by
Jo Montgomery
LA Mom Launches Social Network to Protect Kids By Connecting Parents
You know you can’t fix a problem facing your child if you don’t know about it. For just that reason, parents today need to know more about the issues and challenges their children face during those hours that make up the better part of every week - school. Some challenges are more than troublesome, they are life threatening. With even the tiniest bit of information parents will, alone or in groups, spring into action for the safety and wellbeing of their children. So, what keeps that marvelous parenting machine from revving up and purring like a Maserati? Lack of information!
Lack of information flowing to parents is exactly the problem LA mom Melanie Lekkos was compelled to remedy when she created a social network for parents called TENDLE.com. “I came up with the concept of TENDLE.com over three years ago when my then 8th grade daughter began sharing disturbing stories of behaviors that were going on regularly at her school,” said Melanie. “I was a Mom who had moved to a new city and discovered how difficult it was to find a community of school parents to engage with to discuss and address some of these issues. That’s when I came up with the idea for TENDLE as a way to connect.”
A social platform for parents to interact, TENDLE’s goal is a simple one, engage, share and connect parental school communities. With the launch of TENDLE.com, parents can now log on to a free account to share concerns, dangerous trends, school and private events, news and memories with each other. Whether they are looking to communicate in open forums, targeted groups, one-on-one or even using an anonymous feature, TENDLE allows parents to connect in a way that is tailored to their own needs. In a day and age when parenting has become increasingly more difficult, TENDLE can help.
The truth is that TENDLE has already made an impact. Melanie receives calls from parents across the United States, each with their own story of how TENDLE has impacted their lives and the lives of their children. One mom found out about it and was able to prevent her daughter from attending, a dangerous hazing trap. Another mom learned that her daughter was contemplating suicide and was able to start a dialog and save her daughter’s life. Malanie feels that saving just one young life makes TENDLE worth all the work she has put into it.
“It’s all about getting this information out to parents to keep them informed and updated on what trends with our children,” said Melanie. “There is an enormous amount of constant change concerning children today. TENDLE allows parents to keep up-to- date and share relevant information to their child’s specific school.” While the benefits are endless, TENDLE currently addresses dangerous trends from vaping to unsupervised parties to bullying. This is where the anonymous feature shows its worth, allowing concerned but inhibited parents to report incidences to other parents.
On the lighter side, the site also encourages engagement in school functions including games, club events, fundraisers, volunteer opportunities and even carpools. Additionally, the platform allows parents to share memories by uploading images and video to pages and subgroups. TENDLE opens the line of communication between parents in an exciting new way.
“I created a site that I can easily navigate through so that I am not overwhelmed with a bunch of irrelevant information,” said Melanie. “Free time is not a word that parents have in our vocabulary and I kept that in mind when we designed the site.”
Go ahead and visit TENDLE, log on to your free account, sign up for your child’s school and start connecting with other parents. It’s easy and will be the some of the most important time you will spend online. Check out this video on TENDLE to learn more about the site.