CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A few months after Kamila Handlova moved to Davidson, N.C., from the Czech Republic last year, she got hooked on a local Web site aimed at moms.

Lonely, new to American culture and curious about how American moms spend their time, the mother of two took advantage of her high-speed Internet connection to find a dentist and a pediatrician and to learn about life in North Carolina.

Now, she spends an hour each day looking for tips on grocery shopping and the best playgrounds around Lake Norman for Oliver, 3, and Max, 16 months.

Blogs, online message boards and niche Web sites have revolutionized the lives of new parents, especially stay-at-home moms like Handlova. They're like the well-known networking site MySpace for the mommy masses. Instead of gathering in backyards to talk over the fence, moms have found solace without leaving their homes, and discovered a social outlet away from their family demands.

"I feel very guilty to spend so much time, but I can't help myself. I have to look every day," said Handlova, 34, whose husband, Pavel Handl, is on a three-year assignment at Food Lion's Salisbury, N.C., headquarters. "If I didn't have my kids around, I'd spend my whole day online."

This transformation is yet another instance of how the Internet has changed how we live. E-mail is the new voice mail. Instant messaging, some find, is easier than talking on the phone. Niche Web sites are gaining popularity: clubmom.com, a national site co-founded by Meredith Vieira, Katie Couric's replacement on NBC's "Today" show, claims more than 2 million members.

In the soccer-mom-friendly Charlotte area, the scene is buzzing. More than 2,000 moms belong to CharlotteMommies .com, started four years ago by local mom Heather Meininger. It offers support groups and member forums and has spawned a not-for-profit, The Mommies Network, to help mothers around the country create networks of their own.

The site also spun off LakeNormanMommies.com in late February, which now has more than 300 members. It was recently challenged by LKNMommies.com, formed in late March by a handful of defectors.

The Internet has helped moms figure out the pressures and isolation of parenting, said Jen Singer, creator of Momma Said.net, which Forbes magazine has named one of the best national parenting blogs.

A decade ago, Singer started using the Internet to connect with other moms who had pre-term labor issues. Since then, Google's popularity and growing access to broadband and e-mail have contributed to the phenomenon, Singer said.

"There are just so many ways that the Internet has made a mom's life less lonely," said Singer, a Kinnelon, N.J., resident and mother of Nicholas, 9, and Christopher, 7. "The anonymity of the Internet allows you to speak out more than you would in the playground."

When Tricia Bennett was pregnant with twins five years ago, Web sites helped her learn more about other moms who are seeing fertility specialists. While home on bed rest, she read on message boards about other moms with twins. She later sought advice on torticollis, a neck condition affecting one of her twins, and potty training.

"That was huge, to be able to go out there and know other people are going through the same thing," said Bennett, 37, president of Lake Norman Mothers of Multiples, who spearheaded the genesis of the group's Web site, www.lnmom.com. "It's a whole different world when you come home and you have two little babies you have to care for."

Jill McClune, a mother of two and Chicago transplant, has been using CharlotteMommies.com for the past two years. She has made three close friends through the site and gets together with others for play groups every week. She checks the site several times a day to see if there are any nearby play groups or interesting message threads.

For Handlova, that site has helped her better navigate both the world of parenting and her perceptions of Americans.

At first she didn't think the cheery American culture was genuine, but when her youngest son, Max, was hospitalized with a virus, mommies she only knew by user name took care of her family. They brought meals to her home and gave her a sense of belonging. Now, she plans to get more involved with the group.

"It was a great feeling. I owe them a lot now," Handlova said. "In the Czech Republic, no one cares about strangers."