working parents Archives | Cool Mom Picks

The GenX midlife crisis: It’s real, you’re not alone, and it’s not your fault. | Spawned Ep 207

by Liz Gumbinner | Books for Adults, Podcast

This week on Spawned, I have a fantastic, encouraging conversation with Ada Calhoun, prolific author and writer, who’s always got her finger on the pulse of culture. Her latest book, Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis (from Amazon,...

6 tuition-free classes that help your teens learn online this summer — without you standing over their shoulders.

by Cool Mom Staff | Kids

Over the last few months, we’ve shared some informative posts to help the newbies among us succeed more with homeschooling — or more accurately, helping us to guide our kids through the at-home learning they’re getting from their schools. So much has...

Joy Cho on encouraging creativity in kids, even if you’re not creative yourself. | Spawned 191

by Liz Gumbinner | Podcast

I have wanted to talk to Joy Cho, the founder and creative director of Oh Joy! for oh…about forever. When I think of creativity, style, and design, she’s one of the people who pops into mind first — and with a half-million Instagram followers and 13...

Cards honoring women’s achievements beyond motherhood and marital status. (Shocking, I know.)

by Liz Gumbinner | Cards + Stationery

I just got wind of Statement Cards, a new line of greeting cards designed to honor women’s successes beyond the traditional congratulatory occasions. You know, like engagements, weddings, pregnancy and childbirth. Not that there’s anything wrong with any...

How can we prioritize what we love when we’re so damn busy? | Spawned Ep 172

by Cool Mom Staff | Podcast

Back in January, we spoke with Jake Knapp about making time for the things we love. In other words, prioritizing.(Way better word than “balance,” don’t you think?) Jake offered outstanding tips for making sure your days and weeks and years are spent...

Working mom guilt: It’s not you, it’s the system | Talking with Katherine Goldstein | Spawned Ep 157

by Cool Mom Staff | Podcast

This episode of the Spawned Parenting Podcast is all about the new generation of working mothers in America, featuring a guest who knows a whole lot about it: Award-winning journalist, author of the viral anti-mom workplace bias article we all still talk about, and...

Can astrology help you find more direction in life? It can when you look at it this way. | Spawned episode 148

by Cool Mom Staff | Podcast

Whether you’re a skeptic, an astrology devotee, or just curious about the science behind it, we had the most fascinating chat with Mimi Truong, a life coach, trained lawyer by background…and an astrologer. She combines strategic coaching expertise with her...

How do you know if you owe nanny taxes? This company can help, big time | Sponsored Message

by Cool Mom Staff | Helpful Services

This is a sponsored message from GTM Tax time is stressful enough for families, let alone trying to figure out the deal with nanny taxes you might owe for your regular childcare. In a nutshell: if you pay your nanny or caregiver more than $2100 each year —...

The parental leave pledge that’s long overdue: How to help make it happen

by Caroline Siegrist | Doing Good, Thinking : Parent

We all write so much about work-life-parenting balance… and what a tough balance it is. If it even exists. So I was thrilled to find out about the Pledge Parental Leave initiative that’s coming to an employer near you. Well, hopefully. Pledge Parental...

One brilliant, simple thing you can do right now to help end working mom guilt | Spawned ep 124

by Cool Mom Staff | Podcast, Tips + Tricks

Working mom guilt is something every working mom has experienced in one way or another. And basically, it sucks. However, we’ve always heard that guilt is the most useless emotion — and now, consider us schooled. On this week’s episode of Spawned, we...

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).