What are your legal rights as a working parent? Resources and info you need. | Spawned Ep 101
Did you hear the one about the pregnant woman who wasn’t allowed to drink a glass of water on the job? If only this were an isolated story. That’s why, for all of us working moms, working dads, and working moms-to-be, we’re lucky to have someone like...
7 simple, sanity-saving tips for moving homes when you’ve got kids.
The holidays were a blur for me, and not for the usual reasons. I recently moved into a temporary 7-month rental while we do some much-needed home renovations to our home. And oh boy, after 13 years in one spot, was it a doozy of a move. Not only did I have to pack up...
The parents’ ultimate guide to snow day sanity with 34 genius snow day activities.
Are you in snow day hell, stuck inside with antsy kids, looking for some fun ideas besides staring at your Instagram Stories? We feel you! Don’t lose your mind looking for great snow day activities; start with these ideas, newly updated for 2018. We’ve got...
5 pro tips to help your curls last longer. Stay party-ready for days!
After spending a lifetime as the girl with the frizzy hair, bless the 21st century and its awesome hair products and techniques. Whether I’m looking for a chic holiday look with bouncy curls or waves, or a sleek blowout for everyday, I am grateful to the experts...
15 creative DIY holiday gift wrapping ideas that we love: Think outside the box. (Ha!)
I was really excited to spend a little time looking for easy, creative holiday gift wrapping ideas, especially as someone who blames her lackluster holiday gift wrapping on the kids (shhh). I’ve always wanted the gifts to look festive and pretty; I think...
7 tips to start caring for (gulp) aging skin: Confessions of a 40-something
I have been blessed my whole life with the gift of “can I see your ID please, Miss?” skin. (All credit goes to my mom and grandmother for that one.) But now for the first time, I am grappling with — cue the horror movie music — aging skin. I...
Are video games hurting our kids? Believe it or not…no. | Spawned 97
Parents have so many questions and concerns about kids and video games. Are they hurting our kids? Are violent games making kids more violent? Are they playing too much? Are certain games worse than others? How do we manage the time kids spend playing games —...
Feeling overwhelmed? Try this one-thing-a-day method to stay organized. You got this!
As a working mom of four kids, with a husband who often works from home too, our home has a tendency to be…out-of-control crazy. I love organization — the pages of Marie Kondo’s book are my happy place — but over the last year it seems that...
Moms of big families share 7 brilliant, time-saving laundry hacks.
Over the years, we’ve figured out plenty of tricks to make the whole laundry process a lot easier. Because oof, who wants to spend more time than we have to doing laundry? It presents a particular challenge for those of us with bigger families; Kristen has six...
What to say when you call your representatives (and why it’s not scary)
We’ve seen so many important issues rise to the surface in 2017, and with that, more people calling their representatives. But we also see people saying that it makes them nervous, or they don’t know just what to say. I can safely say that all of us here...
How to talk to kids about tragedy and natural disaster: Helpful tips and resources.
This has been a brutal month with consecutive natural disasters, many right in the contiguous US or close to home, and our hearts are so heavy. There’s Hurricane Harvey‘s devastation in Texas, Hurricane Irma pounding Florida and the Virgin Islands, and now...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).
But we did.
And we still love what we do every single day.
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