6 Helpful Resources For Parents

Resources That Provide Parents With Advice & Support

Helpful Products for New Parents

If you're expecting your first child and want to make sure you're fully prepared, be sure to add these to your checklist:

• A baby backpack so you can take your little one on-the-go
• Some baby wash to keep away germs & bad smells
• A bottle for when they get hungry
• If you have extra time to cook, a baby food maker is a good investment
• An entertaining play mat will keep a baby stimulated
• Keep track of precious memories with a baby book
• Some cute & comfy onesies
• A monitor so you can keep track of them without being glued to the nursery

9 Chapter Books Parents and Kids Can Read Together

1. The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman & Victoria Jamieson
2. The Trouble With Chickens by Doreen Cronin & Kevin Cornell
3. Saving the Team by Alex Morgan & Paula Franco
4. A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry & Mónica Armiño
5. The Book of the Wise by J.T. Cope IV
6. No Cream Puffs by Karen Day
7. Scary School by Derek The Ghost & Scott M. Fischer
8. Mo: The Talking Dog by Michelle Booth
9. Nick and Tesla's Secret Agent Gadget Battle by Bob Pflugfelder & Steve Hockensmith

Parenting in the Modern World

In Depth

Raising children can be both terrifying and wondrous, and oftentimes parents need support for their little bundles of joy. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to make the process of raising a child less daunting and more manageable. Here, in no particular order, are six resources that can aid you no matter where you are in your parenting journey.

First up, in the #1 spot is Honest Mum, a blog started by former director Vicki Psarias while she was on maternity leave. After finding blogging to be both empowering and rewarding, she made it her mission to help mobilize other mothers who are often disregarded in the workplace. In 2018, she published her debut novel Mumboss, which went on to become a number one bestseller on Amazon.

Vicki shares writings on her life as a mother, her opinions on culture, style, travel, and beauty. She has a section of her website dedicated to blogging tips, and another where she interviews impressive women. She also shares healthy food and drink recipes. After writing about her experience of a traumatic birth, Vicki was contacted by thousands of women who had been helped by her courage and vulnerability in sharing this story.

Vicki shares writings on her life as a mother, her opinions on culture, style, travel, and beauty.

#2 on our list is Equally Shared Parenting, a web-based resource for parents who have made a conscious decision to share equally in the raising of their children, household chores, breadwinning, and time for recreation. This lifestyle stands in sharp contrast to traditional marriages, where one parent is responsible for the entirety of childcare and household tasks, and it is practiced by a growing number of couples.

The website was founded by a married couple practicing equal parenting who wanted to start a global conversation. It offers tools that help interested parents to assess their own family's equal sharing status, and real life stories from parents who exemplify this lifestyle. In 2010, they also published a practical, how-to handbook about this style of parenting.

At #3 on our list is Center for Parent & Teen Communication. Established in 2017, it offers practical, science-based strategies for strengthening family connections and building youth prepared to thrive after adolescence. CPTC creates multimedia content rooted in decades of research on effective parenting and strengths-based communication techniques. It covers a range of topics geared towards promoting teens to become their best selves.

Established in 2017, it offers practical, science-based strategies for strengthening family connections and building youth prepared to thrive after adolescence.

CPTC's materials can be accessed through articles, videos, podcasts, Q&A interviews, and a popular "Parenting in 100 Words" series. Its weekly newsletter delivers easy-to-use tips straight to your inbox, and it maintains an active social media presence. It also educates parents, professionals, and teens to effectively communicate through workshops and speaking engagements. And CPTC conducts original research to determine how healthcare professionals can partner with parents to support adolescent well-being.

Next up, in the #4 spot, is You, Baby and I, a blog about a young South African woman's journey as a mother and entrepreneur. The author, Shan, gave birth to her first child at twenty-one and began writing shortly afterward to create community and support for other new moms. Shan writes about pregnancy, motherhood, travel, food, and lifestyle. She holds regular competitions where readers can win some of the products she endorses.

In 2016, Shan launched MomSays, a platform that brings together a wealth of knowledge and experience from moms around South Africa to help parents filter through overwhelming lists of baby products. This online community provides mothers an opportunity to voice their opinions, connect with brands, and win prizes. It has categories for baby products related to travel, hygiene, nutrition, and toys.

It has categories for baby products related to travel, hygiene, nutrition, and toys.

#5 on our list is Pennies of Time. This nonprofit's purpose is to be a resource for families to rely on while raising kind kids that are compassionate problem solvers. Embracing the reality of busy lives and schedules, Pennies of Time encourages families to integrate a simple, ten-minute kindness experience into their routines each day, such as having a conversation, reading a book, watching a video, or doing a simple act of kindness.

Pennies of Time provides doable and effective strategies to end entitlement, develop empathy, and fine-tune problem-solving skills. Its website includes suggestions for children of all ages, from preschool to teenagers. One of its most popular suggestions is putting together a kit filled with supplies for acts of kindness. It also hosts The Kindness Academy, which has free and low-cost resources and courses designed to take the complexity and burden out of teaching kids to be kind and think of others.

And finally, at #6, we have The Anti-June Cleaver. The title of this blog refers to the mother from Leave it to Beaver, and the author, Regan, places herself in opposition to this archetype of 1950's suburban parenting. Instead, she describes herself as a crunchy mom of two widely-spaced sons. She started the blog as a way to share her passion for cloth diapers, babywearing, breastfeeding, and being less wasteful.

She started the blog as a way to share her passion for cloth diapers, babywearing, breastfeeding, and being less wasteful.

Today, the blog has evolved to focus on family-oriented content about raising boys. Topics include easy meals for busy families, easy crafts and D.I.Y., kids' books for boys, and fun things to do with kids in New England. Because Regan's sons have more than a decade between them, she is able to offer helpful tips for all ages and stages. And if you happen to be raising children of your own with a large gap between them, she has advice for that too.