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Listening to working moms talk about how they balance their lives always interests me. It's not easy. Just getting the kids up, fed and out the door is a feat. Never mind school, day care, extracurricular activities, supper, homework and bedtime. Working mothers often tell me there is simply never enough time.

Enlarge Photo

Kâté LeBlanc/Telegraph-Journal

Alison Davidson launched the Moncton parenting website OutsideTheCrib.com earlier this month. Here, she plays in her home office with her daughters, two-year-old Ella, right, and three-year-old Gillian.

That's why I love to talk to mompreneurs like Alison Davidson. On May 1, the 35-year-old Riverview woman launched OutsideTheCrib.com, a website for parents in Greater Moncton. It's the only locally produced site of its kind. It has everything from information on Bisphenol-A to birthday party ideas. There's a packed calendar of local events for parents and children, a classifieds section and useful, timely stories.

Davidson has two daughters, two and three-and-a-half, and is expecting her third child in August. She used to work outside the home but decided to make the leap to self-employment because she wanted to do things on her schedule.

"I'm keeping in touch with the working world and balancing that with taking care of my children," she said during a recent phone interview punctuated with giggles and cries from her girls. "I was looking for something that offered flexibility. Now I work during naptime."

Davidson updates the site three or four times a week with what she hopes is hip and sophisticated content. Her aim is to keep the site helpful but light-hearted and non-judgmental.

OutsideTheCrib.com gets about 150 hits a day, so far. Davidson is discovering it's a lot more work than she expected.

"My initial plan was a bit grandiose."

The nitty gritty of keeping the site fresh means some of her bigger plans will come later. The early weeks have been a bustle of e-mails, writing, updating, and conferring with web designer Tantramar Interactive.

But the positive support and feedback from the community and moms keep her going. And the biggest rewards are the two little girls she gets to spend her days with. There's something else at work here, too. Davidson wants her kids to know that moms can have a career and be home with their kids.

"I want them to see there are lots of choices out there. I really like them to see me having an outside-the-house role."

Getting outside the house was a priority when Davidson had her first baby in 2004. She was always looking to meet other moms or trying to find activities she could do with her baby. Often, she would find out through word of mouth and make it to an event. More often, she would find out about a great concert or gathering after it was over. The site is her way of offering parents in her area a central location for family resources, be it a Thomas the Train show, a weekly playgroup or the phone numbers for after-hours clinics.

It's the kind of site every city should have. So many stay-at-home parents of young children can feel isolated, particularly in the winter months. They would love to be able to click the mouse and find the perfect activity just across town.

And there are plenty of prospective mompreneurs out there who would jump at the chance to do what Davidson is doing. One Canadian parenting website, Savvymom.ca, even has an award for Mompreneur of the year. Last year's winner, Mabel's Labels (www.mabel.ca), nabbed $18,000. One of the company's four co-founding moms, Julie Cole, said at the time: "Our proudest achievement is the day we quit our day jobs and began running Mabel's Labels full time. We choose to live as dynamic business owners, enthusiastic mothers and inspired women."

There's a force driving these women to take chances. Moms know what I'm talking about. Nothing gets your creative juices flowing better than trying to figure out ways to stay home with your kids and still have an exciting career. We have all launched websites, opened shops or invented the perfect sippy cup in our minds in the waning days of maternity leave. The only difference between working moms and mompreneurs is having the chutzpah to follow through.

Andrea McAuliffe mcauliffe.andrea@telegraphjournal.com is a reporter and editor at the Telegraph-Journal and mother of two. Parental Guidance appears every other Saturday in Magazine and addresses important issues as well as the lighter side of parenting.