BW Online | May 11, 2001 | The Mommy Track's New Front-Runner

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MAY 11, 2001

CLICKS & MISSES
By Francesca Di Meglio

The Mommy Track's New Front-Runner
Bluesuitmom.com skips celebrity gossip to provide simple tips, expert advice, and online classes for women who know what they want

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These days, it's simply not enough to be a mother. Women are high-powered business execs, as well as PTA presidents. The typical modern woman must be many things to an awful lot of people. Now those overburdened moms can look to Bluesuitmom.com for resources, advice, and information to help them cope.

From the moment Bluesuitmom's home page fills the screen, it's clear the site sees itself as mother's little helper. Currently featured, for example, is a tip-filled guide to replicating spa-style indulgence in the home. Rather than a standard diet of traditional fare -- celebrity photo spreads and tips on how to snag a man -- Bluesuitmom puts its focus on things like switching jobs and choosing the safest car seat.

HIT AND MYTH. It's an approach dear to the heart of Maria Bailey, Bluesuitmom's founder and CEO, who was formerly a vice-president at AutoNation USA. In addition to her day job and the diary she pens for the site, she is also a wife, mother to four children, marathon runner, and published author.

Like Bailey, today's savvy woman is too smart, not to mention just plain busy, to believe the old myths about having it all. In fact, an ongoing poll on the site was reporting last week that 41% of respondents would regard more time for themselves as the neatest Mother's day gift they could get.

Whenever time is of the essence (and it always is), moms can always use a Web site that helps them surmount life's many stumbling blocks in the minimum number of steps. For example, the team at bluesuitmom.com can help you find emergency child care when the baby sitter bails. And if family-friendly accommodations are needed because the kids are tagging along on the next business trip, Bluesuitmom's travel page is a good place to start the search.

PICK A TOPIC. The breadth of information is impressive: family, career, money, health, food, travel, community, news, and classes. Yes, even classes. One of the recent online seminars, for example, was called Keys to Peaceful Parenting. An interesting subject in itself, it also boasted an added attraction: It was free.

Advice and facts are only as good as the source, and Bluesuitmom's experts represent an impressive body of knowledge. Career coaches, social workers, fitness instructors, educators, pediatricians, and a slew of top-notch know-it-alls are right at the visitor's fingertips. If you need a quick-fix for one of life's petty problems -- like organizing an efficient car pool -- you can tap the minds of resident gurus. Each week, different questions and answers are highlighted on Bluesuitmom's main pages. And if you need a personal perspective, jump to the message board or chat room.

Nobody is perfect, however, and the same applies to Web sites. Even with a team of experts on call, Bluesuitmom still has its deficiencies. Topping the list: the site ignores some key demographic groups. True, alternate-lifestyle families and stay-at-home parents of both sexes will find information they can use. Unfortunately, those same parents will rarely, if ever, find their voices represented.

MOMS AND MILITANTS. Competition on the Web is stiff, so smart sites try to attract the broadest audience. Momsrefuge.com, a competitor site, speaks more to stay-at-homes. Another site, phenomenalwomen.com, is far more radical. This site featured an article about why the phrase "working mom" was antiquated, arguing that it unjustly implies those who do not report to the workplace are lesser women. This site also had special pages devoted to alternative families and lifestyles.

The one thread that runs through Bluesuitmom and other "mommy sites" is the interest in women's issues and interests. All three appear to be copying, at least in part, the formula pioneered and perfected over the past century by women's print magazines -- even phenomenalwomen, which comes across at times as something of an online Ms. Traditional women's magazines evolved to combine service articles, celebrity features, and news about style, careers, and health. Essentially, Bluesuitmom offers all of that minus the emphasis on pop-culture icons.

CELEBRITY SQUARE. In fact, Bluesuitmom should get an award for snubbing the sort of celebrity worship that is a staple of ink-and-paper women's magazines. This isn't to say that it wouldn't benefit from a more polished look a la the newsstand glossies. It's just that, despite some minor flaws, Bluesuitmom does a good job of catering to a large body of modern women -- those trying to be stars in the nursery, bedroom, kitchen, office, and just about everywhere else on the planet.

By bringing together the different roles, Bluesuitmom does much to advance the argument that knowledge is the key to running both a successful business and a family. Mom always did know best.