What Has The Internet Done For You Lately, Mom?

In news that probably won't surprise any parent -- particularly those at the stage where "talking to adults all day" and "leaving the house on a whim" are just gauzy memories -- the Internet is your friend.

Often literally.

One study, by researchers at Penn State and Brigham Young universities earlier this month, found that new mothers who follow and create online communities report feeling "less alone" than new mothers who don't. (Of the 157 participants in this study, 76 percent read blogs and 61 percent also wrote their own.)

Another, by the New Parents Project at Ohio State University, found that the birth of a child spurs new mothers onto Facebook. (In a sample group of 154 mothers, 44 percent said their Facebook use increased after giving birth, compared to 27 percent who said it decreased and 29 percent who said it stayed the same.)

This was all an attempt, I am thinking, to quantify things that really can't be measured. The search for reassurance that you aren't the only one feeling "this way." The need for virtual ties to fill the spaces left as families and communities scatter. The craving for places to gather and moments to connect and voices to tell you nope, you're not crazy, it's this parenting gig that's a little insane.

Numbers and data won't do that. Only words come close. So, inspired by what the research was trying to capture, I reached out to my own web of blogging friends whose worlds are invisibly but inextricably interwoven with mine. Why are you here? I asked them. What, I wondered, has the Internet done for you since you've become a parent?

Here are some of their answers:

So ... click away ... We also want to know what the Internet has done for you lately. Did you find support on Facebook or a personal blog after you had kids. Email us at parents@huffingtonpost.com or tweet your answers to @HuffPostParents using #onlineparents.