Spawned With Kristen And Liz Of Coolmompicks

As we head into the holiday season with video games (and Fortnite) gifts topping our kids' wishlist, we're sharing one of our favorite Spawned episodes when we chatted with video game expert and author, Dr. Rachel Kowert. She discusses the benefits of video games, and when, if ever, you should be worried. Check out Dr. Kowert's book, along with the other links mentioned in this podcast, on our Cool Mom Picks podcast page. And we'd love to hear from you. Email us at spawned@coolmompicks.com, tweet us @coolmompicks #SpawnedShow, or hit us up on Facebook.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We both have gratitude on our minds right now. At a time that there is so much abundance -- food, gifts, parties -- and conversely, so many of us struggling with the season in general, it's so valuable for us to consider ways to help develop more gratitude in our kids. And honestly in ourselves. So this week on Spawned, you'll find a really honest, helpful (we hope!) conversation about how to be more mindful everyday gratitude, as a way to ground ourselves this holiday season and beyond, and to connect to the things that really matter. // Thanks so much for listening + subscribing! You can find show notes with links to all the info in this episode, including our cool picks of the week, on the Cool Mom Picks podcast page.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The toddler years come with quite a reputation for putting parents through the ringer. But thanks to this week's guest, Dr. Heather Wittenberg, aka The BabyShrink, you might be able to maintain a bit more of your sanity. She answers questions our readers and listeners shared with us on social media and well, we think you'll be glad you listened whether you have toddlers or not. And as always, we close out our show with our Cool Picks of the Week. You can find all the links from our show on our Cool Mom Picks podcast page. And we love hearing from you! Email us at spawned@coolmompicks.com, hit us up on Facebook, or tweet us with the hashtag #SpawnedShow.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We promised you an Election Day episode and well, we delivered. On this episode of Spawned with Kristen and Liz, we're chatting about the November 6 election and the big news: over 100 women in Congress! So what's next? How do we keep the momentum going? How do we keep our kids excited about civil service? We talk about this, as well as share our Cool Picks of the Week, in this week's episode. We love hearing from you! Drop us an email at spawned@coolmompicks.com, tweet us with the hashtag #spawnedshow, or come say "hello" to us on Facebook. And don't forget to visit us at CoolMomPicks.com!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a much needed self-care break that includes laughing until we cry (for real), Liz and Kristen take on some of the greatest Halloween debates among parents -- like, the legal trick-or-treating maximum age, suburbs vs city Halloweens, the best candy-booze pairings and, well, Whoppers. We need you to break the tie, so take a listen now! || Questions? Comments? Hit us up at spawned@coolmompicks.com, find us on Insta, Facebook or Twitter @coolmompicks. Thanks for listening and subscribing!  May you be blessed with all the Milky Way Darks this year. (Or, perhaps, Whoppers.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's an episode just for those of you too busy to listen to podcasts (ha): Amiyrah Martin of 4 Hats and Frugal joins us this week to share the most brilliant -- and kind of shocking, honestly -- time-saving tips and hacks to help us prioritize our families a little more and put more energy towards what's important. Meal planning in five-minutes a week? Planning your whole year in a single day? Count us in! And of course you can read more about all the stuff we talk about on the CoolMomPicks.com podcast page, and find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @coolmompicks. Thanks so much for listening + subscribing! (NOTE: this is a clean episode but there's one gently used b-word at the very very end if you have little ones over your shoulder.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you know cookbook author and food writer Catherine McCord of Weelicious and the creator of the One Potato family meal delivery service, you know she's all about making it more fun and easy to help get families eating together. Join us for a really lively chat, filled with honest anecdotes and helpful tips for those of us who don't necessarily live to cook (that's us!) She even schools us on benefits we never knew about frozen cauliflower...and her daughter does what with salt?  Listen to find out! || Thanks so much for listening to Spawned + subscribing! You can find more info about everything you heard here on the CoolMomPicks.com podcast page. And of course hit us up with questions any time at spawned@coolmompicks.com or find us on social @coolmpicks on Twitter, FB and Instagram.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When work is online, communication is online, entertainment is online and it's all 24/7...it can be hard to get offline! So today, Kristen is have a smart, nuanced, truly helpful discussion with tech health expert Dr. Mike Brooks for lots of tips, advice and some of the tough love we might need. He's the author of TechHappyLife.com and the new book Tech Generation: Raising Balanced Kids in a Hyper-Connected World and we think you'll get so much out of his smart, researched-based ideas for how to model good tech behavior for our kids...so they can be healthy tech users too.  || Find more info about everything you hear today on the CoolMomPicks.com podcast page, Questions or comments? Spawned@coolmompicks.com, or @coolmompicks on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you for listening! And for subscribing! (You are a subscriber, right? Of course you are!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Spawned, we're talking kids and nutrition. Which, TBH, is one of those issues that nearly universally stresses out parents of all kinds, whatever the age of our kids. Fortunately, we've got an expert to help us out: Dr. Tanya Altmann, who you may better know as just...Dr. Tanya from TV! Take a listen as she helps us with topics like parents' biggest nutrition struggles, how much protein kids really need, tips to avoid added sugars in processed foods, helping kids make better food choices when we're not with them, and why moderation is totally okay. Don't forget to subscribe and thank you so much for listening! You can find more info about all the info you heard today, including our cool picks of the week, on the Cool Mom Picks Spawned page. If you have questions, hit us up anytime: spawned@coolmompicks.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter @coolmompicks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Working mom guilt is useless -- or wait, is it? Well, consider us schooled! If you're a working mom (or even a working dad), we think you'll get SO much out of this discussion with Jessica Turner, author of Stretched Too Thin: How Working Moms Can Lose the Guilt. She's got some terrific tips on why guilt can actually be a good teacher, how to make more time for yourself and your (non-kid) relationships, and one brilliant, simple, super quick way to help you overcome the guilt that inevitably comes with being a working mom. || Thanks so much for listening, subscribing, and just being you! You can find all the links you hear about today on our podcast page on Cool Mom Picks. And if you have questions, comments or show ideas, reach out at spawned@coolmompicks.com or on social at @coolmompicks on Facebook and @coolmompicks on Twitter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've been wondering how much you should give your kids for an allowance, or when you should open their own bank account, hey, us too! Get the answers and a whole lot more on this episode featuring Beth Kobliner, a New York Times bestselling author, financial expert, and mom-of-3, who's tackling all the kids and money questions we could squeeze into 40-minutes. || Questions? Comments? Hit up up at spawned@coolmompicks.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter @coolmompicks. And find all the links from today's show on the podcast page on Cool Mom Picks. And hey! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Thanks for listening! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, as Kristen and Liz try (desperately) to get organized for back-to-school, we take a look at 5 top time-management techniques from experts, compare them, and analyze how they can be helpful to parents. Because we're all busy, yo! And anything that gets our to-do list done more efficiently so we can get back to the things we really WANT to do is good by us! Plus as always, we've got some great cool picks of the week. || Find more information about the info you hear in today's episode on our podcast page on CoolMomPicks.com or at bit.ly/spawnedcmp. || And of course if you have questions, comments, topic or guest ideas, hit us up! Spawned@coolmompicks.com, or @coolmompicks on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram using hashtag #SpawnedShow. Thanks for listening, friends! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we're so happy to be joined by NY Times Motherlode Sr Editor, and "How to Be a Happier Parent" author KJ Dell'Antonia to talk about....well, you guessed it! How to be a happier parent. Only there's no shaming here. No guilt. No OMG I AM DOING EVERYTHING WRONG AND WILL NEVER RECOVER! Just humor, great tips, a few honest confessions, and a reminder that we all do a lot of stuff right, so stop beating yourself up! \\ Comments? Questions? Hit us up at spawned@coolmompicks.com or visit @coolmompicks on Twitter, FB or Insta with hashtag #spawnedshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With back to school right around the corner, or already here for some of you, we're chatting with Dr. Catherine Pearlman, author of Ignore It! How Selectively Looking the Other Way Can Decrease Behavioral Problems and Increase Parenting Satisfaction. She's got so many awesome tips and tricks to help parents deal with all those difficult behaviors that drive us all batty, and seem to spike right around back to school, aka now. Got questions or comments for us? We love hearing from you! Please drop us an email at spawned@coolmompicks.com, hit us up on Facebook, or tweet us with the hashtag #SpawnedShow.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for one of our greatest hits Spawned episodes: Professional organizer Laurie Palau schools us on back-to-school organization tips and tricks that make this time of year so much more manageable. You'll love her! | Questions or comments? Hit us up @coolmompicks on social media or spawned@coolmompicks.com | And thanks so much for listening, subscribing to Spawned, and leaving so many incredibly positive reviews! It means a lot to us. (You guyyyyyys....) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can imagine how excited we were to discover our old friend Robert Mahar, previous owner of Mahar Dry Goods which we featured many times on Cool Mom Picks, was a contestant on NBC's new DIY craft show Making It. So we had to have him on an episode of Spawned to give us the scoop on the show, but more importantly, talk about how to help your kids and you find creativity. And as always, we close our show with our Cool Picks of the Week. Get all the links and information from our show over on our podcast page at CoolMomPicks.com. And if you've got questions or comments, we love hearing from you! Tweet us, drop us a comment on Facebook, or say "hello" on Instagram.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've probably all dealt with at least one mean girl in our lifetime, but now they're getting younger, and well, meaner. Our guest Katie Hurley, therapist and author of the new book "No More Mean Girls" helps us tackle this topic with smart tips and advice. Whether or not you're in the weeds with navigating challenging social situations with your kids, you'll definitely want to listen to this show, and grab a copy of Katie's book. You can get all the links from our show over on our podcast page at Cool Mom Picks. And be sure to hit us up on Facebook, Twitter, and email: spawned@coolmompicks.com. We love hearing from you!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whatever age your kids may be, we know that managing screen time and finding the benefits (and boundaries) is a huge issue with parents. So we're THRILLED to chat with Angela Santomero, the successful creator of educational programs like Blue's Clues, SuperWhy!, and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. She's out with the new book, PRESCHOOL CLUES: Raising Smart, Inspired, and Engaged Kids in a Screen-Filled World, and she is just filled with common sense advice, smart perspectives, and pro tips that help parents make good choices when it comes to kids and TV. Plus, we've got some outstanding cool picks of the week for the mind, face + body! || Questions or comments? You can find us @coolmompicks on Twitter, FB and IG, or hit us up at spawned!coolmompicks.com. Thanks so much for listening! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They're not mythical unicorns! Couples who work together actually exist. Lucky us, we got to chat with one of them on this episode of Spawned. We had a blast talking about balancing life in a love and work partnership with Tor Hyams, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and Lisa Rothauser, a singer, actor, and composer, who are currently working on a musical adaptation of the classic TV show, Green Acres. We think you'll appreciate their funny, frank conversations about a topic we know lots of people (including us) are curious about. We'd love to hear from you! You can email us at spawned@coolmompicks.com, tweet us with #spawnedshow, or find us on Facebook. And make sure to visit our podcast page on Cool Mom Picks for all the links from our show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

School's out, which means most of our kids are heading out for sleepaway camp, a few for the whole summer, and a few for just a week or two. There's even one going to Japan! (That's Kristen's oldest daughter). So, how do you decide if your kids are ready? How do you survive when they're gone? We're sharing our experiences on today's episode of Spawned, plus a super important Cool Pick of the Week that you won't want to miss. We'd love to hear from you! Drop us an email at spawned@coolmompicks.com, tweet us using #SpawnedShow, or swing by Facebook. And head over to the Cool Mom Picks podcast page to get all the links from the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices