Clicking for advice
Forget mom, the clinic or the mom next door, most mothers look for advice online according to new research.
It’s a Sunday night and your baby has been crying non-stop for three hours. Who do you look to for help? In my case the first call would have been to my friend Hayley, who had a baby of the same age and was a real lifeline for me.
‘I would call my mom,’ says Elaine, whose little one is 6 months old. ‘I’d be surprised if all women didn’t say that.’
But Elaine and I are in the minority, it seems. Online advice is used more than any other source when it comes to sleep patterns and routines, says new research. According to the 10 000 moms who entered the Pampers Golden Sleep survey, modern moms are more likely to first reach out to their computers and try to find an online answer, before even asking the advice of friends and family.
Another surprise is that magazines and books beat out moms as a source of information. And experts are definitely our last call for assistance when even our online information sources and communities can’t quite provide the help we need, with only 4% of moms looking to them for information.
Graph, copyright Pampers Golden Sleep Survey
Where do you look for parenting help? Mom, friends or online?