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	Siliconmom BY: Michael McCormack. 3 January, 2001 Take a Paisley-born, high-achieving property manager, drop her in Silicon Valley with a techy husband and tell her she’s pregnant. What do you get? Siliconmom.com – the definitive guide to being a non-working partner in the heart of the new economy. Alison van Diggelen found herself in that precise situation six years when she upped stakes to join her husband for a new life in California’s San Jose Valley. A graduate of (then) Paisley Tech, she went on to Cambridge on the advice of fellow grad Gavin Hastings, then embarked on a successful career in corporate property in London and Paris. Just as she was preparing for a high-powered position as a property consultant in San Francisco, she discovered she was pregnant with Lewis, now five. Within six months, she says: “I felt my brain shrinking and needed some stimulation. So I started writing about the experience.” Occasional pieces grew into a collected works, refined by her sharpening observations of Valley life and the arrival of daughter Tanera three years ago. This year, she decided to share her output with more of the Valley mothers and Siliconmom was born. “It's not a commercial site, I don’t advertise, but just through word of mouth it has grown,” she said. “As I say in my welcome on the site, it's for mums who want words of more than one syllable, a life beyond nappies etc. I was inspired by salon.com's site ‘mothers who think.’” An instant hit, Siliconmom was featured by a conglomerate of San Francisco Bay area media as their first “Site of the Week,” and its popularity has sparked a part-time career as a Valley lifestyle commentator: “This summer my Palm Pilot commentary was aired on KQED, the largest affiliate of National Public Radio in US. People here just love the Scottish accent” Her writing on the site, along with that of a growing band of contributors, shows the ups and downs of being a supporting partner in America’s most volatile economy. “Silicon Valley is definitely a place where things happen faster,” she believes. “There's uncertainty about the future, especially since Spring's market downturn – whether the company you're with will survive/ever go public etc. etc. I'll admit, there is a pre-occupation with stock options and IPO talk, (counting options before they hatch is a common SV pastime) yet there's an incredible amount of optimism here, the traveling hopefully scenario. “Only in SV would you have a ‘two minute’ stock market report slotted in between Kindergarten age kids' programs in the afternoon!” Of particular interest to van Diggelen is the effect that focus on money has on family life. “The siliconmom story ‘Waiting for the IPO’ talks about the crazy lifestyles we live here, how the breadwinners (be that husband/wife or both) can put their all into the job leaving nothing for family and community. One mom said she wanted to tape that essay to her fridge as a wake up call to her workaholic husband. “It's arguably harder for women with degrees and those who have embarked upon potentially lucrative careers to stay home and be ‘mom and support team’ to busy husbands. There are many of them in SV. The 1950's ‘Advice to housewives when husband comes home from work’ has circulated among my friends here and raised great laughter. Many savvy moms I know, insist on spouses pulling their weight at home, despite their heavy schedules, knowing their kids' bonding is so important.” She is also careful to acknowledge the costs of working and living in such a high-pressure environment: “SV does attract the global ‘crème de la crème’, so we are a driven lot of people. We love the adventure, feeling at the center of the Tech revolution. Ambitious for ourselves and our children. “I know several families split apart by work pressures. But whether that's distinctly SV high-tech/dot-com pressure or workaholism, is anyone's guess. Sure the windfalls are bigger here, but then so is the cost of being here (your readers should check out a SV real estate website). The same might happen in Santa Fe or San Jose.” For the next year at least, van Diggelen plans to keep the site as a small community whose content comes in at the pace of willing volunteer contributors. But all that may someday change: “My husband, a techy marketing man, jokes that one day he'll be working for siliconmom.com! But for now, I've found a balance with this new project, doing a monthly column, and giving other moms the floor, whether they are siliconmoms from Silicon Valley/Alley/Glen/ Bog/Fen/Plain or Wadi. “I want to connect the commonality of our experience. It helps us do this challenging job. Maybe in the future a compilation of international siliconmoms' experiences would work well as an ebook, who knows?” Michael McCormack, Edinburgh, Scotland