Why every parent needs to see Boy Erased. Spoiler: The world desperately needs more understanding and compassion
It’s been over a week since I saw the brand new movie Boy Erased and I can’t get it out of my head. As an avid human-rights supporter and the mom of two activist teenagers, I spend a lot of time trying to be less angry these days than I have been. The world feels so...
Here’s what you can do with your family on #TheLastWeekend before the Midterms, and why it (really!) matters.
Parents. We’re not like other people who can just drop everything and fly out to a swing state to canvas, or host raucous fundraising cocktail nights, or even attend a GOTV concert on a whim. But there’s a lot we can do — with our families —...
The blogging world loses one of our own. Here’s how to help.
Kristen and I are both old school bloggers, going back to 2006 when our kids were tiny. Back then, we were a small, passionate community of writers who shared our lives, our joys, our many challenges and even some painful losses. Many of us became IRL friends. Even if...
How one mom’s viral #himtoo post led to the #metoo ending no one expected
We all talk a lot about “oversharenting,” or what to post about our kids on social media, how much info is too much, and whether we might be embarrassing them…one day. Well it turns out these questions apply well beyond potty training photos, as...
Michael Strahan did a beautiful thing for one little boy who was being bullied | Thinking : Parent
I’ve been watching an amazing story unfold on my Facebook feed over the last month. And because we love a good heartwarming story, we knew we had to share this story of Michael Strahan’s act of kindness with you all too. It started a month ago, when a...
Amazing op-eds and articles from women to help us process our feelings about women’s trauma, Dr. Blasey Ford, and the Kavanaugh hearings.
What a week. That’s all you have to say right now to nearly any woman in your life, and she will know exactly what you’re talking about. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s credible, difficult testimony in the Kavanaugh hearing (i.e. not a trial) this past...
Halloween costumes are glorifying sexual predators, and it’s disgusting.
Oh hey! In today’s New Thing To Be Rightfully Outraged Over we’re going to go with Halloween costumes that glorify sexual assault. Yeah, you read that right. Thanks to Mark Graham on Twitter, I was alerted to a GYN costume — which is cool. We love...
6 important reasons to talk to girls honestly about their bodies and sexual health. And no, you can’t say “vajayjay.”
When my oldest daughter was 17 months old, lying half-nekkid on the diaper change pad, she grabbed her genitals and said, BUTT! “No, honey,” I corrected. “That’s your…vagina.” Cough. Gulp. Eep. Deep breath in… Exhale. Phew. Why was it so hard? It made little...
How to discuss Dr. King’s I Have A Dream Speech – the whole speech – with your kids today, on its 55th anniversary.
Today is the 55th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which mean it’s also the anniversary of his incomparable I Have A Dream speech. We can’t think of a better way to honor the day than to share...
Our new hero: The police officer who breastfed a starving baby herself
I know I’m making the understatement of the year when I say that there’s been a lot of difficult news lately. Which is maybe why this viral photo of on-duty police officer Celeste Ayala breastfeeding a starving child at a hospital had me weeping into the...
Is Eighth Grade okay for middle schoolers despite the R rating? One parent’s view.
Last night, I finally saw Eighth Grade, hoping to screen the movie before seeing it a second time with my 11 and 13-year-old daughters. Tonight, thousands of you have the opportunity to see Eighth Grade totally free, at unrated screenings in every single state around...Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz!
We started Cool Mom Picks in 2006 to help make life cooler, easier, more organized, 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).
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