Big Kid
Dear Dumb Diary Books: are they age-appropriate?
Mir reviews the breakout novel of this popular tween girl book series. Is it right for your daughter?
Big Kid
Pretty Little Liars Books: appropriate for tweens?
Is your daughter asking you for this book but the cover makes you cringe? Well don’t judge a book by its cover. Let Busy Mom judge for you instead.
Big Kid
The Clique Books: appropriate for tweens?
Is this popular book title on your daughter’s Holiday Wish List? Well, let us tell you if it’s a purchase you should or should not consider.
Holidays
Best Personalized Holiday Gifts
Do you love personalized gifts? Yeah, we do too. I think the only recipients that don’t are re-gifters and tweens.
Holidays
Best Holiday Hostess Gifts
Since the holiday party season starts this week we wanted to help you out with some hostess gift ideas that will guarantee a return invite next year.
Holidays
How will your holidays be affected by the economic crisis?
I’m not happy about the economy, needless to say, but I’m really looking forward to this year’s Christmas. We won’t be buried under mountains of presents, but we’ll be together, and that’s pretty great.
Pregnancy
How to Survive the First Few Weeks of Motherhood With Some Semblance of Your Sanity
And, yes, one of our tips is to wear a sling. BTW– this was written before the infamous Motrin ad debut.
Activities
Make Your own Castle
Peek into a fun weekend activity of making cardboard structures.
Relationships
“Motrin Moms” and the Case of “MotrinGate”
I am so tired of babies being equated to accessories. Yes, there is a baby boom happening in this country but it has nothing to do with Brangelina. Parents are not having babies because it’s fashionable.
Young Child
Do we expect too much from our kids?
Putting undue pressure on your child—and yourself—can lead to stressed-out, shrieky parenting, which will encourage nothing but defiant behavior.
Activities
Have a Garage or an Estate Sale
Make some extra money ahead of the holiday season. Plus, there are other surprise benefits too!
Activities
Go Play in the Leaves
Enjoy the fiery autumnal backdrop.
Holidays
Best Holiday Gift for 2008: Today’s NY Times cover as a puzzle
You can have almost any NY Times cover made into a high quality 400-piece jigsaw puzzle. Won’t today’s cover just look oh so beautiful?!
Parenting
Mother Judgment and Patience
Bethany of BethanyActually shares a moving personal story about mother judgment, patience and simple acts of kindness to other mothers. We are all in this together. Thank you Bethany. A must-read.
Activities
Host a Shadow Puppet Theater
Welcome to our new column where we look for inspiration on the web by looking at what families did last weekend.
Activities
Organize Halloween Candy into Beautiful Decor
Very smart and easily done with other household items.
Baby
Cutting the Cost of Child Care
Lisa Belkin of the Motherlode Blog at the NYT steers the conversation in the right direction on options available to parents to cut their child care costs in this economic downturn.
Your Life
What do you think will happen on Election Day?
Alice looks into her crystal ball and sees HER Election Day 2008.
Holidays
Classic Books Gone Pop-Up
We think pop-up books are a great way to enliven a classic tale without, you know, renting the movie.
Holidays
For Halloween, be a Do-Gooder!
UNICEF makes it easy and turn-key to turn your grim reaper or whiny princess into a do-gooder!