I love Netflix– but one thing I don’t love about it is that it can be impossible to sort through all the ‘meh’ and the ‘eww’ to find truly find the top Netflix movies, documentaries and TV shows. Netflix’s interface is clunky, and unless you know what you’re looking for — you’re pretty much out […]

When I was growing up, the one thing my mom always made sure we had was a housekeeper. Even when we were so poor we used a kerosene heater to heat our den and could only afford ten-cent packets of Kool-Aid to drink, we always, always, always had a maid. For those of you who […]

This morning before the sun rose, I woke to the infernal buzz of my alarm clock, stumbled out of bed, and blearily began going through the many motions that it takes to get two kids packed and dressed and showered and fed and ready to head off to two different schools on time. And I […]

You might have noticed by now that adult coloring books are a major trend. Okay… Wait. Now I’m getting a mental image of a coloring book with black-and-white drawings of Playboy Centerfolds, and that’s just all kinds of wrong. Let me rephrase that first sentence. Coloring books for adults are a big trend right now. They are so popular, […]

As most of you know, we recently put my eight-year-old son ‘Bruiser’ on an electronic fast for an entire week. That meant no television (except for our weekly Family Movie Night). No iPad. No iPhone. No video games. No computer (unless he was working on his ‘novel’). Nothing. Nada. Nilch. (Yes, I realize that nilch […]

Several months ago, one of my 11 year old daughter’s equine-obsessed friends introduced her to a website called Howrse.com. On this site, users breed horses and ponies and manage their own personal equestrian centers. It didn’t sound very interesting to me, but after checking out the site for myself and making it clear to my daughter that she […]

If you’d asked me a few years ago whether my kids would ever have a screen time problem, I would’ve assured you that in this house, screen time would never be an issue. After all, I’d read all the articles about how harmful too much screen time can be to a child’s development. I’d seen […]

Dear Teachers, As the end of the school year approached a few months ago, my Facebook feed began to fill with all of your jubilant updates, which mostly consisted of stuff like this… I laughed right along with you, teachers. You deserved a break! And the truth was, I was glad to be getting my […]

When I had my first child, I couldn’t wait to enjoy all the perks that came with being a new mom. After all, I’d spent nine long months anticipating my baby’s arrival- It was time to get this parenting show on the road! And so, almost immediately, I started taking my tiny daughter to story times. And puppet shows. […]

For several years now, my son has begged us to to buy him a trumpet. At first, we thought the request was a passing fancy, sort of like his plans to build a walking, talking robot out of old batteries and cereal boxes, or his dreams of opening a bookstore in our home filled with books he’d written, […]