11 of the coolest emoji accessories for back to school. Or any time of year!
If your kids are like ours, they still can’t get enough of emojis and emoji accessories, whether on their smartphone cases, their notebooks, or their name labels. Insert praise hands emoji here. With World Emoji Day coming up (it’s July 17!), and back to...
The best Amazon Prime Day deals that don’t look like leftovers from your grandmother’s yard sale
It’s Prime Day! Which means those of us savvy shoppers are kind of glued to our screens today, checking in just to see if there are any amazing deals on stuff we would be buying anyway. That being the operative phrase. Whether it’s kitchen goods, art...
3 cool no-lace gadgets that make school mornings easier
My youngest child is still learning to tie his shoes. He can get it right about 50% of the time — just enough to be absolutely confident he can do it himself with no help from me thankyouverymuch. As you can imagine, this makes it hard to get out the door on...
The cutest lunch box notes, whether your kids love Star Wars, Pokémon GO, or Dr. Seuss
Way back when my mom packed lunch for me, the brown paper bag always came adorned with a smiley face, a heart, or on days she was feeling really ambitious, a rough portrait of our dog, Maggie. And as a kid, it made such a difference, especially in the early days when...
5 tested tips for handling separation anxiety, from parents who have been there too
I know a little something about dealing with separation anxiety when it comes to young kids and school. Back when my kids were in preschool, this was my routine: drop them off at the classroom, peel around the corner and press my back against the wall, then wait...
It’s a lunch bag! It’s a place mat! It’s the answer to every germaphobe parent’s prayers.
While there are all kinds of kids lunch bags and boxes that I find are really durable and effective, I’ve long been a fan of the lunch bags from Built NY — in no small part because the size and styling means I can borrow them from my kids. And now...
Skateboarding to school just got a lot easier. And cooler.
When we lived in a big city, my kids loved to watch teens skateboarding to school. There was this effortless coolness to gliding along, flipping the board, tossing it over a shoulder, and hopping on a bus. If you think your kids might be a great age for rolling up the...
17 fun pencil cases for writers, book lovers and word nerds. Like us!
We love pencil cases! They’re where we put all our pencils! And pens, and earbuds, and erasers, and… pretty much anything that’ll fit. As our kids head back to school, we’re getting serious about corralling clutter, and if we can do it with...
What makes back-to-school gifts more special? We’re gonna go with llamas.
If you’ve done any back-to-school shopping lately, you may have noticed, like we have, that llamas are taking over the world. Quietly. And with deceptive cuteness because let me tell you, llamas mean business. The takeover may be inevitable at this point, so...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.
We're so glad you're here.
NEW: The Cool Mom Picks Book Club
Our Podcast
Answers to Parents’ Top Tech Questions
Our sponsors are cool. Support them!
Work with us!
“I need a parental control device for summer to limit online time for my kids”
“I have a later-in-life onset gluten intolerance. Help, please!”
Doing Good: We’re Supporting…
