New Parents Turn to Social Networking Sites for Guidance

Gurgaon, Haryana, February 5, 2016 (Newswire.com) -  In the age of displacement and nuclear families, parenting can be a tough task. New parents are turning to social media for guidance.

Brinda Rana, mother of a five-year-old, who after working in the US for over 15 years as a pharmacist, moved back to India with her husband and settled in Pune. The first-time mother was finding it difficult to cope up with the daily challenges of parenthood and the fact that her immediate family members were scattered in New York, Mumbai and Delhi did not help much.

Kids, parenting, Family, Play school in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai

Sweety, Singh

"I was looking for a community of experienced mothers who have gone through similar dilemmas," she says. Rana found support from TinyStep, a social networking website for parents, which also connects them to paediatricians, nutritionists and other experts.

On Facebook groups, Rana says, "Facebook is a distraction. As it is parents of small children do not have a lot of time to spare. We need focused answers."

With different startups coming up, parents have access to specific communities and instant connect with parents from across the country.

"Parents have always turned to other parents for advice. People no longer live in joint families. New parents have no one to answer their daily parenting queries," says Suhail Abidi, founder of TinyStep, which was set up in 2015 and already has more than 10,000 users. It also gives services like growth charts and vaccination alerts to parents.

Portals like Mycity4kids.com and Kleverkid.in are getting a lot of traffic as they focus on children's activities happening in and around the city. "As a working mother, I need to look for activities for my child. It is to keep him occupied and keep up with the competitive world," says Garima Bedi, mother of three-year-old Zorawar, who runs a coffee shop in Delhi. Bedi has been using Kleverkid since three years.

Not just a chat forum, these platforms enable meet-ups, doctor discovery, connect with families and helping parents find pre-schools in their area.

"We have built in things such as the family organizer which brings family members from all corners together and enables parenting from the same page," says Vishal Gupta, co-founder of Mycity4kids. The platform today has more than 50,000 parents registered on it and has around 750 mums blogging about their experiences.

Alesha Gupta uses FlintoBox to get advice, bond with other parents, goes on Mycity4kids and reads Kidsstoppress regularly. "These are better than online reviews - on which we were dependant earlier, but everything on the internet cannot be relied upon."

Box:

Our aim is to ensure that the job of parenting never overtakes the joy of parenting

Vishal Gupta, co-founder, Mycity4kids

When we connect with other mothers or parents, we do not look at them as strangers. Since every mother goes through the same issues, she will give the best advice from her experiences

Brinda Rana, mother of five-year old Haripriya

These platforms are proving to be very essential for parents nowadays and it is almost like a part of my daily routine

Sonam Sharma, mother of two-year-old Ashwin

Kleverkid has a database of playschools, events, academicians and effective filters, which can help parents choose classes based on age, and even get discounts

Shabnam Aggarwal, CEO, CTO KleverKid.in

Contact
MyCity4Kids
Website URL: http://www.mycity4kids.com/
Email ID: [email protected]
Phone No: 0124-460444
Address: Just4kids Services Private Limited, Plot 56, Sector 44
Institutional Area, 3rd floor, Gurgaon
Zip Code: 122 003

Source URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/New-parents-turn-to-social-networking-sites-for-guidance/articleshow/50678339.cms