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Site helps grandparents click

By Farnoosh Torabi | Special to amNewYork

October 29, 2007

Spoiling her 3-year-old grandson Shaun tops Louise Wasoff's to-do list.

"He's my only child," says the 54-year-old retiree, whose daughter, Shaun's mother, was raised by adoptive parents. Wasoff and her daughter reunited 15 years ago. "We're not the typical family unit," she says. Now, though, like any first-time grandparent, Wasoff wants to take an active role in her grandson's life.

But how to connect with a youngster who's two generations ahead? Not to mention, Wasoff says, "I was never a parent I had no idea what to do with him." Enter Grandparents.com, a 11⁄2 month-old Web site that's focused on being "a user's manual to grandparenthood," explains Web site CEO Jerry Shereshewsky, a former Yahoo! marketing manager.

The site employs mainly freelance journalists who submit a range of service articles -- everything from travel tips and Halloween activities with grandkids to this holiday's must-have toys by age group. Users can set up a blog to communicate with friends and family, as well as share photos and video through the site's media gallery.

Right now the site freely serves 25,000 registered users with plans to raise that number to 1.5 million by the end of next year through an ad campaign.

Shereshewsky cites theknot.com and babycenter.com as role model Web sites. "It's content for grandparents to help them in what and how they work, amuse, entertain and buy for their grandchildren," he says.

While the Web site is called Grandparents.com, the business is actually banking on a popular demographic that's proven successful for many start-ups: baby boomers -- the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. The AARP reports that the average age of someone becoming a grandparent is about 48-years-old.

"We're not talking about old people," says Shereshewsky. "These are people in the prime of their earning capacity. they got all the money, the best education and they're the most traveled. They have to begin to move that wealth from their pockets into that of their children and grandchildren." He's hoping Grandparents.com will serve as a bridge.