Covid-19 and Quarantine Archives

10 fun just-because cards for a friend who could use a little pick-me-up right now. It’s hard out there.

by Caroline Siegrist | Cards + Stationery, Living

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.

by Liz Gumbinner | Health, Fitness + Wellbeing, Kids, Tips + Tricks

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?

by Kristen Chase | Thinking : Parent

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.

by Kristen Chase | Tips + Tricks

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...

Where to find at-home rapid Covid tests, kid-sized KN95s, and other essentials you may need before fall

by Caroline Siegrist | Health, Fitness + Wellbeing, Tips + Tricks

At-home rapid Covid tests isn’t the only thing we’ve been on the hunt for lately. With cold and flu and yes, yet another Covid-19 season upon us, I’ve been making a list of a few essentials so that my family isn’t scrambling if we do come down...

Barbie honors real-life healthcare heroes and wow, more stories like this please.

by Liz Gumbinner | Doing Good, Toys + Playthings

If the Barbie #ThankYouHeroes initiative isn’t the epitome of our times, in the best possible way, I don’t know what is. Barbie has added all kinds of famous role models to their collection in recent years, and now they’re honoring some global women...

The single most important thing your kids can do after they’ve been vaccinated from Covid-19

by Liz Gumbinner | Health, Fitness + Wellbeing, Thinking : Parent

I can hardly express the relief and utter joy we’ve felt over the past few weeks, since my teens got their first Pfizer vaccines against Covid-19. The feelings increased substantially since their second shot — knowing they can safely see friends, go to the...

10 cool vaccination t-shirts that let people know, even when you’re walking around (safely) without a mask.

by Liz Gumbinner | Fashion, Health, Fitness + Wellbeing

Vaccination t-shirts are more than a trend, they may be kind of important to you. I have seen so many people tell me that they are thrilled to be vaccinated, they’re ready to take off their masks outside or with friends — but they don’t want people...

Judith Warner on “that article” about adolescents getting through the pandemic | Spawned Ep 234

by Liz Gumbinner | Books for Adults, Podcast

Last week, my entire social network (online and off) buzzed loudly about author Judith Warner’s New York Times article about adolescents and the pandemic, Stop Calling It a Lost Year. Parents had very strong opinions! Especially those who didn’t actually...

5 clever and safer ways to blow out birthday candles during Covid-19

by Christina Refford | Party Ideas, Tips + Tricks

I saw a recent Twitter thread that asked about all the things we may never go back to since COVID-19: Eating from a buffet. Trying on makeup samples. Shaking hands. And one that comes up time and again is that time-honored tradition of blowing out the candles on a...

Hi! We’re Kristen + Liz!

Kristen Chase + Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks

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.