The Mom Hour

"Simplify" has become one of the buzziest holiday buzzwords over the last decade, and today Meagan and Sarah are unpacking what that really means in their homes. Whether you really do want to scale back this season or whether, like us, you're just out to maximize magic and minimize stress, we hope you'll join us for Episode 30!

LINKS MENTIONED:

• Be The Best Parent You Can Be – FREE online parenting video series beginning this week!
• 5 reasons I’m not simplifying Christmas this year (updated) – Laura Vanderkam
• Holiday Episodes of The Home Hour
• Create a Calmer Holiday with Doña Bumgarner (Episode 44)
• Saving Money at the Holidays with Amy Clark of MomAdvice.com (Episode 9)
• Simplifying the holidays with Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom (Episode 7)
• Low-Stress Traditions with Sarah Powers (the first time we ever recorded together! Episode 14)
• Christmas at Home with Meagan & Sarah (last year’s holiday chat – Episode 46)
• Living Well on Less with Amy Suardi of Frugal Mama (Episode 5)
• Blogging and Life with Rebecca Woolf of Girl’s Gone Child (Episode 16)
• Essays and posts we’ve written on creating holiday joy and enjoying the season
• Holidays, The Easy Way (a four-part series on The Happiest Home)
• Why Holiday Traditions Aren’t Mom’s Responsibility (Sarah for The Huffington Post)
• Believing in Santa, for now (Meagan for The Washington Post)
• The Reason For The Season? Joy. (Meagan for The Happiest Home)

MORE HELPFUL LINKS:

• Visit our website
• Check out deals from our partners
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join our private listener group on Facebook (be sure to answer the membership questions!)
• Sign up for our newsletter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From helping a toddler adjust to a new baby, to coping with bickering, to creating a family culture that honors both individual kids and sibling relationships, parenting siblings is no small task. Join us for Episode 29 of The Mom Hour, where we get real about the dynamics among our own kids and share thoughts on raising siblings who like each other (well, most of the time).

LINKS MENTIONED:

• Peaceful Parents, Happy Siblings (Dr. Laura Markham)
• Episode 6 of The Home Hour, where Meagan interviews Heather Shumaker, author of It’s OK Not to Share and Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids
• Happy Families Have Stories – Meagan’s post in response to the New York Times article by Bruce Feiler, “The Stories That Bind Us”
• My Kids Like Each Other…And That’s Enough (Meagan for The Happiest Home)
• Paper Swimsuits And The Stories They Tell (Meagan for The Happiest Home)
• Cuisinart CSB-79 Smart Stick 2-Speed 200-watt Immersion wired Hand Blender with Attachments
• Kitsch’n Glam aprons, like this one
• Wine Enthusiast 3-Pack Wine Glass Writer Metallic Pen

MORE HELPFUL LINKS:

• Visit our website
• Check out deals from our partners
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join our private listener group on Facebook (be sure to answer the membership questions!)
• Sign up for our newsletter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Get our complete guide to gifts that your kids will still be playing with next year (and beyond!), PLUS enter to win one of TWO amazing scooters from Micro Kickboard!

Gifts for babies & toddlers

• Sarah loves Fisher-Price Little People – the Fun Sounds Farm, and Builders sets like this one are a great precursor to Duplo and LEGO
• Little Tikes Cozy Coupe
• A crawl-through play tunnel like this one from Melissa & Doug
• Play kitchen (Sarah has one from Step 2 similar to this)
• Standing easel (Meagan loves this one from One Step Ahead)

Gifts for preschool & little kids

• The expensive-but-so-worth-it Magna Tiles
• LEGO Duplo starter sets like this one
• Schleich plastic animals like these dragons
• Inexpensive knock-offs of more expensive brands, like Li’l Woodzeez and Our Generation
• Doll house (Sarah loves this one from Melissa & Doug)
• Play silks from Magic Cabin
• Puppet theater

Gifts for big kids & teens

• Chomp Card Game
• Drone with HD Camera
• $49 Kindle Fire
• Big-kid and adult-sized footie pajamas

Other great stuff we talked about

• 7 ways to survive playing board games with your kids (Meagan for The Happiest Home)
• Meagan’s interview with Sarah Mackenzie on the Read Aloud Revival podcast
• The Overdrive app that connects you to your local library for digital lending, and the Kindle Lending Library for Amazon Prime subscribers
• Rebrickable, the site for LEGO lovers that provides instructions for new creations based on the sets you already own

MORE HELPFUL LINKS:

• Visit our website
• Check out deals from our partners
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join our private listener group on Facebook (be sure to answer the membership questions!)
• Sign up for our newsletter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Those sweet, pudgy things keep you up at night? News flash: they'll be adults before you know it. In honor of Meagan's oldest turning 18 this week, we're devoting Episode 27 to talking about the adults we're raising: what we hope for them, what we imagine they'll become, and just how much control we have over how they turn out.

LINKS MENTIONED:

• Why I’m not worried about my late-blooming teen (Meagan for The Washington Post)
• Parents of Teens: We Need to Redefine High School ‘Success’ (Meagan for The Huffington Post)
• You Probably Won’t Remember This Later…And That’s OK (Meagan for The Happiest Home)

And don’t forget to listen through to the very end to hear Meagan chat with Jacob on his eighteenth birthday. Enjoy!

MORE HELPFUL LINKS:

• Visit our website
• Check out deals from our partners
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join our private listener group on Facebook (be sure to answer the membership questions!)
• Sign up for our newsletter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 26 of The Mom Hour is all about dealing with criticism. Whether it's in-law tension, the "back in MY day" comments from relatives, or your own inner critic (isn't she the worst?), we offer our own stories and tips for taking it all in stride.

LINKS MENTIONED:

• What’s your parenting Achilles’ heel? (Meagan for The Happiest Home)
• Zen Parenting Radio’s most recent podcast episode, How To Handle Criticism, and Meagan’s interview with Todd and Cathy Adams on The Home Hour
• Handling the grandparents’ unsolicited parenting advice (NY Times Motherlode)
• 4 tactics for handling parenting criticism from the in-laws (SheKnows)
• Dealing with parenting criticism (SimpleKids.net)
• 7 tips for handling criticism (Gretchen Rubin)

MORE HELPFUL LINKS:

• Visit our website
• Check out deals from our partners
• Follow us on Instagram
• Join our private listener group on Facebook (be sure to answer the membership questions!)
• Sign up for our newsletter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.