In The News
We have been fortunate to have some great articles and interviews done on ParentClick.
Click on the individual territories to read their articles and reviews.
Livin' in the Good Land: Becoming a can-do mom
Goleta Valley VoiceSonia Fernandez09/30/2005
When the stork first paid a visit to Rachel Steidl seven years ago it dropped not one, but two precious bundles, and she suddenly had twice the amount of diapers to change, mouths to feed, and clothes to buy. What was a first-time mother to do?
"It was a pleasant shock," she said. She joined and became the president of Mothers of Multiples, a group devoted to sharing the joys and stresses of multiple births. Luckily, as a native Santa Barbaran she was already well connected enough to the South Coast community to find resources for her growing family at all stages of development.
But even for many wellentrenched new families, not to mention newcomers, single parents and even those just visiting out of town, finding family friendly resources and activities would be a challenge.
"I spent a ton of time trying to help others parent connect with resources in town, and found that every parent was starting from scratch. Every time they needed information they were going through the exact same process." It didn’t make sense to her, she said, why so many parents had to put out so much effort. "I also saw a lot of moms not getting out of the house, and I’m a huge proponent of [letting them] have a life."
"I wanted to do something that literally centralized all the information into one place," she said. And so, shortly after twins Ashley and Whitney, sbparent.com was born.
"It was supposed to be parttime," said Steidl, who recently moved to Goleta to upgrade her home to accommodate her growing family. What she didn’t know was how far it would grow in only the last couple of years. What she thought of as something to be done in her spare time quickly turned out to be a full-time occupation. The scope of the site has grown as well, from something that only covered pregnancy and infants to a site that follows a child into his or her teen years
"I’ve gotten feedback froma lot of families that [the site] has been very supportive," said Steidl, who has a background in clinical psychology and business. From anonymous forums to event listings to a classifieds section where parents can find rarely worn clothes and seldom used toys that have been outgrown by other rapidly growing kids, South Coast parents have found that raising children isn’t as difficult or as expensive as they once thought.
Soon, families from as far north as Lompoc and as far south as Ventura were visiting the site, participating in forums, contributing their knowledge and finding a community within the community to be a part of.
Just recently, the site went national under the name parentclick.com, giving interested parents in other communities a chance to start their own resource site.
As if maintaining a Website on a regular basis and raising three daughters isn’t enough, Steidl, the quintessential multitasker, involves herself in other community- building activities. Just recently she helped coordinate "Operation: Pack-a-Suitcase" that sent two fifty-foot moving trucks filled with suitcases of secondhand clothes to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. She also started a venture called Network for Enterprising Women, a project that arose as the result of all the women that she met through sbparent.com who also happened to be starting their own businesses.
"I was talking to all these neat women who were struggling with the same things I was - balancing home, trying for a new business, trying to get your name out there," she said. "One commonality that we all share is that we all have businesses that are geared towards families...and that we all have kids."
With the pressure on women to "have it all," said Steidl, there is a definite need for support within that community. "It’s been a very empowering thing to do with all these women," she said. It wouldn’t be a surprise to find her finding new and creative ways to tighten the community, now that her youngest daughter Emily is off to school.
Whatever happens, our community is sure to be grateful. Rachel Steidl, her husband Jamie, who is a seismologist at UCSB, and their three daughters live here in Goleta.
