“I sometimes leave their diapers on a little bit longer than I should so I don’t have to buy them as often.”

“Sometimes when I see my kids dumping their sippy cups on the carpet I just let them do it because the carpet already looks like h**l so what’s the difference.”

“I feel guilty for putting my baby in her swing so I can get some things around the house done.”

The above are just some of the anonymous comments left on Truu Confessions – Mom’s Category. The confessions ran the gamut, from mild, and understandable, to angry and disturbing. They’re the musings of Moms across the country, across the world. The anonymity afforded by the site prompts revelations without the fear of a backlash except in the form of a comments section, which can fortunately be disabled.

I have to admit I’m secretly addicted to viewing the confessions here. And judging by the number of commenters, and by the increase of categories, it seems there are many people who feel the same draw.  Truu Confessions founders have really found an avenue that hadn’t been explored before: that of an outlet for relief for all the frustrated Moms out there who wish to vent without judgment.

I’ve been a mom for only twenty months, and I’ve seen how much judgment are reserved by Moms towards other Moms who may do things a little differently. Heck, I’ll admit I have my own moments where I feel superior to other Moms. Sad isn’t it? We’re always bemoaning the competitive nature of men and boys, but we women have our own brand of it, extended ten-fold through our offspring. While it would be nice if Mothers, and everyone really, would extend nothing but a patient ear, helping hands, and a big hug when needed, we’re not fully there yet. There is still that inevitable silent horror when we see that a Mom is actually dressing a little too sexy at a playgroup, that the snacks served for a play-date aren’t organic, that her little boy is still sipping from a bottle at two years old! Fill in your own ideas of what makes a good/bad parent.

So until we get to the point where we can live and let live (with reasonable exceptions of course), we all need a place to let our dirty little secrets out: anonymous online journals, forums, and sites like Truu Confessions.

There’s a new trend in social media networking. Baby bloggers. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call them micro-bloggers, as I haven’t seen a full-length post yet. (Would their small size make them “micro micro-bloggers?”)

An adorable infant, two months and two weeks old, named “MeGrowUp” recently followed me on Twitter. I followed him back and, since then, I’ve been enjoying his antics. His “tweets” are written in an adorable babytalk format that is short and to-the-point but far more comprehensible than the speech of most toddlers.

The kid does have a bit of an ego. Last night, he posted: “NEWS: I rolled to my left side. It is only the second time. I’m so smart.”

Then again, if I looked as adorable as he does, I’d be a bit full of myself, too.

Today he is going to Grandma’s house and hopes to see the “cute cat.” Just an hour ago, he was a bit gassy. After going through this with my daughter for the past few days, I can definitely sympathize with him. In fact, I’ve thought about starting an account for my daughter just so she can “talk” back to him.

It does make me wonder, though, how does the parent of a newborn find the time to create a social marketing world for the baby? I have enough challenges keeping up with all my blogs in various industries, forget about blogging and networking for an additional person!

I got another interesting follower on Twitter in the past few days, too, and followed them in return. “HisBoysCanSwim” is the microblog of a couple, who identify themselves as Tarzan and Jane, that chose not to tell their real-life family and friends they are blogging about their pregnancy.

The couple’s avatar is an unidentifiable but decidedly pregnant belly. (I’m looking forward to watching it expand over the coming months). The Twitter account is used primarily to promote their blog.

I find this whole idea intriguing—keeping your pregnancy details private to friends and family yet reveal it to the entire digital world. Just recently, at the 12-month mark, “Jane” did reveal her pregnancy to close family and friends and, at press time, the couple is deciding when to share the news with the rest of their “real life” world. Nonetheless, they will keep their “Tarzan and Jane” identities secret for the duration of the pregnancy, permitting them to be completely open and honest in their blog without fear of offending, hurting or grossing out people they see in every day life. Can they maintain this anonymity for the next nine months? And will they share the news when the baby is born?

I love this idea, as I’ve self-censored while writing my blog posts in the past in order to spare feelings. Similarly, I started blogging here at Babies Online before I told certain very close family members about my pregnancy, (we wanted to share the news in person) and I didn’t even think to write under a pseudonym! Fortunately, no one from that side of our family stumbled upon my posts! I may be unusual in that my “real life” world and my online friends are fairly segregated groups, but I was definitely lucky that I didn’t upset anyone!

Expectant couples, infants… Who else is on Twitter? At the expense of sounding shamelessly self-promotional, you can stay up-to-date on all the latest pregnancy and parenting news, including celebrity births, product recalls and free giveaways by following http://twitter.com/Babiesonline. You’ll see a tweet every time there’s an update to the Babies Online blog, so you’ll never miss a thing!

I have to warn you upfront that Twitter is hopelessly addictive. It’s one of those internet inventions that it’s hard to see the point of at first, but after using it for a while, you’ll be hooked.

Twitter is a social networking website. it’s like a personal mini-blog, but one that has extra neat features like social networking, and chatting.

Twitter is used for posting short messages, called “tweets” on your Twitter page. You can either use Twitter as just a personal blog, but where Twitter really gets good is when you link up with your friends’ Twitter pages. Your friends can read what you are posting, and you can read what they are posting. You can see all your tweets and all your friends’ tweets together on one page, so it’s great for communicating with a group of friends.

Lots of moms would love to blog, but don’t have time to write blog posts. Here’s where Twitter is so perfect: tweets are a maximum of 140 letters long, so you can post short messages in those free seconds inbetween diaper changes. And it’s much easier to type a little message one-handed while your sleeping baby is lying on your other arm.

All you need to do is to open a Twitter account, it’s really easy, and it’s free. Then, you can start tweeting. Search for your friends on Twitter, and click on the “Follow” button on their Twitter pages to follow what they are doing.

What are you going to write about? Well, Twitter asks you: “What are you doing?” so just type in what you are doing right now. Check out some of these cool moms who use Twitter to see what they are tweeting about.

You can use Twitter to chat and network too. We had an unexpected free afternoon earlier this week, so I tweeted “anyone wanna go to the park this afternoon?” and within 20 minutes later, a couple of friends tweeted back and we had a playdate.

As well as linking with your friends, you can do lots of other things on Twitter. If you are not completely sick of the election, you can follow politics. Barack Obama has the world’s most popular Twitter page, and then there’s Sarah Palin and John McCain… actually, those are two spoof sites mocking the Republican candidates. The real ones don’t seem to have embraced Twitter yet.

News sites like the New York Times and CNN post breaking news on Twitter. Many blogs also automatically send their latest blog posts to their Twitter site so you can keep up to date with your favorites. You can get a Bible verse sent to you every day by following ESV Daily Verse. You can follow celebrity shenanigans by following Britney Spears‘ Twitter Feed, and find out what Dave Matthews is doing at his.

You’ll be able to see tweets from all the sites you follow on one page, so it’s perfect for keeping up to date with, well, everything!

Babies Online is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Babiesonline so sign up for Twitter, and watch us, your favorite website and your friends. Get breaking news, entertainment, inspiration, and keep in touch with your friends, all in one place.

Happiness is a contagious thing. And not just in the “meet space” but in cyberspace as well. Happy people attract happy people and tend to form clusters – through social networks. This is according to a study conducted by researchers at Harvard, and reviewed by Nature News.

In the study, they found that people with smiling faces on social networks like Facebook are linking more to each other than to not-so-happy faces. In the same way, people who use smileys often tend to attract people of similar temperament. This connection seems to extend beyond just direct contact but also to your contacts’ contacts, to your friends’ friends. However, the emotional link gets weaker with distance and disappears beyond the 3^rd degree of separation.

Conversely, depressive people will also seek depressive company. The recent surge in suicide pacts by young people over Internet networks has been alarming. Truly the psychological impact of social networking needs to be studied more.

Don’t forget to add Babies Online to your social networks!

Facebook | Myspace | Twitter | Stumbleupon

Are you a net nap mom? (Do you take advantage of baby’s naptime to surf the net?) Me too!

Getting advice, reading other moms’ stories, chatting with other mothers, and swapping ideas is a wonderful support system for new moms, and enriches our mothering.

And of course, surfing totally non-mom related things is lots of fun and a well-deserved break for us moms too.

I, as you might know, have a celebrity magazine habit, and it’s a lot easier to surf the net for gossip while my son is napping, rather than picking out a magazine at the checkout while my son sneaks matchbox cars and musical candy into the cart. Bless.

And that’s why I adore StumbleUpon. I installed their toolbar, easy-peasy, to get the “Stumble” button. Then, when I’m reading one website, I can click “stumble” and it will take me to another website that it knows will interest me. I am so full of celebrity gossip, I might pop. Did you know Paris Hilton is rumored to be pregnant and Suri Cruise gets pedicures already?

Did I inadvertently get back to baby topics? Oops. Anyway, check out StumbleUpon – for surfing mom and non-mom topics, it can’t be beat. You can also give sites you like a thumbs up, and StumbleUpon will use that to bring you more of what you like.

The easiest way is to get Stumbling is to click the little StumbleUpon button, there’s one right below this post, and it will take you to the StumbleUpon site. Register, and you’ll get your very own StumbleUpon toolbar and Stumble button. And don’t forget to give the Babies Online Blog a thumbs up!

If you’re anything like me, you probably spend some time perusing the various social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. I’ve rekindled so many friendships using MySpace and I’ve found Facebook to be great for career contacts. In general, I find both sites to be pretty addictive and a lot of fun.

Guess what? Babies Online is on both MySpace and Facebook. You can add Babies Online as a friend and join the group both with both social networking sites. On the MySpace page I particularly like the feature that displays some of the latest Babies Online Blog posts. Now that’s cool.

Here are the links you need to get started:

• Babies Online’s Official MySpace Page

• Babies Online’s Official MySpace Group

• Babies Online’s Official Facebook Page

• Babies Online’s Official Facebook Group

I love social networking. Where else can you become friends with your favorite websites while also searching for your high school sweetheart?

Hope to see you soon!

As a new mom who unfortunately falls into the category of “low income” and “below poverty level”, when my daughter arrived I was very concerned about our finances and how we were going to afford all the bells and whistles that come with a new baby. My first attempt at finding frugal buys was to turn to an old fallback, good old Craigslist.com. This is a GREAT place to look for gently used items at garage sale prices without leaving the comfort of your old faithful couch. I was very pleased with the few items that we purchased off of Craigslist, and after talking to a few of the families we were buying from also made some friends and were given additional items from those families and from other families they knew. The most important thing to remember is that you have a common bond with all of the people who are looking for or selling baby items, and it is very easy to connect to others in your area who are also in the same band wagon. If you receive from those in your community, make sure to spread the good karma and give back when you are in the position to.

After finding some amazing deals on Craigslist I posted a help message on my myspace page asking for advice and help from those in my friends’ list. I was first turned on to the yahoo group called Freecycle, which you can check out yourself at www.freecycle.org, by a friend of mine that lives across the valley. What a blessing! I can NOT gush enough about how wonderful this group is, the Freecycle network literally has changed my life and enabled us to give our baby a great new start!
The Freecycle network is a social network run through yahoo that is committed to keeping the earth a greener place by giving away unwanted items to others in their community that are in need instead of throwing them away, keeping our landfills from getting out of control! With groups all over the world you are sure to find a group that functions near you. The idea is simple, give away unwanted things to those in need, find things that you yourself may be in need of, and help save the environment at the same time! The best thing about Freecycle is… IT’S FREE!!!!

It is easy to join, and once you offer an item up for freecylcling you are allowed to request up to five things a month. You can either receive emails of new posts or scan them on the group site, but either way the person who ends up getting your item is up to you. If you have an item someone else needs they will contact you and you can arrange for them to pick it up or meet you someplace! This is also great because you make connections with other people in your community that have kids or share interests with you! And most of the time people who have one item up for freecycle also have other things to give or know others that do.

Thanks to freecycle we have made many friends in the Las Vegas area and I have started attending a new moms’ group at the community center. This is a GREAT way to meet other moms and widen your “baby” base to people from all walks of life. From this group alone we were given a swing, two car seats, a walker, a bassinet, formula samples, diapers, baby clothes, a play mat, a sling, a diaper bag, a stroller, and a myriad of baby toys that would have ALL cost us a fortune to buy individually. We are so thankful for those in our community that have donated items to us and we are actively involved in returning the favor. It’s amazing what the power of community can do.

If you are a mom in need or know of a family that needs help, PLEASE REFER THEM TO THIS GROUP. It is a blessing and filled with people just like you who are ready to help! Spread the word and spread the good, and remember to help out others less fortunate to make this world a better and greener place! Cheers!

Http://www.freecycle.org