Parent Hacks

Mother's Day disappointment? Honest advice for next year.

At Etsy: Mother's Day Card: Shark Attack, by Emily-Bell From Mother's Day fail? Lessons learned -- and honest advice for avoiding disappointment next year: "I hate Mother's Day." This, from a friend I ran into on the walk home from school. I appreciated her candor but couldn't help feeling sad....

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Your new favorite salad: Bacon, Egg and Asparagus on Tossed Greens

Delicious, satisfying, easy, beautiful, fancy enough for company. Even your Paleo and slow carb friends will appreciate this.

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Perfect hard boiled eggs, only faster!

You can steam eggs on the stovetop resulting in perfect hard boiled eggs in a fraction of the time. Here's how.

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Homemade mix recipes for baking, seasoning, and giving

Lynne passed along a pointer to "Mix It Up," a blog full of homemade cooking mixes -- recipes that are easy to put together with (mostly) natural ingredients.

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Manage your money just enough: create a simple filing system for your tax records

Part 1 of the series "Manage Your Money Just Enough": When it comes to a simple filing system, having a system in place -- any system -- lets you handle paper and information as soon as it comes in.

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Your money management tips are on the way

Photo credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net A little while ago I put out a hack request for your simple money management tips. Your response has been so great that it's taking me a while to organize and post your tips! I'm taking extra time with this series because I know that organizing finances,...

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Dry crazy straws with a drop of alcohol

Shannon's solution is much smarter than mine, which is to leave crazy straws sitting in the dish drainer for a week, and then throw them away because they smell musty.

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6 things you can stop doing now

From my new post at Babble: "Do less, enjoy more." There’s a symmetry to that line…a balance that’s so tantalizing in its simplicity. Unfortunately, it brings to mind another line: "Easier said than done..."

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HACK REQUEST: Organizing your finances

Let's talk about money systems. I want to hear about your just-enough-not-too-much approaches to finances.

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Spring cleaning is more fun when it's outside

An excerpt of my new post at Babble, "Screen wean! 8 fun and useful outdoor 'chores' to coax your kids outside."

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Communication is key to mindful smart phone use when the kids are around

Amy discovered a simple, respectful way to check her work email while spending time with her kids.

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Use cloth diapers as reusable Swiffer Sweeper pads

Swiffer Sweepers are convenient, but the disposable cleaning cloths get expensive and add to the landfill. Here's a quick idea for DIY reusable Swiffer pads.

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This scarf saves lives. Get it now before it's gone. Free shipping April 4-5 only!

You're one of the first people to hear about the Genet scarf, and so you have the opportunity to grab it now during the pre-sale before it sells out.

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I'm not a parenting expert, but I play one on...an awesome new video resource for parents

Kids In The House is a new video advice site for parents. In some ways it resembles a "video Parent Hacks": thousands of easily searchable short videos that focus on solving specific parenting problems. I'm one of the "experts."

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Streamlining school year routines and activities

In our second week hosting the HuffPost Parents Stress-Less Parenting Workshop, Christine and I are talking about school-year routines and activities.

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