Does Your Job Plus Kids Equal No Time?

Other busy parents might want to take more drastic Web-based measures, such as using a full-service online grocery site. Peapod (www.peapod.com) is a recognized leader in this field. It delivers to nearly 100,000 customers, most of whom have kids, in big markets like San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, and Houston. You can order almost anything over Peapod that you might buy at a neighborhood grocery store, and you can give detailed instructions to your Peapod shopper -- by noting, for example, exactly how ripe you want your bananas to be. The site remembers your personal shopping list and your previous order.

"You can specify which brands you'll accept substitutions for and which you won't," says Susan Bratton, 37, director of interactive advertising for @Home Network and a Peapod customer. "I use it when I'm too busy to make a trip to the store." One big plus: The service is pretty cheap. (A typical fee schedule is $4.95 per month plus a $5 charge per order.) One big catch: You have to order 18 to 24 hours in advance of your desired delivery time, and someone must be at home to receive your groceries.

"Where Am I Going to Find Time to...?"

There is one thing that working parents crave and that no outsourcing service can give: contact with other people in similar situations. Maybe you need a virtual shoulder to cry on, or a cyberpal with whom to swap advice and share war stories. "The Balancing Act," on ParentsPlace (www.parentsplace.com/messageboards), is a round-the-clock bulletin board for working moms and dads, although it's used mostly by women. "Day care drop-off was hard this morning," laments one recent visitor -- and others respond with support and advice.

If you don't have time to participate in an online community, but you'd still like to draw on some Web wisdom, then check out the focused discussion at the Working Moms' Refuge (www.momsrefuge.com). In the "Art of Juggling" section, you can pose a work-family problem and get a response from "master juggler" Cathy Feldman, 51, who has edited several books for working women. Recent topics have included working at home with kids, strategies for beating "morning madness" (the harried rush to get everyone, including yourself, off to work and school), and ways to find care for a sick child when you can't stay at home.

"Are We Having Fun Yet?"

Enough about child care, outsourcing, and online support groups. Parenting isn't just about solving problems. If raising children weren't fun, why would anybody do it? The Web also offers lots of great ways for you and your kids to use online resources to have more fun in the offline world.

Have you and your kids finally outgrown "Goodnight Moon"? Then check out the "Books Every Child Should Read" on the HomeArts Network (www.homearts.com/depts/relat/bookintr.htm). There you will find a roster of luminaries -- including poet Maya Angelou; Maurice Sendak, author of "Where the Wild Things Are"; and Captain Kangaroo -- weighing in on which books you and your kids shouldn't miss.

If it's movie night at your house, stop by Screen It! (www.screenit.com) -- a useful site that your kids will wish you'd never found. It offers movie reviews for parents on current kids' flicks and other releases. The site ranks movies according to various offenses, including violence, guns, drugs, alcohol, sex, nudity, and even "bad attitude." Then it provides details about each offense. The site also assesses what kind of role model each main character in a movie would be. It even suggests topics that you can discuss with your kids. The entry for "Home Fries" offers this choice item: "That Drew Barrymore's character is pregnant after having an affair with a married man at least twice her age."

Wait a minute! Didn't we just say that raising kids was supposed to be fun?