absurdity of my actions.  My in-laws and parents live a thousand miles away, as do all of my baby’s aunts and uncles.  What good is a brag book that no one sees except for me and my husband?  Why should I risk the permanence and singularity of hand-written answers and low-quality digital prints from kinkos, when I could share my adorable little one with family and friends? Its flexible, its extensive, its printable, its everything I dreamed it would be.  Now what?

My first thought was to simply Google “online baby book” and click on the first relevant link.  As you can imagine, my search was a bit vague, but all the sites boiled down to three options.  Do I want to customize a baby book?  Do I want to host a website devoted entirely to my child instead of the traditional printed baby book?  Or do I want to have a free, but mediocre combination of the two, with the option of a paid upgrade later?

I first looked at the combination baby book webiste options.  Baby Chapters, not to be confused with Little Chapters, boasts its the “best online baby book.”  Among Baby Chapter’s best features were its compatibility with Facebook, automatically updating both at the same time and giving the ability to share pictures and videos.  Its also very private, allowing only invited visitors with your predetermined password to access your child’s page.  Little Chapters provided synergy with Flickr and customized website, which wasn’t as private.  Both sites had the option of printing and/or gifting your baby book, but Baby Chapters runs around $32 for 24 pages and Little Pages was about $50 for 80 pages, and both urged paid extended membership for a larger variety of backgrounds, printing options, and pre-designed pages. These seemed like fair options, but I was curious to look further.

Kidmondo seemed to provide almost everything the book printing websites offered, but had fewer printing options.  To make up for it, they allow the user to track dental and medical records and keep up with their baby’s sleep and eating schedule.  It’s features also extend into childhood, so a parent doesn’t have to stop keeping track after child’s first, second or third birthday.

For the more traditional baby book seeker, Big Day Books or U Build A Book may be more your style.  Big Day seemed a bit pricey for my taste; around $85 for a single book with about 40 pages.  The sample pages were darling, but didn’t seem like you could personalize them.  In my culture we have several baby traditions that I wouldn’t be able to create a custom page for.  I really like the openness and affordability of U Build A Book, they provide you with a free program to completely design your own book, and they print it for you. The downside to this is the space the program takes on your computer and the added investment of energy and time it takes to design the book completely from scratch!

As for my final decision, I decided to go with a combination of Kidmondo and Baby Chapters.  I’ve already made use of many of Baby Chapter’s features and have enjoyed filling in milestones and writing captions!