Magazine

Two toddlers attempting to eat a wooden block while a tired dad watches

A Letter to Past Me About the Reality of Wooden Toys

Dear Tom of six months ago, You're currently standing in the nursery, aggressively arranging a set of aesthetically pleasing, neutral-toned blocks on a floating shelf. You're exhausted, operating on perhaps four cumulative hours of sleep, but you're deeply smug. You've...

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A messy living room floor with a half empty coffee mug next to a wooden baby play gym

The Honest Brand Ambassador Position Description For Parents

It's exactly 6:43 AM on a Tuesday, and I'm currently sitting on my hallway floor wearing a stained Nirvana t-shirt from 2004 and precisely one sock. I'm trying to bribe my four-year-old, Maya, to stop licking the baseboards long enough...

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A wooden and silicone bunny teether toy sitting on a coffee table next to a baby monitor.

Decoding the Bunny Teether: Why This Specific Shape Actually Works

"Put a wet washcloth in the freezer," my mother told me on a Tuesday. "Rub a tiny drop of whiskey on his gums," my uncle suggested on Wednesday. "You need a raw Baltic amber necklace to align his electromagnetic field,"...

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A dad pushing a baby in a warm stroller footmuff during winter.

Finding the Right Wintersack Kinderwagen (Without Boiling Your Baby)

On Tuesday, three different people gave me completely conflicting advice about taking my 11-month-old son outside in the Portland winter. My mother-in-law told me to bundle him in three layers of wool plus a down jacket, a neighbor in gym...

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Toddler wearing durable Scandinavian winter clothing walking through the snow

Why skandinavische kindermode labels survive the toddler years

I spent my first Chicago winter as a mom stuffing my son into a puffy fast-fashion snowsuit that made him look like a very angry, overstuffed marshmallow. He could barely lower his arms to his sides. When we finally made...

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Baby boy surrounded by organic muslin cloths and safe wooden toys

Real Talk on Geburtsgeschenke Jungs: Gifts We Actually Used

I'm literally sitting on my living room floor with a trash bag in one hand and a pair of kitchen scissors in the other, trying to aggressively dismantle a three-tiered "diaper cake" constructed entirely of newborn-sized diapers and thick blue...

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Baby strampler bedrucken custom onesie with safe ink

Baby Strampler Bedrucken: The Brutal Truth About Custom Onesies

I was standing in the blistering heat of a Target parking lot in mid-July, holding my screaming four-month-old oldest son, frantically trying to peel a stiff, sweat-soaked custom onesie off his bright red, angry chest. My mother-in-law had gifted us...

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A simple wooden stacking rainbow and block set scattered on a living room rug.

The Day We Banned Plastic: Why Wooden Toys For Age Two Actually Work

I was sitting on my living room rug at six in the morning on a Tuesday, armed with a tiny eyeglasses screwdriver, aggressively trying to extract a corroded AA battery from a plastic fire engine. This particular toy had been...

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A tired dad holding a silicone pacifier case while reading a contract on his laptop

Demystifying the Brand Ambassador Job Description for Parents

The biggest myth the internet ever sold to my generation is that getting paid to post baby photos is easy money. Currently, I'm hiding in our hallway with my laptop balanced precariously on a laundry basket because my eleven-month-old is...

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