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Photo of the Week: I found this unique view of the Washington Monument in Washington, DC this weekend.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 09.02.2007

Parenting Social Networks: Parents Connect & Share Advice Online

Joseph Morgenstan once said, "Children are gleeful barbarians." So how do parents handle "gleeful barbarians?" Parenting is not an easy task but parents are no longer alone. With the web 2.0 movement there have been a number of parenting sites that have been introduced to help unite parents to do battle with the "gleeful barbarians." In this article I will profile a few of the more prominent parenting social network sites.

GotKidsNetwork.com a social networking site for people that have "got kids" is geared towards finding deals, nannies and advice online. Though the site has a lot to offer, I found the sites design of the site to be less than desirable.

Maya's Mom, Palo Alto-based a social networking site for parents, launched recently to to enable parents to connect and share parenting experiences and knowledge. Maya's Mom focuses on allowing parents to share information. The site is made up of parent submitted kid's activities,  a Q&A section called talk and groups focused on various topics. Maya's Mom was founded by Ann Crady Kennedy as the site gets its name from Ann's daughter. Also Maya's Mom recently received an angel round of funding.

Minti, a parenting social network founded by Clay Cook and profiled previously on Somewhat Frank, offers a place for parents to meet other parents in addition sharing parenting advice. Minti enables parents to create blogs, harness the simplicity of RSS updates, discussion forums and group creation.

MothersClick, a social networking site for mom's that may never be profiled by TechCrunch, launched recently with similar features to Maya's Mom. The site offers a question and answer section, groups that are plotted by location on Google map, blogs for moms and fun stuff which includes podcasts and other parenting related partner blogs.

ParentsConnect, a social networking site for parents produced by Nickelodeon, offers a local guide, message boards and video blogs for parents looking to trade advice. The site is lead and moderated by a group of 21 "host parents," who also share their own experiences in raising kids by overseeing the message boards as well as contributing to blogs. Seeking to encourage interaction, the company has already added blogs for users based on feedback recently during the beta test, and may also eventually give users the ability to sell items on the site.

Bottom-line: If you are a parent looking for answers, there are a galore of solid parenting advice options online.

Disclosure: I do not have any children and do not think they are "gleeful barbarians." :)