Moving from the city to Westchester with a young child can be a lonely and isolating experience for a mother.

That was the case for Gretchen Menzies after she gave birth to the first of her two sons eight years ago.

Although Menzies and her husband, Peter, had already relocated to Goldens Bridge before they stared a family, once she left her job as a social worker in the Bronx to stay at home and raise her son, the now 35-year-old mom was at a loss to find other women with young children or where to take her child for activities.

The hours of research and trial-and-error experimentations started paying off not only for Menzies but for thousands of other Westchester women the past four years. That was when she decided to launch a Web site, www.essentialmom.com, to share her knowledge and insight gained.

"It was something I was doing anyway," Menzies said. "It was, 'why shouldn't I share this information with other moms who have to do the same research?'"

Think of www.essentialmom.com as a resource page for young moms to find out not only about infant and toddler classes, what to do with the kids on a day off from school and information on summer camps, but a list of restaurants that are kid-friendly and suggestions for baby gifts.

There are forums for feedback and interaction between parents. It serves moms with children from infants to about 12 years old.

The best part is all the information is dispensed free of charge along with the weekly newsletter she e-mails to subscribers who register on the site. Her venture is supported solely through its advertising.

"There's a lot out there," Menzies commented. "It's a rich area that we live in; I don't mean financially rich, but with things to do and opportunities."

She said her background as a social worker has also been useful in development of the site. During her previous career she dealt with cases through the Family Court system and then through a mentoring program at a Bronx high school, becoming familiar with out-of-control kids and how to deal with them.

Already she has had more than 1,600 subscribers register for her newsletter, and in a month has had as many as 278,000 hits. Until the past two months when she launched the Web site's redesign, Menzies had done no advertising or marketing, spending the first four years building its user base through word and mouth.

"I write the newsletter thinking of my friends that I know, and then there's 1,600 people reading my newsletter and I don't know who they are," she said.

It doesn't just focus on northern Westchester but features the entire county from Yorktown to Mount Vernon. Sometimes she wonders why no one thought of it beforehand, but then realizes it takes a ton of work to maintain and update the site and to keep it useful. It's not something someone can throw together and forget about for a couple of months.

"It's definitely taken on a life of its own," Menzies said.

Not only has www.essentialmom.com developed its own life but it has enhanced Menzies lifestyle. Instead of sitting in an office somewhere missing out on her children's activities, she works at home and makes her own schedule. The day of the kindergarten picnic at her younger son's school, guess where Menzies was.

"I love what I'm doing," she said proudly. "It's something that fits perfectly in my life with my own kids. It's something that fits in with my background of being a social worker and wanting to help people."

Of course, like any home business, especially one that is computer dependent, there is always work to be done. There are nights where Menzies is up until the wee hours, catching up on the many tasks to keep the site vibrant and relevant. It is one of the reasons why she hasn't expanded the service beyond Westchester, even though there have been a couple of opportunities.

It can be thankless work, but then Menzies' husband lets her know what a terrific job she's doing.

"Any time I get frustrated he says, 'You're dong a real good service to the community'," Menzies said.