Baby asleep on our latest trip.Last night my family of six rolled back into town, surviving a 20 hour (one way) road trip to sunny Florida all the way from gloomy Indiana. It's a trip I've personally taken yearly since I was a small girl, and over the years it's become a tradition my husband and I have passed down to our family. The only "negative" is that because of our family size and the cost of airline flights, we must drive instead of fly.

And while it's a marathon of a drive, I don't really dread it. In fact, with a little prep and planning, it can be actually fun! We manage just fine, because I always come armed with an arsenal of tips and tricks up my sleeve.

A few tricks I use when road tripping with my small children:

1. Leave before the sun rises.
I've found it makes the trip feel shorter if we can get a few hours down the road before anyone is begging for snacks, needs entertainment, or has to go potty.

2. Pack lots of fresh fruit.
For us, avoiding the junk food keeps the sugar highs (and lows) at

By Sierra Filucci, Common Sense MediaCommon Sense Media editor

My brother and sister are more than a decade younger than me, so they were often running around the living room while I was catching up on Days of Our Lives. Luckily they didn't pay much attention to the travails of Bo and Hope. But most siblings are closer in age, and if one kid is watching TV, the other is sure to join in.

So how do you find shows that mixed-aged kids will enjoy watching, but are still age appropriate for the younger ones? It's a challenge for sure, and families often find themselves pushing the younger sibling into uncomfortable territory -- or subjecting older kids to boring stuff.

There's really no perfect way to do this, but, like a lot of parenting advice, the best stuff often comes from asking around and learning what other parents do.

I turned to our online community, and asked folks on Twitter and Facebook for their faves for bridging the age gap. As usual, Common Sense users had great

Image: Joe Shlabotnik/Creative CommonsEarlier this week, super-model mom and television host Heidi Klum was lauded for rescuing her 7-year-old son, Henry, and two nannies from a riptide while swimming in Hawaii. People magazine reported that Klum made a statement saying that the three were pulled out into the ocean by a big wave. As someone who can see the ocean in the distance from my home, I am massively aware of its power, and there are few things scarier than a riptide or the similar rip currents. But what's scary about a riptide is that it can come on quickly and your natural instincts as to how to get out of it are what can actually make the situation gravely worse. Do you know the right way to get yourself and your family out of a riptide?

Read More: How to Stop Summer Swimming Sessions from Turning Deadly

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a riptide occurs when a tidal event creates an excess of water between the shore and a submerged sandbar. When the water reaches its maximum

© Jackie Tucker

By Brian Braiker
When Nia Vardalos, writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, left for New York to promote her new book this week, her daughter Ilaria looked up and told her, "Go get some kids adopted."

Vardalos is in town to discuss the release of Instant Mom, a book about her ten-year journey to motherhood. Equal parts memoir and adoption how-to manual, Instant Mom is as light and charming as it is profoundly moving in parts. In it Vardalos chronicles the heartbreak and disappointment of infertility, through which she endured 13 in vitro treatments.

"I had this sense of failure. I'm not one of those people who accepts facts," she says now. "I'm part of this generation of women who were raised by these amazing women who taught us we can expect to have it all."

But biology and Mother Nature had other plans for Vardalos.

With her husband of 20 years, actor Ian Gomez, she did some research into adoption and settled on foster-adoption rather than use a surrogate

First Lady Michelle Obama accidentally described herself as a single mom. Other moms whose husbands travel a lot say they can relate.It's a pretty easy slip to make, as any mom married to someone who travels a lot can tell you. During a TV interview yesterday, while talking about the need to improve access to nutritious foods for time-crunched urban families, First Lady Michelle Obama accidentally described herself as a single mom.

Also on Shine: How to Survive a Traveling Spouse

"Believe me, as a busy single mother—or, I shouldn't say single! As a busy mother… sometimes, you know, when you've got a husband who's president, it can feel a little single, but he's there!" she said during the interview with CBS News affiliate WCAX in Burlington, Vermont.

Related: Students Help Michelle Obama Plant the White House Vegetable Garden

Some people call it being a "sometimes single mom," and while plenty of actual single moms bristle at the idea, moms who are solo parenting part of the time say it comes with its own set of challenges.

"I can see how she feels that way," Kristen Chase, a columnist at Cafe Mom, told Yahoo!

When I found out that my dear friend, Kathy, was planning to have a home birth with her second child, I was so proud of her. My mother had my brothers and me at home back in the late 70s and early 80s, and I secretly dream of being able to give birth at home. It takes a special kind of woman to have the courage to do what these women did. I admire them with every womanly ounce of me. When I approached Kathy about sharing her amazing story, she was thrilled. Kathy is the type of woman who is always looking to help others, in any way she can. And she is passionate about her birthing experience, and eager to shine light on a subject that is often misunderstood. Here are 7 amazing photos from Kathy's home birth journey. - By Aela Mass

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What NOT to say to a pregnant womanAs I near the end of my second pregnancy (I'm currently 34 weeks) I can declare with assurance: people say the dumbest things ever to pregnant ladies.

I'd first like to point out that multiple people say nice things to me daily, and I really do try to focus on the positive rather than the negative. But we all know the negative comments are just so much funnier…in retrospect.

I am also totally 100% willing to admit that as a pregnant lady I am hormonal, oversensitive and prone to taking everything the wrong way. Maybe these won't even sound insulting to you!

Related: 10 reasons why he wants sex when you're pregnant

And know, as the person talking to a woman with child, you are fighting an uphill battle. Almost anything you say can and will be held against you. And that is why even a bright, sensitive, well-intentioned person can say the dumbest thing ever.

So if you happen to be one of the people who made these comments just know, I love you and I'm over it, but

5 nursery rhymes that will give you nightmaresIf you assumed nursery rhymes were for kids, you're not alone. That's what I always thought, too. And I know a thing or two about nursery rhymes because they're huge at my house. Or at least they were. I guess the triplets, at five (and a half, as they'd correct) are getting a bit too big for them. But we read them to our baby. And it won't be long till he finds himself right in the very center of the nursery rhyme demographic. Which, for what it's worth, I estimate to be around three-ish.

And I gotta tell you, despite the fact that the triplets loved the nursery rhymes, I did not. Well, at first they were fine, but my goodness did they ever start to bother me. I mean, a fella can only recite Humpty Dumpty so many times, you know what I mean?

But thanks to a little Internet research I recently conducted by visiting the site Nursery Rhymes Lyrics, Origins & History, I'm happy to report that nursery rhymes no longer bother me.

They disturb me.

Why, you might ask? Because they're not