Americans are favoring charitable giving over commercial gifting these days, and CharityGiftCertificates.org offers a way for the socially conscious to think outside of the gift box with a pioneering, recipient-designated charity gifting service.

From the moment they can string together a simple sentence, kids seem to develop an inherent ability to ask questions that can't always be answered on demand.

Father's Day is nearly upon us, which means it is time to think of something fun for the father that isn't yet another soap-on-a-rope, mug or tie.

As parents know all too well, organization is key when it comes to the workplace. Carrying that principle over into every day, kid-filled family life however, can seem like nothing more than wishful thinking.

When it comes to dishing out natural disasters, Mother Nature can rival the severity of any two-year-old's temper tantrum. And, while moms are often armed to the teeth to keep unpredictable behavior at bay, most would probably agree that their cache of environmental ammo is severely lacking.

Guts and glory is a good way to describe the whole labor and delivery process, considering that moms come out of the 16-hour plus ordeal with serious aches, pains and plenty of stretch-marked war wounds while dads get all the pain-free glory - bestowing the time-honored family name upon the newborn babe.

Technology and trendy are not always mutually exclusive, at least when it comes to most event management web sites that more often that not, offer bland cookie cutter invitation templates that take frumpy and try to slap on fabulous.

Believe it or not, children's lunches create more than 3.5 billion pounds of garbage each year, which amounts to an astounding 18,760 pounds of trash annually from an average sized elementary school, and that's not even counting the extra goodies your kids sneak in when they think you're not looking.

With all the Mother's Day gift guides out there, we love the one at Cool Mom Picks. The picks are completely cool (by definition we suppose) and many of them support indie and mom-run businesses.

Childhood summer vacations held the promise of en masse bike rides, sunny afternoons spent at the community pool, backyard Barbie parties and plenty of dusky evenings catching fireflies and crickets. And, who could forget the youthful metabolism that came along with those idyllic days, fueled all the more with sugary candy necklaces, fruity lollipop rings and sticky gummy bracelets.

April showers may bring May flowers, but those seemingly innocent little rains can also pack a stone-cold punch more suited for grizzled boxers than garden parties, not to mention more sniffles than you can shake a budding stick at.

Ok, so your fridge can't tell you that there's only one paltry swig of milk left in the jug or that the bag of mesclun salad you have in the crisper is on the fast track to compost. But with Cozi, it can tell you which family member will be AWOL next Tuesday so you make sure the dog gets let out,

If Rosie the Riveter were around today, she'd probably be a high-powered woman of the workforce, balancing both work and play with equal amounts of skill, dexterity, the occasional happy hour, and of course, an elite social circle of of like-minded, motivated movers and shakers, like those found on The Glass Hammer.

Every mom gets that sinking feeling when she hears terrible coughing, sputtering and wheezing - not from the kids, but from the family car.

Flip on any news channel, and our current economic pitfalls sound more like the convoluted plot to a dramatic daytime soap than the foundation of our country's livelihood. Traders are pulling out their hair as stocks plunge, Wall Street execs are seeking a serious bailout, the President is scrambling to turn the whole situation around, and as a result, the general population is tightening their purse strings.