In today's NY Times fashion reporter Ginia Bellafante discovers the informative, life-affirming women's mudwrestling pit that is UrbanBaby's message boards.
Because a request often seeks to justify one approach to child care or lifestyle over another, it can set off a fierce debate about subjects including, but not limited to, subsidies for child care, the merits of chicken nuggets, the morality of $700 Bugaboo strollers, the cost of living in New York, the price of houses in Montclair, N.J., the political correctness of processed cheese, John Kerry, gay marriage and American involvement in Saudi Arabia...UB's great for unalloyed personal experience and opinion; we researched word on the street before buying a Bugaboo [see The Enlightened Bugaboo Owner] and to check the baby naming climate. [FYI, a high-pressure Max and Isabel front is blanketing the tri-state area.]
"[It's] where you can vent your anger in a way that you can't vent at your toddler or husband or mother-in-law."
And of course, whether they're part of the solutions (10%) or the problems (90%) on UB, dads are almost never part of the discussion. Wanted: one informative, life-affirming moshpit.