Published on September 27, 1999

Mothers nurture parenting sites
Internet business takes off

By Francine Brevetti
Business Writer

WALNUT CREEK – A DIMPLE-KNEED 3-year-old stands on a chair in her living room and trumpets through a rolled-up sheet of purple construction paper. In the next room, 5-year-old Charlotte, who adores rainbows, displays her latest crayon masterpiece to her mother, who is feverishly working at her computer.

Mother, meanwhile, is breastfeeding her 6-week-old son as she designs, updates and edits the next issues of three parenting Web sites.

Nancy Price of Walnut Creek doesn’t juggle all this alone. She has a partner — Betsy Gartrell-Judd, of Chillicothe, Ohio. The two mothers met on the Internet and collaborate daily.

But they have yet to meet face to face. They don’t need to.

The Internet has created a new flexibility in the workplace, and these two women are using it to build a profitable business without sacrificing motherhood. Both motherhood and her online publishing activities are full-time jobs, Price says. “Constantly pulled in different ways,” she complained that she’s not very good at balancing all her responsibilities, but she’s grateful to be trying. (more…)