Without any doubt children are still in the centre of mother’s attention – they devote much time and concern to their kids. Simultaneously motherhood doesn’t mean that they completely have to abandon their previous life – they are still the same women who enjoy theatre, cycling and wearing high-hills from time to time.At the same time they lives have changed completely and some new priorities have appeared – nobody can understand that better than other women in the same position. It is true that for most moms, especially during first months of motherhood, it’s hard to find some time to go out and have coffee with friends or to go to see movies with a partner. But for several years they can use Internet to overcome some of existing barriers.

Modern Polish mothers not only support each other via Internet but also organise courses and conferences on various topics- ranging from motherhood and raising children to learning foreign languages and pursuing different passions. Young moms share information, articles with each other, all because they want to be up to date with topics they are interested in.

Modern mothers are not afraid of refuting the myth of blissful motherhood – they are strong and have enough courage to speak openly about post-partum depression, fatigue or sleepless nights. They make the idea of always smiling mom more real and enrich it with every day concerns and troubles.

Unfortunately, the world of mothers is not always what they wanted it to be- a child’s sickness, problems with a partner, a lone motherhood. Those are just examples of topics that mothers discuss with each other in the Internet chat rooms. Moreover, via the Internet they can easily access different support groups, web pages with legal or medical advice and those with tips from other women and mothers with similar experiences. They voluntarily share their stories, knowledge and words of advice.

Pregnancy and motherhood are like jumping in at the big end, so no wonder that women want to be prepared for that in the best possible way. However, mothers not always relay on professional medical advice, but they use also tips from women who have already experienced that. In both cases, they can easily find useful information on websites created especially for them. Those web pages are usually made by mothers and they touch on topics which are of a great importance to them. Thanks to them, in the Internet theory meets with practice.

Everybody needs some fun and a steppingstone from reality and modern mothers are no exception here. It happens often that via Internet they meet new friends, find out useful information and set up meetings at a swimming pool or in a cinema. When they intend to do something which requires time they don’t have, they can relay on other mothers who are Online- in a trusted community you just simply have to ask for help.

Modern mothers are sensitive also sensitive to tragic situations and problems of our world. As e-volunteers they help for instance in searching for shelter for abandoned dogs, they give professional pieces of advice and they support others in many different ways. While looking for websites which are devoted to a motherhood, we were pleasantly surprised by how many different and interesting inspirations one can find Online. The amount of pages, their wide range and number of people involved in creating them are the strongest evidence that modern mothers are extraordinarily active Online. In next section of the article we will present some of the web pages created by mothers for other mothers.

MAMA FOUNDATION

The website www.fundacjamama.pl was launched in 2006 and is an official internet service of Mama Foundation. We post information about our training projects, courses for children, social and cultural campaigns. We also post a lot of useful links to other websites, that can be interesting to mothers. As a public benefit organisation, we do not operate as commercial web pages. Thus we do not post advertisements- we only post banners of companies and organisations that actually cooperate with us in working on specific projects.

Our activities are concentrated on helping mothers, thus we give legal, psychological and professional advice. In May of 2010 we opened a new office, when we hold workshops on carrying children in shawls, classes for children and support groups. We also cooperate with local authorities, MPs to make a situation of Polish families better.

WEB PAGE MOTHERS FOR MOTHERS

The web page mamy-mamom.pl was launched in 2009 as a response to a growing need for a site in the Internet where mothers can share their experiences and tips.

This site associates actual moms and future moms, who would like to find and answer to bothering questions about motherhood and moms who have lots of experience and would like to share it with others. This is a virtual place where we- often very busy mothers- can meet with each other without leaving our houses and exchange our views on topics that concern us. Our site is suppose to make it easier for every mother and be a source of information about health, development or upbringing of her child.

Our mission is to solve every problem that mothers can have and to create the best online guidebook for mothers.

As a part of a e-moms programme, there was an interesting discussions held in a chat-room.

SINGLE MOMS

The website Single Moms was launched in 2010. Families of single moms are one of the most developing category of families in Poland, however there are still only few websites which are fully concentrated on them. If there are, they are usually groups or forums created on general-theme web pages. Most commonly, those are websites, where problem of single moms is being touched on among many other topics. On our website we focus only on that particular theme. We are trying to give single moms the feeling of being special and that their problems are important enough to have web page devoted only to their situation.

The website Single Moms emerged only because of one kind of women- single moms. Here they can share their experiences, doubts, feelings. Here they can ask for help, but at the same time they can give help to others single moms in need. In the chat room they can make new friends and then make a real friendship out of it- like going together for a walk or spending time together. Here they can share everything what is important to them- a movie, music, picture, a link- everything that makes them feel special. We exist and we function for them.

We do not limit our actions only to operating on a web page- we offer a e-mail support service , free personal trainings, opportunities to learn a foreign language. All of that thanks to the support of our volunteers. We try to get involved in every action that concerns single moms and that’s why we started to cooperate with Support for Single Moms Association “ Let live”.

Who uses the website? Women who are young, ambitious, independent, who live with a certain experience. Some of them work professionally, some of them study, some of them want to continue to study again in the future. These are smart and cool women, who are often lost and overwhelmed.

The write about their feelings Online, because people who surround them in a real life don’t always understand them. People saying: “ You will be fine” don’t really help and most of the time means nothing. That is why we want to give them something else- understanding for moments of helplessness and weakness.

What do they write about? About unfulfilled ambitions, stress connected with court cases, frustration, love. About their ideas for chill-out, self- realisation. Of course, as mothers, they write also about upbringing of children, nutrition and nursing. But that’s just a drop in the bucket.

And that’s why this website was launched- to enable women to talk to each other freely. Being in the same situation they perfectly understand, support and motivate each other. And all of that accompanied by articles, interesting links, announcements about upcoming events.

E-moms actions can be found on:

• a forum, where a vivid discussion is being held,
• the Single Moms website, in the section of articles,
• Single Moms fan page on Facebook.

NOT A BAD MOM

The web page Nie-zła Mama is a page for mothers who appreciate warm climate and fresh air. It’s a place for women who have a positive energy, who are creative and active- for all cool girls!

About pregnancy and a childbirth we speak without beating about the bush!

About a child- fondly and with love, even if it is now walking around without a diaper!

About your health- sharply, to make you take care of it!

About your child’s health- professionally, to make you sure that there is no need to look anywhere else for an answer.

Besides that we like flowers, high-heels and a good coffe.

The NZM website was launched in November of 2008. It gained popularity quickly and a number of moms visiting it is growing fast. From the very beginning there was also a forum connected to the website. Our newly updated website have new applications such us groups, photo albums and much more. We post important and interesting articles, pieces of advice and essays.

We cooperate with a lot of foundations, organizations and stores which often organise jointly some actions and competitions.

Nie-zła Mama.pl stands for the idea of happy motherhood, focusing on fulfilling dreams and ambitions of mothers.

E-moms held an interesting discussion on the forum.

Socjum.pl – the creator of social websites, which gave support to e-moms and participated in a discussions about modern image of Polish moms. About e-moms you can read on socjum.pl and on Facebook.