In the days before designer diaper bags, moms who met at the park would exchange numbers after rummaging through their purses for pens and paper scraps (which often ended up on the kitchen floor, stained with Cheez Whiz).
Cellphones streamlined the process, but programming digits into an electronic device lacked the personal touch. So, as career women rebranded themselves as playdate co-ordinators, many ordered business cards to suit their new job description.
In the past few years, “mom cards” of all description have been showing up at baby groups, soccer fields and playgrounds. Some are printed with cutesy one-liners (“Get your mommy to call my mommy”) while others are emblazoned with damask or leopard prints. But the basic information is the same: the mother’s name, phone number and a job title such as Rugrat Wrangler or Annabelle’s Mom.
A second-wave feminist might bristle at the notion of a woman labelling herself solely as a caregiver. But the women who use them say the modern-day calling cards celebrate a new identity.
“You’re so excited and you want everybody to know you’re a mom,” says Katherine Naylor, a Vancouver mother of two. Partway through maternity leave with her eldest child, now 5, she ordered free mom cards from Vistaprint.com, and has used updated versions ever since.
Ms. Naylor already had business cards from her job as a group-benefits administrator, she says, but it was tedious to cross out everything but her name. Besides, she adds, “it would have been weird to give moms my work card because I really did have a shift in who I was.”
For women in the throes of sleep deprivation and post-partum angst, connecting with other mothers can be a lifeline. But making new mom friends involves a certain etiquette, says Annemarie Tempelman-Kluit, founder of the Vancouver-based website Yoyomama.ca.
It can be presumptuous to ask for phone numbers at the sandbox, she explains, whereas handing out a mom card “lets you open the door without being too pushy.”
Ms. Tempelman-Kluit says her website got a spike in readers’ clicks when she published a link to a free mom-card template at Cottage-industrialist.com.
Elsewhere online are “soccer mom” cards (with space on the back for writing game schedules) and kids’ allergy cards that list offending foods, designed for moms to give out at restaurants and birthday parties.
Upscale mom cards cost 50 cents to $1 apiece and are printed on luxe paper stock, with personalized designs ranging from whimsical to snooty.
“They’re a reflection of you,” says Sarah Lemoine, a work-at-home mother and stationery designer based in Lafayette, La.
Ms. Lemoine – whose clients include former Miss USA Shanna Moakler – says demand for mom cards has increased steadily in the two years since she launched Cocoblustudio.com. “I’m doing grandmother cards now, too.”
Most of her customers want photos of their kids on their cards, but Ms. Lemoine counsels against handing them out too freely. By limiting personal information to a phone number, she adds, the cards are no more revealing than Facebook.
Unlike an e-mail or text message, a mom card is a tactile reminder of the camaraderie that can develop when two women click.
Ms. Naylor says she keeps other women’s cards for years, including one given by a mother who moved thousands of miles away. Whenever she comes across that picture of a blue sky with the names of her kids, Ms. Naylor says, “I get a little smile.”
