Making Families' Lives Easier

My son was about three months old when I discovered SBParent.com. (Santa Barbara Parent). My lack of sleep left me dazed and feeling a little isolated. I was so happy to have the time during my son’s naps to search around the Internet, and excited to find something local. I was very impressed with the easy-to-navigate pages, wealth of resources, and the FREE Classifieds. I was posting items I no longer needed and finding new gently used items. I also found many of the Parent Tips helpful and thought it was a great local site for Santa Barbara residents.

When my son was three years old and my daughter was one, I decided to launch OaksParent.com. The Conejo Valley didn’t have anything like this, and VenturaParent.com was up and running, covering Ojai, Camarillo, Oxnard, and Ventura. I had worked closely with the owner of VenturaParent.com, so I decided to give it a go.

Our site is designed to make lives easier. Some of the features we have are:

• Parent Planner (you can check a box and save events, print them or e-mail them to a friend)

• Parent Chat (where one can find a friend and get some advice)

• Recipe Club (post your favorite recipes and find a recipe for dinner

• A-Z Business Directory (look for a local business)

• Local Perks (print out a discount card from a participating business for a great savings)

• Monthly Contests (with great prizes)

• Events Calendar (to find some great family-oriented activities in the area)

• Movie Times and Local News

Since launching the site I have had a great response from the local community. We have had some amazing sponsors support us this first year, including Children’s Orchard, Your Health Connection Magazine, Ventura County Parent & Living, Peek-A-Boo Baby proofing and The Oaks. I am a member of the Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village Chamber of Commerce and am enjoying the monthly events that the chamber hosts. We try to attend or sponsor as many local events as possible to stay involved in the community. We are also giving back 5% of the sponsor fees we collect to local non-profits.

Please see the site today to register for our newsletter and stay for a while!