About Us

kidwinks.com was born out of frustration. As two moms of young children, we were looking for fun, unique, age-appropriate things to do with our kids. And we were tired of saving a bunch of paper listings – we wanted to have everything in one place! When we couldn’t find a resource that had everything we were looking for, we decided to create one ourselves. What we have come up with is kidwinks.com; a site for anyone who has young children in their life. We hope you like it.

Some of the things that make kidwinks.com especially useful are:

• Searching - We think this is sooo important! We want everything to be searchable and we especially love being able to search by your exact location. Imagine being able to get a list of kid-friendly party places (or skating rinks, or restaurants, etc.) and have them displayed to you in order of geographical distance FROM YOUR HOUSE! You even get a map to boot! Or, you can choose to have the list displayed to you in another convenient sort order (by rating, alphabetically, etc.) Does it get any better than this?
• Reviews - Yes, it does get better! You can get the inside scoop on each one of those party places, restaurants, etc. by reading the ratings and reviews written by other parents who have visited these businesses.
• Email reminders - So often we read about a great event for our children, only to forget about it until after the date has already passed or we hear another mom tell us how great the event was and how much her children loved it (oops!). We want to take care of that problem and we think that e-mail reminders will help. If you see an event on kidwinks.com that you want to make sure you won’t forget, you can schedule an email reminder and we take care of that problem for you.
• Member Profiles - Why do we want to know about you and the children in your life? We think it’s important to know the perspective from which you´re writing. We think that a parent with two toddler girls would have a much different experience than a parent with two pre-teen boys. It can only help, right? And the ONLY reason we ask for your street address is so you can take advantage of our wonderful sorting option by geographical distance from YOUR house.
• Dining Deals Calendar - We love it! Click on a day and get a list of restaurants offering kids´ dining deals for that day Check it out; we think you´ll love it too.
• kidwinks Pick - This is where we list our personal kid-friendly favorites. It is not a paid advertisement.
• Ideas - This section holds some of our ideas for fun, usually seasonal, things to do with children.

** Contests ** - Our children are young for such a short amount of time! Let´s help each other make the most of that time by passing along information to each other by rating and reviewing the places we visit. Let other parents know about that Restaurant with delicious food and entertainment for kids. Or tell them about that once-a-year Event that their 2 year olds shouldn´t miss but 7 year olds would be bored to tears. Or how about that Ongoing Activity which is an awesome place to hang out and play with your kids but you would never hear about it unless another parent were to tell you? Help other parents find out about that funny non-scary clown (Services) you had for your child´s birthday party or a gentle pediatric dentist. How do you do that? Review them!! We want to encourage review writing, so we are holding a monthly contest. Each time you write a full review you will be entered into our drawing. The more reviews you write, the better your chances of winning the fabulous prize for that month.

We are currently focusing on kid-friendly activities, restaurants, services, and events in the Northwest suburbs and the Chicago area. As time goes on and word spreads, however, we would like to add information from all over the Chicagoland area and ultimately, the whole country. Please help us out and tell your favorite kid-friendly place about kidwinks.com. It is free for businesses to list with us and link to their own website. Spread the word and help us create a useful tool and a great parenting community.

Please keep in mind that many things in life change very quickly – ALWAYS call first to verify hours and addresses.

Remember, listing with us is free so if you know of a business that is kid- or parent-related, tell them about us!

Each year we will donate 10% of our net profits to charity. This year we will be donating to Oprah Winfrey´s Angel Network.