Website Review: Parent Tested Parent Approved

I stumbled upon the Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA) site and was immediately intrigued. Their mission is "to discover and appraise new products designed for children and families.We research new products and coordinate testing with parents. Award winning products are selected based on value, functionality, quality and appeal." Sounds like the perfect fit for a green and frugal mom like myself.

So what does PTPA have to offer? Well, instead of have marketers push products based upon a company's revenue goal, these are items that are sampled by moms and dads who are giving their genuine recommendations based on their experience with the product or item. In addition, the site has a blog, newsletter and also offer a Green Award for those products that are especially great, innovative and green.

My first stop was at the Winning Products section in the environmentally-friendly category.

Seventh Generation Free & Clear Natural All-Purpose Cleaner was listed in this category, but it's not immediately clear how or why it was selected. I realize it's eco-friendly, but what did the testers think? How did they use it? What were their findings? The research and rationale fell a bit short.

Overall, I thought the site was mediocre. I'd rather use a site like GoodGuide.com where the products are evaulated using a scale of 1 to 5 so you understand why certain products were ranked.