Connecting With Other Parents In Your Child’s Classroom

As I enter the school building, I see many familiar faces. I smile and say hello, but the smiles are a little forced, because in many cases, I have no idea who they are, what their names are or who is their child.

It’s embarrassing, really. But not knowing other parents at my child’s school – people that I see so often, and chat with on a regular basis – is not just embarrassing. It is also a missed opportunity. An opportunity to make new friends, to grow my professional network, and to find people that share similar hobbies and interests.

UpToUs helps. UpToUs enables users to share their photo, their child’s name, and basic info about themselves with their secure, trusted network. When I joined UpToUs, I uploaded my photo. Under “hobbies”, I listed “blogging”. This will enable other parents in my kids’ classrooms to make the connection between what I look like and my name; and , if they have a blog (and I know at least one other parent in the school that has a blog), we could connect and start reading each other’s blogs. My husband, an avid cycler, will be able to find parents who enjoy cycling too.

While theoretically, other social media sites could enable the same kind of connection, most exude a vibe that is a big turnoff to parents. Many parents feel very uncomfortable about starting a Facebook account, because it is associated with twenty-somethings and with campus culture. Most would not dream of starting a MySpace page, which is used mostly by teenagers. UpToUs is a comfortable, secure environment for parents, because it is a place that is geared specifically for them.

Image credit: Rober Pollack