• Last updated 3/20/13 by mamazee

My single motherhood came to me as the biggest, most shocking, life-altering, amazing, unfathomable surprise I have ever been dealt. I am a single mother, but not in the way that some women are– I wasn’t married with a career, then divorced & now sharing custody, nor did I choose the way that some women do to be single mothers by using donors, nor have I suffered the pain of losing a truly committed partner that forces some women into single motherhood.  I am a single mother in the sense that I was working an $8-an-hour job at a library, spending time with a... read more

• Last updated 3/8/13 by mamazee

One of my best memories from childhood: picking out my Aladdin lunchbox each year of elementary school. I especially loved my metal Popeye lunchbox…although I’m pretty sure it’s now moldering in some landfill, because my mom was not the type to keep things hanging around, and it was the ’70s…the decade when there was actually a commercial that urged people to throw their empties into the nearest pond. I’ve grown up, but Aladdin has along with me…they have a great line of recycled and recyclable reusable food storage containers. And they’ve launched the... read more

• Last updated 1/7/13 by Cynthia Mosher

This giveaway has ended. The randomly chosen winner is Amy, comment #331. Congrats! You will be emailed. If you didn’t win you can still grab up some great LunchBots on their website! – Win a set of 4 LunchBots stainless steel lunch containers! One each of our most popular items including: -Blue Uno – The perfect container for packing a sandwich, sushi, burrito — your favorite lunch to go. -Orange Duo – The ideal container for snacks. It has a divider for crackers and cheese, fruit and nuts, and more. -Yellow... read more

• Last updated 1/26/13 by Cynthia Mosher

“Happy. Mother. You can really use both words in the same sentence” is the tag line to Meagan Francis’s popular blog, The Happiest Mom. Now this Michigan-based mom of five has a book out by the same title, The Happiest Mom: 10 Secrets to Enjoying Motherhood. As part of a cyberspace book tour, Meagan is visiting Mothering Outside the Lines this week. Though I haven’t finished her book yet, I’ve enjoyed what I read so far (full disclosure: the publisher sent me a review copy) and I’m delighted to have her here! Today she writes a guest post about finding easy ways... read more

• Last updated 7/17/09 by Mothering Editorial

Josh Golin is the program manager at the of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, an organization a national coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration.CCFC supports the rights of children to grow up—and the rights of parents to raise them—without being undermined by rampant consumerism. CCFC is headquartered at the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston.January 2007 Putting the Book Back in Book Fair... read more

• Last updated 1/21/10 by Mothering Editorial

Here's an example of how to explain your gift preferences to friends and family. Dear Relatives and Friends: We appreciate how much you love our/my children, and, as you know, we are trying our best to raise them to respect and revere the world. This year, for holidays and birthdays, please join us in our efforts to raise strong kids by resisting the urge to buy the commercialized clutter advertised on TV. Here are some different gift ideas: Spend time together. Activities need not be exotic. A trip to the fire station, a performance, or a trip to... read more

• Last updated 11/2/12 by Melanie Mayo

This week I’m going to answer a question that many moms get asked at least once a week. Imagine the usual scenario:  Your little darling is screaming in the check out aisle.  He won’t let go of the magazine that he just grabbed somehow with his sticky hands, and, oh, he just ripped the magazine.  Wonderful.  And he NEEEEEDS that chocolate bar, and also the cough drops hanging from that clip.  You are keeping a smile pasted on your face.  You try reason.  Fail.  You try ‘toddlerese’.  Fail.  You try bribery, but not even that is working today.  And the lady... read more

• Last updated 1/26/13 by Cynthia Mosher

You might know Kris Bordessa from her fabulous books for kids: Team Challenges, which is a book of cooperative trust-building games, Tools of the Ancient Greeks, and Great Colonial American Projects You Can Build Yourself, to name a few. Or you might recognize her as a travel resource for all things affordable in Hawaii. Kris (whom I’ve known for years in cyberspace but never met in person) has started a new project. Her new blog, Attainable Sustainable: Reviving the Lost Art of Self-Sufficiency, helps readers take the small steps towards doing more projects... read more

• Last updated 11/18/11 by Mothering Editorial

By Katherine Horvath Web Exclusive About a month ago, I did something which shocked my husband and dismayed my children: I unplugged the television and told them that I didn't want it on anymore. I was tired of the non-stop stream of commercial advertisements seeping into my family's heads, tired of hearing my four-year old son pad down the steps in the morning only to proclaim, "I want to watch something, put a program on for me". But most of all, I wanted to begin teaching my son to read and write, and I had read that the best way to do so was by ... read more

• Last updated 3/13/13 by mamazee

This is my kids’ last week of day camp, which leads me to really grok that school is indeed right around the corner. In the spirit of back-to-school prep, I’ve rustled up some truly snazzy reusable lunch box-n-bag options as part of today’s A la Mama blog giveaway. 1. Laptop Lunch 2.0 “Alien” Bento Box set: 2. Fleurville Cocoa Stripe Lunch Buddy: 3. And the “Orbit” Go Green Lunch Box: To enter, please leave a comment below, with your preference (you can list all three in order of preference, too). Good... read more