When we asked our readers about your favorite Gen Z slang words , the second most popular answer was low-key. But that's only because the first most popular answer was what the heck are you talking about? So I reached out to my teens and…
Reading about this week's tragic death of Nex Benedict has been simply devastating. Nex was a perfectly normal, happy, loving and loved 16-year-old child, who was beaten to death by three older students in their Oklahoma high school bath…
When Ibi shared her New Year's Eve tradition with me, I was like...this is genius. How have I never done this? I need to do this! Whatever I can do to be out with the old and focusing on better things in the year to come sounds good to m…
I want to share a list of top organizations on the ground supporting the innocent people in Israel and Gaza tragically impacted by the war between Hamas and Israel. This is not a political post, it's a humanitarian one. But first, I want…
Our team at Cool Mom Picks jokes that we have a lot of children among us, but the truth is, we have quite a few divorces and separations among us too. That means we've had a lot of experience trying to achieve healthy co-parenting, havin…
There is so much good reporting these days, so many good op-eds, so many independent journalists and bloggers and substacks worth reading these days and I thought I'd share a few of the articles I've really found fascinating lately. I te…
This article was originally written in 2020 about the increase in tension between the US, Iran and Iraq. It was updated in 2021, with the riots in DC and violent insurrection at the US Capitol -- and now, February 2022 as we watch the in…
Diwali. Being the light we share. Guest contributor: Nirasha Kumar Growing up as a minority in South Africa, living under an Apartheid regime, I was forced to live only with people who looked like me, That meant that for me, the spirit o…
Today marks the very first Juneteenth since the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution to make Juneteenth a national holiday this week and it was quickly signed into law by President Biden on Thursday. It's amazing! So many of us grew…
I can hardly express the relief and utter joy we've felt over the past few weeks, since my teens got their first Pfizer vaccines against Covid-19. The feelings increased substantially since their second shot -- knowing they can safely se…
May 31, 1921, marks one of the darkest days in America's history. And yet the Tulsa Race Massacre isn't an event I ever learned in school -- and unfortunately most kids today don't either. The Burning of Black Wall Street can be a hard d…
I've always been a fan of graduation gift books . When my daughter graduated from high school five years ago, the headmaster gifted each graduating senior a book with a personal message inside -- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemp…
It means nothing. Absolutely nothing in 2021. &$#*# April Fool's Day! I mean, can't we just have one day when we are not terrified about something -- real or otherwise? So my April Fool's Day proposal is we just get rid of it. And that's…
The stories and photos I'm seeing in the wake of the Texas storm, some from close friends, are shocking. Right now, all 254 counties in Texas have been hit, with 2.5 million Texans still without power at the time of publishing. Many of t…
Considering this is a site dedicated to mothers and parenting, I would not be surprised to learn that you were one of the thousands (millions?) who read The Primal Scream interactive series on the New York Times this week. Compiled by Je…
My kids and I were glued to the TV last Wednesday, watching history take place on Inauguration Day. We were sobered by the national guard presence, excited about the achievements of our new VP Kamala Harris , and just so totally and comp…
I think I speak for everyone when I say that there should be a serum to fix what 2020 has done to us. And our faces. Yes, I know that scientists are a little busy developing COVID vaccines at the moment, but as soon as they're done with …
If you've been paying attention for the past four years -- and in particular the past week -- there's been a lot of dissection of phrases uttered by horrified, primarily white people in response to bigotry and racist violence. Phrases li…
This morning, as we wake up on our first Monday with President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris heading to the White House, I'm passing the mic. Although yes, of course, we had some things to say as well . I'm shari…
I'm in several politically-minded Facebook groups, and lately, the women there have been asking what everyone is planning to wear to the polls this year so we can identify each other. Some said they'll be in all blue, others will be wear…
This morning I woke up to the study that's making the rounds on Twitter: Nearly 2/3 of US young adults are unaware that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust -- some get the numbers wrong, some didn't know at all. Dig deeper into the surv…
I just read that nearly 30% of Americans sometimes, rarely, or never wear a mask in public and it makes me want to bang my head on something. Nothing too hard though, because our hospitals have been through enough and don't need the like…
Let's talk about the Confederate Flag, y'all. It's time. As I write these thoughts, I'm sitting at the exact location where Confederate soldiers met the "Federal Front Line" of the Union Army during the Battle of Franklin in the Civil Wa…
I know a lot of parents have jumped right into homeschooling their kids (or, schooling-from-home might be more accurate) so that they won't get too far behind in their studies. But with news that Virginia has canceled school for the rest…