Busymom.net: Where are the parents of teens websites?

In addition to my 9 year old, I am the parent of teenagers.

This is something that's been running around my head for a while now:

Where are the popular parenting websites meant for me?

I'm not really talking about the various Top Blogs lists or forums here and there, I want to know why the large "mom" and "parenting" sites don't seem to include parents of teenagers.

I realize I'm free to start a group on several of these sites, but the overall tone of the sites skews toward parents of younger children and these groups are really just special interests that reside next to "left handed knitters west of the Mississippi" and "moms who love coffee".

Not that there's anything wrong with special interest groups, my point is that few major parenting sites actively consider parents of teens their target audience.

Most references to "older kids" on these sites usually stops around the ages of 10-12, and they are mostly variations of: the atrocities of girl's fashions, angsty articles about, "Should my child have a cell phone?", Internet safety and how to handle middle school mean girls.

Where are the popular, "go-to" sites for parents with real live teenagers written by real live parents of teenagers?

Do you have any idea (well, you might, that was sorta rhetorical) what kind of money I spend on my teenagers (and that's before sending 2 to college in the next couple of years) and the types of parenting situations I've never encountered before?

I'm sure that the current mom sites have carefully researched their markets, and that parents of younger kids probably equal more page views because there's a lot of advice seeking and baby equipment buying going on, but you know what?

You only thought you needed community and equipment when your kids were little, having teens a whole new ball game that is curiously unrecognized by the online parenting communities as well as their advertisers.

At events like BlogHer, I'm often met with a variation of, "Oh, your kids must be...older", as I watch these moms of younger kids mentally connect me to their kids being harassed at the playground by "a pack of unruly teenagers".

Little kids on mommy blogs grow up, and having teenagers isn't a disease or a condition, it'd be great to see it actively acknowledged in the online community.

What am I going to do about it?

I dunno.

Something, nothing...who knows?

In the meantime, I'll watch and observe and go about the business of parenting teens.

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See what my Inner Voice said when I got home from BlogHer.

Source: http://www.busymom.net/archives/004657.html

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