Babycenter

I've been a Babycenter.com member since July of 2008.  At first I just used it for the tools - due date calculator, what not to do during pregnancy.  I also used it for their community.  I found a group called "Happily Trying After a Loss".  It was an amazing group of women who had suffered miscarriages and were sick of being sad about it.  There were other groups for miscarriages, but they seemed very doom and gloom.  This group was to look forward to trying again and being excited about our future babies.  Sometime in the fall of 2008 Babycenter changed their community.  My miscarriage board didn't like the new format, so we switched to a private board.  We still frequent it, and we're still friends 2.5 years later.  We even met up in Kansas City, MO this year.  It has been invaluable to me.

But I found around the time of the 2008 Presidential election that I was feeling an immense amount of anger and passion and was just all over fired up.  I wanted to scream from the rooftops.  Brian told me he couldn't wait for the election to be over so "I can have my wife back" :)  I was pregnant with Nathan, hormonal, and upset with our political direction. 

So I somehow stumbled onto a Political Debate board on BBC and as an extension the Debate Team board.  Usually I don't care what people on these boards say, especially on the PD board because it isn't usually personal or questioning ones choices (unless it means identifying with a particular ideology).  But the DT is a place where people go to debate parenting choices, and all other things.  The most common threads are about formula vs. breast feeding, stay-at-home-moms vs. work-outside-of-home-moms, circumcision vs. intact.  And then there are some policy type threads on there about abortion, or legalization of pot, or welfare reform.

It is an excellent place to vent and occasionally you can bring up a substantial topic and expect it to be actually discussed (very occasionally!).  But because BBC is anonymous, posters will essentially say what they wouldn't say to someone in real life because they can hide behind the veil of a screen name.  I often feel bullied when I'm there (even though I try really hard not to take things personally), yet I keep going back!  I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, I just like expressing my opinion.

Brian still finds it amusing that I get into very deep and convoluted political discussions about taxes and foreign policy on a parenting website.  Surely there's a political one dedicated for this purpose? :)