February 1997...
Click...the computer starts dialing...chirps and warbles of data tell me the connection is made
and I’m in...surfing the web for the first time. The scrap of paper looks like something rescued
from the trash; it has an address on it...www.parentsoup.com... scribbled down in a rush after
seeing it on the midday news. Okay, here goes...
Sign in? Name? Oh dear! Someone is already using *my* name! Add jf to the end and I’m now
robinjf...well, okay. Just want to look around anyway and see what this is all about. Boards?
Aaaahhh... like post-it note conversations! Ask for help, get answers, support or sympathy.
E-mail Pals? Other people looking for someone to write to; me too, me too!! SAHMs??? Oh, Stay
At Home Moms! That’s me too! Wow! And 30-Something Parents... Pre-Schoolers... Wonder of
wonders! Bookmark this place so I can come back!
It’s been a week of browsing around and I’ve finally found a name for myself... mamabo...Mama-Ben, Olivia...it feels right. Someone on one of the boards mentioned something called Coffee Break... have to look for that one. They weren’t too impressed, thought the conversations were kind of strange. Sounds like my kind of place!! Here it is...hmmmmm. Reads like a conversation face to face. A room full of women talking and laughing together...neat! Wonder when they are here...check the times on the posts and come back...hope I have the nerve to walk in ‘cold’ and introduce myself!
Early morning and here goes...coffee cup at hand. ‘Hello...Robin, sahm of boy and girl, in Nashville, TN’...someone, Cookiemomster, posts back...Hello! She’s Deb! Stepmomliz...that’s Liz, and wbdriver...Ann! Type and reload, waiting for replies, the time flies by. Fun? Absolutely! And I’ve ‘talked’ to someone new! Come up out of our conversation to the board and find I have to scroll down pages and pages to find my first post! Conversations flew over me and around me while I typed and waited! How do they do that?!!
I left the Coffee Break board that morning with a wonderful feeling. The day had gotten off to
a really good start and just kept on going that way. I found myself looking forward to the next
morning and chatting with these women again! I had found a board full of friends and a site full of sanity, sound
advice and laughter at the antics and foibles of life with kids.
Summer 1997
Soup is changing... ‘What happened to all the threads?’ ‘Oh, is Robin nesting?’ ‘Actually,
YES!!’ There, the announcement is made to my friends in Coffee Break. Flowers, teddy bears,
ice cream with pickles, and a cigar for my husband fill my email box! And there will be a new
community for expecting parents...hmmm... looking for hosts...I can do that! And it’s a good way
to give
back some of the support and care I’ve found here. So, now I host February '98 Expecting Moms...
all of us grumping, groaning and celebrating this journey to parenthood together!
March 1998
Time to change my name...again! Added a *t* with Thomas’s arrival in January...but mamabo*t*
changes to mamaboxtx on the new boards...eeeek! Okay, let’s try mamabird. Nope, taken. Drat...
~sigh~ I really like that too. What about mammabird...with two m's in the middle? Bingo!!
It’s mine! ROFLOL! And how
appropriate now that I'm a New Moms host...clucking over all the new babies!!!
January 1999
Another new year and lots of changes going on...new board software will be going up this month;
I have a new “uniform” to wear when I’m acting as host...cl- for Community Leader; my Second
Marriages board is now called Married Again; Soup turns 3 and T just turned one (1/6)!
I think my heart stopped when I realized that he’s not a little baby anymore! It just doesn’t
seem possible that he’s growing up so quickly! He isn’t walking yet so it’s sometimes still
easy to think of him as a baby, until he starts calling out “maaa-maaaaaaaa...joooooo” for
something to drink! ~sigh~ What a year it’s been...what a year it’s going to be!!
September 1999
LOL! Little did I know just how much of a year this would turn out to be! The Married Again board was ‘retired’
for a lack of traffic, but I added a new title and
another hat to the pile when I applied for, and became, Message Boards Moderator for Parent Soup this summer!
I was more than a bit stunned to receive that email, and have been thrilled to be able to contribute even
more to a site which has been such a source of friendship and support, and a wealth of information. I feel both
privileged and honored to participate at this level and to meet many of the talented and incredibly caring CLs.
I tip my multitude of hats to them for helping make this a dream job for me!
I recently came across something I had written down I don’t know how long ago that seems very appropriate here:
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.” ~Richard Bach
I have saved my sanity, shared a lot of laughs, worries and wonder with this family in Soup, and realized that I am not really alone in this adventure. Couldn’t ask for much more than that. So, welcome! These pages contain the heart of my life...my family. I hope you enjoy the time you spend here!
Robin Falck / mammabird
