Use and Learn from the Best Parenting Websites

There are at least 140 million websites about parenting! 

Many of these websites are outstanding in that they help answer just about any question that you have about parenting and they include chat rooms and bulletin boards where you can speak electronically with other parents as well as with parenting experts. Websites of such a comprehensive nature, like www.babycenter.com and www.parentcenter.com, also allow for your receiving a regular parenting newsletter that is geared to the age of your child.

However, many parenting websites are of minimal or little value. The challenge is to find those that are going to be most beneficial to you in your unique parenting situation.

Fortunately, several concerned individuals and organizations have taken the time and energy to search this enormous number of websites and arrive at those they consider to be exemplary. Here are some of the places where you can go to find the results of these thoughtful and careful reviews:

“Best Bet” Parenting Websites (www.cyfs.org) This list was compiled by a workgroup of parents and parent educators affiliated with the Children, Youth and Family Services organization in Charlottesville, Virginia. To access their extensively annotated list, go to their webpage, scroll to find “Best Parenting Websites” and click. Their list is organized so you can find excellent sites for the parenting of different age children and sites on a variety of related topics like advocacy, stress management and adoption advice.

Top Sites for Parents (www.topsitesforparents.com) Dr. Vernon Brablam, a retired and very productive optometrist and proud father of four daughters, searched literally hundreds of thousands of parenting websites. He arrived at “200+ Fabulous, Fantastic and Informative Things for Parents to Learn on the Internet…” He has organized these fabulous sites into the following categories: General Parenting; Pregnancy, Infants and Toddlers; Kid’s Health; Adolescents and Teens; Spiritual; Disabilities and Special Needs; Divorce and Shared Parenting; and Adoptive Parenting. His entire list can be downloaded in the form of an e-book.

Parenthood.com (www.parenthood.com/links.html) This is an excellent website in and of itself. It also contains a directory of other very helpful sites, organized by topics, such as breastfeeding, caring for children, motherhood, fatherhood, health/medical, safety, starting a family, etc. Many of the other more comprehensive sites, like babycenter.com and parentcenter.com, also have these types of Internet parenting directories.

ForParentsOnly.com This website provides a search engine that can connect you to any category of parenting websites you may want to explore.

Tufts University Child & Family Web Guide (www.cfw.tufts.edu) This Web Guide is a directory that evaluates, describes and provides links to hundreds of sites containing child development research and practical advice. It was created and is operated by the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. It was initiated because many parenting websites provide information that is not consistent with child development research. Hence, the need for guidance toward those sites that provide research-based parenting advice -- and this is that site! It is based on parent and professional feedback, as well as support from noted child development experts as David Elkind, Edward Zigler, and the late Fred Rogers.

The Web Guide includes major sections on:

• Family/Parenting
• Education/Learning
• Typical Child Development
• Health/Mental Health
• Resources/Recreation

The topics that this extraordinary site allows you to search were all recommended by parents. So go to and learn at www.cfw.tufts.edu!

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