About two months before I had my son (who is now seven months old), I joined the Palo Alto Menlo Park Mother's Club. This is an incredible group of about 1000 members that has many programs, not least of which is a Yahoo Group where members pose questions on things ranging from parenting challenges to gardening advice, sell items, provide information, etc. It is an incredibly active group and it would be an unusual day if at least 50 messages weren't posted.
The group has totally sold me on the value of Yahoo Groups, except for the incredible lameness of their search functionality that only searches the archives in batches, forcing you through many pages when you want to search an archive of over 20,000 messages. I've turned to this group for advice on a range of things and always gotten great information and been so touched that these people (many of whom are total strangers) took the time to write such thoughtful replies.
The group has also struck fear in my heart as I read some people's questions and see into the future of what parenting a two year old will entail. The group also provides me with my daily dose of humor, often with a posting that I have to read aloud to my husband so he can understand why I've suddenly started laughing at my computer. It's not that I don't feel for the challenges that the people are facing, but it's hard not to at least smile when reading the subject line to a post that reads: 'Seeking advice regarding nose picking.'
There had been many posts that I found funny before that one, but for some reason, that marked the line where I just had to laugh and say, "wow, this is my life." Before baby, the message board that I read most often was Chowhound - learning about the latest restaurants and keeping up with the foodies - and now I'm reading summaries about nose picking. It helps to find the humor in these things. I will try to share the subject lines that amuse me just because I want a record of what's funny to me now. Subject line of the day: "Smelly rain boots? Need advice."
