• Whether we see them as role models or cautionary tales, these celebrity parents made their mark on the last decade, leaving us with a lasting impression.

  • De-stress with these tips from Kelly Ripa, Keisha Whitaker and Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss!
    - Julie Klappas and Lyss Stern, BettyConfidential.com
    Sometimes all a mom has is ten minutes to recharge before the next dropoff, pickup, grocery run or playdate. For their book, If You Give a Mom a Martini … 100 Ways to Find 10 Blissful Minutes for Yourself, authors Julie Klappas and Lyss Stern interviewed both famous and regular moms to come up with dozens of mini me-time break ideas, from rearranging your family's Netflix queue so your movies arrive first, to ditching your husband and kids at the mall and sneaking into a store with a giant massage chair. Here, three well-known moms confess what they do with their "perfect ten" time:

    Read Find Your Inner Child

    Kelly Ripa, mother of three and co-host of Live with Regis and Kelly:
    "Judge for Yourself"

    For a great ten-minute break, I love to get in the kitchen and whip up a really complicated recipe from Mastering the Art of

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  • My husband is Jewish and I'm Catholic so we have a lot of holiday celebrations at our house. The celebrating part is great, but the piles of gifts for the kids is ridiculous. I'm sure my husband (although he hasn't said it) doesn't want us diminishing Hanukkah excitement for kiddos too young by not giving the kids small gifts each night. And I was raised with the belief that a pile of gifts under the tree and a full stocking is the best part of the season - but enough is enough. Eight nights of gifts followed by a visit from Santa (not to mention, two sets of Grandparents) has us drowning in toys/clothes/socks. How can we stop the madness without taking the presents out of one celebration or the other?

    - We Need More Closets!

    Dear Closets,

    If you want less merchandise in the house, you and your husband are going to need to make some edits to your respective nostalgic expectations. You'll have to give up the idea that Christmas is only Christmas when Santa's generosity

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  • Mompreneurs. Momfinitions. Momversations. "Mom" as a cutesy prefix or pun: it's taking over the, excuse me, momiverse. And it's driving me mom-nanas.

    Make no mom-stake: it's great - even revolutionary - to see the experiences of mothers named, recognized and shared, not just left to blend into the taken-for-granted background. With the grating exception of sanctimommy, most such mom-isms are well-intentioned, at least when they are coined and embraced, by hard-working mothers themselves. (What's a little momnesia among friends - or should I say, among one's momtourage? And who, really, can argue with momnipotence?) Some mom-isms are just neutrally and usefully, descriptive, like momfriend (the one you hang out with only because of your kid). And others are hilarious. My friend Stephanie calls herself a momivore, as in, "mother who eats whatever is left on her child's plate."

    Some of these punny expressions, however, only wind up patronizing. Rather than distinguishing our experience,

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  • by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor (Make Mine A Double)

    My five-year-old daughter is a poor sport. She cheats at Trouble, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, Go Fish and basically every game we play. I don't know if cheating is the right word, well, yeah, it actually is. She likes to change the rules in the middle of the game to suit her needs. Did the spinner land on the bird that eats two cherries from her bucket in Hi Ho Cherry-O? Well, better spin again -that one was on the line. Did she land on the top of a chute that would take her back a bunch of spaces in Chutes and Ladders? Oh that chute is broken. Does she have any sixes? Sorry, those aren't sixes they're fours. Go Fish.

    We've all heard the phrase "it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game" right? In the case of my five-year-old it's has very little to do with how you play the game and everything to do with winning. Case in point: last night Elby wanted to play one game with me before stories (a famous

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  • Image courtesy of Sketchy SantaImage courtesy of Sketchy SantaI cannot tell you how relieved--relieved!--I am to know my trips to Santa were not the only childhood disasters on record. All of these years, I thought it was just me and my "naughty list" mentality that made the experience of sitting on a stranger's furry knees so harrowing. I was terrified. Always. Between the slipping beard, the glittering eyes and the dirty white gloves, the only thing I ever knew I wanted was to be anywhere else.

    So thank you, Sketchy Santas, and the Flickr stream-turned-book Scared of Santa, Scenes of Terror in Toyland, for contextualizing the bane of my childhood. Thank you for the panicked looks of hundreds of other kids, for the Santas who alternate between men who are just trying to deal with their millionth screaming child and men who are just trying to deal with their millionth screaming child by mainlining whiskey. As fascinating as mug shots, each of these pictures reminds me that we are all human and fallible--well, the kids anyway--and that soon

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  • Is it wrong to teach our children about jolly old St. Nick, and set them up for heartbreak?
    - April Daniels Hussar, BettyConfidential.com
    I don't remember ever believing in Santa Claus. My mother believed whole-heartedly until she was quite old - maybe 9 or 10 - and, as she tells me, she was so utterly heartbroken and disillusioned when she found out the truth, that she wanted to spare me from the heartache. So, though I do have a photo of me on Santa's lap, I think I was too young at the time to really understand who he was supposed to be - and by the time I was old enough, I knew who he wasn't.

    Read Do You Believe in Magic?

    My 6-year-old daughter Isabella, on the other hand, is a believer. And this year, her letter to Santa breaks my heart. It's just a short list with a big note at the top that says, in her sweet, first-grader scrawl: "Dear Santa, What I really want this year is to go for a ride on your sleigh."

    Augh. Instant, wretched mommy-guilt. I immediately

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  • Hip Gifts Under $10

    By | Cool Mom – Thu, Dec 17, 2009 11:59 PM EST

    GettyGettyPut the "HOLLA!" back in "HOLLADAY" with this list of cute and cheap presents that cost less than $10. You'll find something here for each member of your family ... and maybe a little something for yourself (and your neighbor, your niece, the barista at Starbucks, your mailman and everyone else you want to gift, too!).


    Eric Carle Animal Colors Bingo
    Based on your child's favorite bedtime story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, this version of bingo features Carle's trademark collage-style pictures will draw your kid in with its bright colors and animals to play this fun-filled learning game.
    Buy It:     $9.99 at Target


    Mini Screwdriver Set
    For the practical guy (or gal!), here's a practically perfect present that he'll use all the time ... probably even on Christmas morning itself, putting together one of the kids' new toys. You can't screw up with this gift!
    Buy It: $7.99 at the Container Store

    Critter Collection Jumping Bugs
    A sophisticated take on the

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  • GettyGettyIt's really nice that total strangers go out of their way to remind you that you're still pregnant ... not! Snap back with one of these witty retorts next time someone asks, "Didn't you have that baby YET?" Maybe the look on their shocked faces will give you something to laugh about (because you definitely aren't laughing about your giant belly, swollen ankles or Braxton Hicks contractions).

    1. "What do you mean? I did have the baby! Do you think I still look fat?"
    1. "This pregnancy's been great for my hair, so I've decided to hold out until it's about waist length."
    1. "Not yet, but thanks for the reminder. No, seriously, thanks."
    1. "No, it's not on my priority list right now. However, I am trying to train for the fat belly Olympics. (Thanks to ParentsConnect-er, Srey12!)
    1. "Baby? Who said anything about a baby?"
    1. "I'm so glad you asked because you could really help me out here-go get a knitting needle and meet me back here in half an hour!"
    1. "This? Oh, this isn't a baby. I have
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  • Whether pleading (not helpful), screaming back (really not helpful), or ignoring the scene entirely (really, really not helpful), most parents will tell you that they live in fear of this moment. No one wants to be the parent of that kid or inconvenience other shoppers. That said, the solutions non-parents come up with aren't usually feasible. Leave the little ones at home every time you go to the store? Can't arrange it or afford it. Don't go into stores, period? Perfect. Can you get me some toilet paper on your way home for the next ten years?

    So what can a store-bound parent do? The video below offers some help. Given, it still won't help the mom whose baby hates the supermarket, but just listening to the calm delivery of these basic tips makes me feel a little better about venturing out.



    Here are my top three tips that actually seem to work:

    1) Arrange to go shopping when your kids are not tired or hungry.

    Yes, we adults have learned to ignore the urge to eat when faced with a

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