It kept coming up when I was looking for a DC travel forum.
So one day I looked.
I come for the gossip, snark, and helpfulness. And sometimes I can be helpful too.
I am lonely is the main reason.

Anonymous wrote:I started reading Dcum after I had a baby and needed to find a nanny. I was surprised to see in other forums that many here aren’t parents.

What brought you all here? Have your favorite forums changed over time?

Even though it was parenting topics that brought me here, travel and off topic are currently my favorite.

Same reason as you. Now I just come for the local gossip and the drama.

When I needed a nanny in 2002. My kids are 22 and 26 now.

I think I found it around 2011/2012. A woman I know posted on Facebook about how terrible this site was and how she was getting bullied on here. Definitely had to check that out immediately.

She was getting bullied because she'd tried to plug her own personal blog, with the latest post being all about how she was a SAHM because she loved her kids and implying people who used childcare did not love their kids. She couldn't believe that would get people upset!

I've been here ever since....

Reading about school closures and insanity in March of 2020.

The special needs parenting forum- It came up on one of my frequent searches of what to do.

I was a college student and summer nanny in 2005 and used to advertise on the mailing list.

I had a child many years later but basically have read it ever since 2005. My how the years go by.

I had just had a baby in 2004 and everyone told me to get on the mailing list. So I did, and here I still am, for better or worse.

urban baby became terrible so I was looking for something that resembled the old style ub

I was looking for a preschool in 2010. Now that little four year old just graduated high school. I've cycled most of the parenting sub-forums, now mainly stick to books, gardening and off-topic.

I think searching about what my insurance would cover for my first baby? This was pre-ACA.

Found the forum as a teenager.

It comes up in Google searches, and given that there are many subforums and threads that have nothing to do with being in DC, being urban, or being a mom or dad, many people probably find the forum the same way.

Anonymous, no-account posting makes it easier to post here than even a place like Reddit.

In 2007 I was newly pregnant with my first baby and my husband took a job in DC so we moved. I googled for parenting resources in the area and found DCUM.

The jobs forum. My job is based in DC. Then I started reading Recent and getting into the drama of it all. I don't even have kids.

I started reading Dcum after I had a baby and needed to find a nanny. I was surprised to see in other forums that many here aren’t parents.

What brought you all here? Have your favorite forums changed over time?

Even though it was parenting topics that brought me here, travel and off topic are currently my favorite.