The News & Observer: Outsmarting the parent trap

The News & Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina, September 5, 2006
Staff Writer: Adrienne Johnson Martin

OUTSMARTING THE PARENT TRAP
A Triangle couple’s Web site aims to inspire resourcefulness

Kris and David Jackson aren’t saying they are perfect parents.

Not at all.

The Raleigh couple, parents of nearly 3-year-old Henry and 18-month-old Will, are aiming more for something along the lines of adroit.

“You have to be clever to get it all done,” Kris says.

Therein lies the guiding philosophy behind their Web site, cleverparents.com.

With its snazzy logo and decidedly upscale bent, the four-month-old site, aimed at “smart, successful parents,” features columnists and interviews exploring a variety of topics, including charity, food, health, work and, of course, children.

The Jacksons’ perspective on parenthood strikes a chord other national media have begun to mine: Parenthood, while life changing, needn’t be all-consuming.

“There’s a feeling that life sort of ends when you become a parent,” David says. “It doesn’t end; it changes dramatically. The variables have increased.”

That same idea, which some see as a generational shift, is reflected, for instance, in the pages of Cookie magazine, a bimonthly Conde Nast publication launched last year.

“There’s this idea that this generation is selfish, that children are accessories like Prada bags,” says Cookie managing editor Joyce Bautista. “That’s not true. Children are still the most important part of their lives.”

“But you can expose children to adult things — within reason. Kids can have the same joy you have listening to Talking Heads and Bob Marley.”

Today’s readers, Bautista says, have found their role models in stylish CEOs. “We want to have children and not lose our sense of self and style.”

Like most parenting media, Cookie seeks to inspire moms. The Jacksons created their Web site, in part, as a reaction to that gender exclusivity.

The couple, married for four years, had long desired to start a business together. Both have marketing backgrounds; David is director of marketing at Bloodhound Technologies in Research Triangle Park.

Once Henry was born, Kris decided to stay at home, and the couple began talking about their wish more concretely. They checked out parenting Web sites. “Dads were on the sidelines,” says Kris.

They had an angle. Choosing a name for their site became a process of elimination. “We were driven to some extent by what URL names were already taken,” David says.

In January 2005, when they hit on “clever parents,” it seemed so perfect, they wondered how it was still available.

Next, they sought out illustrators to help create a logo, guided by the idea that they knew what they didn’t want. They stuck gold with an artist who had worked on children’s books and all manner of adult fare. She presented them with a whimsical, vibrant and stylized vision of a hip mom and fashionable dad, seemingly unruffled by their screaming baby.

“It had the vibe we wanted,” David says.

‘Parentrepreneurs’

Along with topics such as children, health, food, life and style, the couple knew they wanted to feature parents like them: those inspired by the birth of their children to start a new business. They put the word out, and a stream of like-minded folks gladly shared their stories. Sharing new baby-inspired business stories, it seems, is right up there with sharing cute baby tales.

“It’s like losing weight on a fad diet,” says David of the intensity of the response. “You want to talk about it all the time.” The duo dubbed the group “parentrepreneurs.”

Through friends and contacts, the Jacksons have lured about 50 columnists from across the nation who work for free, sharing their expertise (and getting, in some cases, another source of exposure). One local friend, for instance, a businessman with a foodie’s soul, writes an occasional column about food, wine and travel.

After cobbling services to help with the technical stuff they didn’t know, the Jacksons opened up a prototype of their site to friends and family in October. They officially launched in April.

The Jacksons tend to the site between caring for their children and working. Kris puts the boys down for a nap in the afternoon and then checks in. At night, she says, as the boys sleep, she and David operate “dueling computers” in their den.

So far, they say, unique readership numbers in “the thousands.”

Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni, who studies magazines and has seen cleverparents.com, says the site taps into the community of parents who may no longer use neighbors or family conversations on the front porch when they need advice.

“It’s a reflection of our times,” says Husni, who is also the chairman of the Department of Journalism at the University of Mississippi. “In all of us there’s a need to create a conversation, a sense of belonging, whether it’s in a virtual community or a magazine.”

Adding as they go

For their part, the Jacksons say additions to their site are driven by the question “Is it fun to do?” They’re adding video episodes. (”We have a high-tech studio in our den,” David jokes.) They recently filmed an open house at Raleigh clothing designer Mary Michele Little’s home studio.

And while they’ve learned from the site they created — Kris and the boys have tried the Jackson Pollock-inspired art pieces one columnist suggested — they acknowledge lapses in their cleverness.

Among the latest? When Kris dismissed her parental gut and ignored the silence of the children in another room.

In that quiet, Henry slathered Will with Vaseline.

Much later, after trying dish washing liquid, then baking soda, corn starch unslicked Will.

But just to prove they aren’t going for perfect, the Jacksons posted some greasy pictures on their site, and Kris wrote about the experience under the heading of “The Case of the Not-So Clever Parent,” inviting other parents to share their tales.

Pretty clever, huh?