Our Story

The magazine Athens grew up with

In 1998, Athens got a new kind of publication: a free magazine written for the people doing the hardest job in town — raising kids. It was called Athens Parent, and it was in the rack by the door everywhere parents went: the grocery store, the day care, the library, the pediatrician's waiting room.

Six issues a year, 13,000 copies at its peak, reaching families across Athens-Clarke, Oconee, Jackson, Barrow, and Madison counties. It was written here, about here, by local writers — with one mission: promote parent/child interaction and community involvement, and be a resource for improving families' quality of life.

If you raised kids in Athens in those years, you remember the pieces of it:

• The Calendar — the page that got stuck to refrigerators all over town
• The Party List — every birthday party place, performer, and rental in the area (parents wore this section out)
• The Summer Camps directory — the two-issue guide that planned half the summers in Athens
• Dad's Chair, Teacher Feature, Parenting 101 — the columns readers turned to first

The magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018 and published into 2020 — twenty-two years of free, local, honest help for Athens families, built from nothing right here in town.

Same mission, new page

The presses are quiet now, but Athens hasn't stopped raising kids — and parents still ask the same questions: What's going on this weekend? Where should we have the party? What do we do when it rains?

So Athens Parent is back, in the form the next generation of parents actually uses. The Calendar is still the heart of it. The Party List lives on as the Birthday Party Guide. The camp directories and seasonal guides are becoming Things to Do. Still free. Still local. Still made by people who live here.

If you remember the magazine — welcome back. If you're new to Athens — welcome home.

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