The Family Channel

Meagan Jeronimo, a legal secretary and mother of a 20-month-old, launched the separate DC Working Moms group in 2004 after the DC Urban Moms list became too unwieldy for her.

She was also annoyed at what she felt was a stay-at-home slant to the list, saying that many of the moms had set up play groups through the list that met during working hours. "I'm lost here," she remembers thinking about managing work and motherhood. "I want to talk to someone who's going through this."

DC Working Moms now has more than 500 members and meets in different places around the city for mid-week lunches without the kids. The site also has a database for women who have their own businesses, and the members have begun doing some grassroots lobbying--promoting, for example, increased public support for child care.

Really Now

For Steele and Sokurashvili, who have day jobs in the technology industry, DC Urban Moms is what the Internet used to be before commercial interests took over. Though many people have sold or bought things through the group, the couple has not made any money.

"Appreciation is enough," deadpans Steele. It's true, he said, that their server gets so overloaded they may need to buy a faster computer soon. They've debated putting a voluntary contribution option on the site, as many Web logs have.

But for now, the couple is enjoying what has become a Washington family channel, a reality show of sorts, and learning from the postings. The couple tries to let the members steer the conversation and fight their own battles whenever possible. "We are in the background," said Sokurashvili.

Steele, who said he is not the kind of father who would ever have picked up a parenting book, said what he's learned from the list makes it worth the work. He uses the archives as a "mini-Google" to find information about charter schools, birthday party activities and family friendly restaurants.

And, of course, DC Urban Moms provides the couple with another key benefit: entertainment. "It's what we talk about in the evening," said Sokurashvili. ·

Shannon Henry has covered technology in Washington for the past 10 years, most recently for The Washington Post's Business section. She is working on a book about motherhood.