First-Hand Experience

• If you are reviewing a school, class, camp, or childcare facility, your child must have actually attended, not just visited or applied.
• If you are reviewing a business, product, place, or venue, your review must clearly describe your own first-hand experience.
• If you are giving parenting advice, please describe your own experience as a parent.

Some posts are not accepted even if you do describe first-hand experience, because of other BPN policies:

• BPN accepts advice and reviews only from parents who are speaking as a parent. Professional advice is not accepted.  
• Biased reviews are not accepted, such as posts about your own business, or reviews of friends' or colleagues' businesses.
• Negative reviews must conform to BPN's Negative Review Policy.

Why BPN accepts first-hand reports only

BPN's mission is to be helpful to parents. We aim to post only unbiased reviews that have been written in the spirit of sharing and supporting other parents. 

• Recommendations that do not describe first-hand experience often turn out to be posted by friends, family, or colleagues of the business that was reviewed, and sometimes by the owner herself. These reviews are not as helpful to other parents as unbiased recommendations and they also violate BPN's policy about Advertising and Promotion.

• Relaying information that you've heard from others is not as helpful as reporting your own personal experience. Repeating stories you've heard, especially criticism, is considered gossip, which BPN does not accept.

• When parents are asking for advice from peers, they are looking for responses from people who have been in a comparable situation. Giving advice about something that you have no personal experience with is not helpful.