5 simple things I’m doing to stay calm, centered, and not lose my *$&t this year.
The past few years have been — as if you didn’t live through them too — kind of hellish. Okay, very hellish. You don’t need me to share the many many articles about how much work moms in particularly have been doing to balance everyone’s...
5 random cool things I’m loving this week: Women-owned small business edition
We first started this site with the mission of discovering cool things — particularly from small businesses and women-run companies — and share them with you all. While we’ve become popular for our gift guides to suit every budget, our tech tips, our...
Thinking of trying melatonin to help your kids sleep? Please read this first.
Like so many other desperate — and exhausted — parents, we turned to melatonin supplements to help my son sleep when he was younger. I spoke to our pediatrician first of course, and did enough research about melatonin on my own to know that melatonin...
Period underwear to menstrual cups: 4 tampon alternatives we’ve tried that can save you during the tampon shortage
Is there actually a tampon shortage right now? Evidently, yes. As if the recent formula shortage hasn’t been hard enough on (mostly) women, now…this. Sigh. But at least there are some great alternatives, if not permanent solutions to tampons or pads. And...
Another free download we wish we didn’t need: A Kids Book About School Shootings
The fact that a book called A Kids Book About School Shootings even exists should tell you exactly how big a problem this has become in the years since the horrific Columbine school shooting over 20 years ago. As we shared in today’s post How to talk to your...
A Kids Book About War: A free download that we wish didn’t have to be written
We’ve been posting a lot of resources about how to talk to our kids about the war in Ukraine as well as a list of wonderful children’s books about anxiety and worry. We wish we didn’t have to, but that’s the world we are living in right now, and we...
Wonderful children’s books about anxiety: for kids who are worried about the world around them
We were actually surprised to realize that that we hadn’t yet put together a list for parents of children’s books about anxiety. Considering how many other topics that children’s books have helped us with — from books about...
“There’s nothing romantic about depression” | Spawned Ep 268
This week, I was really happy to get to sit down and chat with Amy Koppelman, director, writer, and producer of the recent film A Mouthful of Air starring Amanda Seyfried and Finn Wittrock. It’s based on on Amy’s critically acclaimed novel inspired by her...
How the Breathwrk app is helping with stress, anxiety, and focus. (Things we could all use more help with these days.)
This is a sponsored post on behalf of the Breathwrk app As we (ahem, parents) come up two years since the beginning of Covid, things are still tough. The stress, the anxiety, the uncertainty, the Groundhog Day every day feeling… it’s having serious impact...
Answering parents top questions about the Covid-19 vaccine for kids 5-11 | Spawned Ep 260
While some of us (including Kristen and myself) are rejoicing about the approval of the Covid-19 vaccine for kids 5-11, we know that a lot of parents still have questions. As you should! This is our kids we’re talking about, and as parents, we research...
Jenny Lawson on depression, anxiety and why we have to talk about it | Spawned Episode 255
We can’t believe after all these episodes of Spawned, we’ve never had the chance to chat with Jenny Lawson. A.K.A. The Bloggess. A.K.A. the best-selling author. A.K.A. new indie bookshop owner. A.K.A. the woman who first left a comment on Liz’s blog...Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz!
We started Cool Mom Picks in 2006 to help make life cooler, more meaningful, and more fun for parents of all kinds.
Trivia: It was called Cool Mom Sh*t for the first two days. (Yeah, we rethought that.)
We had no idea our site would grow to become a major lifestyle network, that we'd end up sharing our finds with the TODAY Show and Martha Stewart, that we'd be able to make a real difference for so many small businesses and women-run companies, or that we'd end up with an incredible community of the coolest readers on the planet. (If we do say so ourselves).
We still love what we do every single day. And we're so glad you're here.
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