COVID in the house: How to best prepare yourself and your family
After two and a half years, we finally had COVID in the house. I’m certainly grateful for science (we’re all fully vaccinated and boosted) because the folks (including me) who were infected had relatively mild cases. And while I knew that at some point 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...
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...
Pandemic fails, data-driven parenting, and how to make better decisions for your family, with author Emily Oster | Spawned Podcast episode 262
In the course of our parenting lives, we make a whole lot of decisions, so when I read Emily Oster’s most recent book The Family Firm, which offers a very smart, data-driven method to decision making, I really wanted to chat with her on our Spawned podcast. But...
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...
10 fun just-because cards for a friend who could use a little pick-me-up right now. It’s hard out there.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how to support my fellow pandemic parents, and I’ve landed on sending some funny, “just-because” cards as a start. To be clear, I think every parent who’s survived the past 18 months deserves a...
The one trick to make sure your child’s face mask fits properly, to comply with the brand new CDC recommendations.
After 18 months (sigh) it’s now clear that we’re past the point of “any mask is better than nothing” for preventing Covid spread, especially with the Delta variant here. In fact, just this weekend, the CDC issued new, specific recommendation...
Mask mandates, the Delta variant, and back to school: Who will protect our children?
I thought this back to school year was going to be different than last year. I think everyone did. Last year, I took all of my kids out of school and placed them in a cyber school. A couple did well. A couple did not. But we all had the hope that with vaccines,...
Parents are broken. Here are 5 things a therapist says we can do right now to manage our stress.
Over the last 24 hours, this pandemic has caught up to me. I’d been doing pretty well, navigating cyber school with my kids last year along with work adjustments and managing my mental health through it all. But this back to school season has officially taken...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.
Holiday Gift Guide!
The Ultimate Guide to Gifts for Kids!
Thanksgiving Recipes + Last-Minute Cooking Help
Thanksgiving Crafts + Ideas
Our Podcast. (It’s won awards and everything!)
Best Baby Gifts of the Year
Tech Tips for Parents
Support for Ukraine
