Meeting of the Moms

Cyndee and Connor Timmerman (right) and Jennifer and Nicasia Murphy enjoy a visit to Wonder Works in Oak Park with the Chicago (Jefferson Park Area) Mother and Baby Group.
Photo by Michelle Gollins

By Aimee Thompson
Chicago Parent.com

Cyndee Timmerman didn’t know a lot of people in her Jefferson Park neighborhood in Chicago. With her husband at work most weekends, she began to crave interaction with other moms and babies for herself and her 10-month-old son, Connor.

Timmerman turned to the Internet in hopes of building a social network. She found an ideal solution in Meetup.com, a Web site that enables people to connect online by area and interest, then organize to meet offline through scheduled activities and events.

The working mom is a member of the North Chicago Working Moms Meetup Group and The Elk Grove Village Moms Meetup Group and organizes the Chicago (Jefferson Park Area) Mother and Baby Group. Together, Timmerman’s Meetup Groups put her in touch with nearly 200 moms living less than 25 miles away from her home.

Thanks to Meetup.com, Timmerman has become close friends with several moms with children the same age as her son.

"I don’t think I could have made these same friends without Meetup. Although I might have run into these moms at a children’s event or at the park, I probably wouldn’t have approached them," Timmerman says. "It’s crazy how much I have in common with the moms I meet at Meetups and then find out we only live a few miles from each other."

Meetup.com executives were initially surprised to find that most of its groups were "mom-centric" Meetups. "We realize that Meetup can help enrich the lives of moms," says Andres Glusman, director of strategic development for Meetup.com. "Through regularly scheduled events moms are able to get out of the house, socialize with other moms and see that they’re not alone."

Today nearly 3,500 Chicago-area moms are members of the more than 65 mom- or parenting-related Meetup Groups that include working moms, stay-at-home moms, city moms, suburban moms, attachment-parenting moms and others. It’s free to scroll through Meetup Groups available in your area or sign up for alerts of new groups at www.meetup.com. The cost to organize a Meetup is $19 per month, a fee some organizers share with members. Most moms, like Timmerman, consider this a small price to pay to "meet" and make friends.