Last season, my family discovered the Disney Channel show Andi Mack and we were instantly hooked. This series for tweens and young teens pulled us in with its smart writing, well-developed characters, and diverse cast. But after the rece…
As an adoptive mom, I'm committed to fighting against Trump's new tax bill that, among other things, eliminates the essential adoption tax credit for families. Here's why. Adoption is expensive. Like, crazy expensive. While it's 100% wor…
When you're going to film a scene in A Bad Moms Christmas in balmy Atlanta, but it is actually supposed to take place in Chicago at Christmastime, you pack coats. And scarves. And boots. Maybe even more than a few pairs of boots because …
If you ask me, anonymous avatars on the internet don't need more license to shame parents and our children. But alas, a recent Lifehacker article by Patrick Allan explicitly asked non-parents to name their grievances against those people…
Boy Scouts of America made a huge announcement yesterday: starting next year, girls will be able to enroll in their Cub Scouting program, and by 2019 be qualified to earn the coveted Eagle Scout rank . And of course, there is much debate…
Earlier this week, I was introduced to the story of Cambridge, MA librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro, who graciously and thoughtfully declined to accept a box of Dr. Seuss books sent to her by Melania Trump as they were to a number of other hig…
As a fan of the original LEGO Movie and LEGO Batman , I admit I was a little skeptical about the new LEGO NINJAGO Movie. I wasn't very familiar with the NINJAGO franchise and wasn't sure if my 10-year-old daughter would be that into an a…
Crisp mornings and fall weekends mean one thing here in the South: football. After school we see the kids out on the field practicing, and neighbors are making plans to tailgate. And while my husband played football through middle and hi…
I still meet expectant moms from time to time who share, with trepidation, that their due date is somewhere around today and they’d prefer any other delivery date at all. So I tell them I understand. I tell them it’s my birthday. And the…
We are always so grateful to those class moms (and dads, of course -- let's get more of you!) who volunteer their valuable free time to do what's often a thankless job. So with school in full swing for most of us, or just getting ready t…
When tragedy strikes, we always try to follow Mr. Roger's timeless advice to look for the helpers . And as Hurricane Harvey continues to batter Houston, we've all been so moved by the efforts of the National Guard, volunteers, emergency …
I've only been a mom for five months, but it's long enough to know that mommy shaming is a very real thing. Whether it's the sidelong stare from a stranger while you breastfeed in public or the loaded question, Oh, your baby doesn't eat …
With a lot of concern around changing health care policy, tax increases impacting the middle class, benefit cuts to struggling families, and the fact that Americans already pay the highest birthing costs in the world, I was intrigued to …
Parents of kids with special needs are used to having to fight for their kids' rights. It's part of the parenting territory . But when my friend told me what happened to her deaf child at her softball tournament this week , I was shocked…
" Were your kids vaccinated for meningitis? " my father asked as I picked up the phone tonight. He's always asking me questions like this after seeing something or other in the news or on Facebook. He's a good Grandpa that way. "Sure," I…
In honor of the Fourth of July (happy 241, America!) I'm grateful to our friends at Tattly Tattoos who put together this lovely photographic series, in which they asked all different makers, creators, and entrepreneurs to describe what i…
This post is written by guest contributor Anna Caudill, Executive Director of PALS (Post Adoptive Learning Services) and adoptive mom of two. Recently, Dutch bandage company Hanasplast created a limited time box of Hearts bandages design…
This weekend, Senator Ben Sasse issued a response to address the (rightful) outrage around his Friday night appearance with Bill Maher. He stated that he should have spoken up when Maher unacceptably used the N-word. He tweeted that "jus…
Being a data nerd (as Spawned podcast listeners well know), every so often I find myself down the rabbit hole of Google Trends , a super interesting -- if somewhat frightening -- look at just what the world is searching for day to day. A…
When a dear friend of mine published this poem for Memorial Day, I gasped when I realized it was written by her 11-year-old son (and nephew of our own associate editor Christina) who I've known since he was a baby. Lucas has always been …
THE DANGER OF FIDGET SPINNERS is appearing all over our newsfeeds and splashing across subject lines flooding our inboxes. Hm, why are we not shocked? It was inevitable that the number of articles about the fidget spinner craze (hey, our…
Reading the results of today's WalletHub study on the best and worst states for working moms, well let's just say that this working mom's eyes are wide open: 70% of moms with children under 18 are employed, so this is info that really im…
Who among us hasn't sat around thinking, if I ran the world ... Well, I was recently asked and it took me, oh, about a minute to decide what I would do if I assumed the throne. Now of course I'd want to devote billions of dollars or poun…
Yes, lunch shaming is a thing , as I just learned from this New York Times article from Bettina Elias Siegel that is so disturbing, I had to stop physically shaking after reading it before I could come here and write this. Evidently in a…