Another child committed suicide this week in the aftermath of bullying. Can Miss America doing something about it? It's happened again. A child cyber-bullied into suicide. It is a terrible thing - a child so distraught that she takes her own life. Unimaginable loss for the parents. My heart aches Continue Reading
What Someone Who Didn’t go to BlogHer13 Learned from BlogHer13
This year, BlogHer, the largest women's blogging conference in the world, fell on my kids' camp visiting day. It is the one day in seven weeks I get to see my kids. And, since my kids are teenagers, it's also one of the only days my kids are totally, completely happy to spend an entire day with Continue Reading
WeinerSpitzle
Hello, my name is Ashley, and I'll be your server this evening. This summer, our chef has a season long special: WeinerSpitzle. WeinerSpitzle is an only in NY combination of hubris, stupidity, perversion, and blatant disregard for the law. We take a little bit of working class Continue Reading
Starting Today, Your Kid is Gonna Need Your Social Security Number
I know. Weirdest title of a post ever. But today's the day the new FTC COPPA regulations go into effect. COPPA is Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. It's the law that governs how sites and apps collect information from kids. And that means that suddenly, a lot of the sites your kids visit Continue Reading
R Baby Foundation: Saving babies, saving families
I know it's hard to believe, but sometimes being a blogger brings things that are even better than swag: like the ability to participate in this year's R Baby Foundation Gala. Before I say anything more, look at this: Yes, that's me, looking all earnest. But it's kind of hard not to be earnest Continue Reading
Florida Rocks: Part Deux – Ft Lauderdale and St. Augustine
Yesterday, you read all about my time in LBK and Orlando, Florida. But since what is vacation for but to criss-cross an entire state, that's not the end of it. I was lucky enough to have AT&T sponsor me for SheStreams, the fabulous Social Media beyond the blog conference held by Maria Bailey Continue Reading
Bloggers: How Not to Work with Brands
Last week, my post about How Not to Work with Bloggers evidently hit a chord. I guess there are still plenty of brands out there that aren't treating bloggers right. But in fairness - there are plenty of bloggers messing things up, too. So here's the other side of the story: What Bloggers shouldn't Continue Reading
Funniest Twitter Message Ever
Only some of you will "get" this. But for those that do...it was a surreal moment when this message came through: On a more serious note - I actually think it's kind of a good reminder that Social Media is terrific, and I love it, and I've written about how much I love it more than once. But it's Continue Reading
Family Travel: To Tech or not to Tech?
Family vacations are supposed to be all about togetherness. So does that mean that no one can be on their phone or handheld game, or ipad, or computer the entire time? Yikes. I mean, can you get the DTs from electronic withdrawal syndrome? Kim Orlando gave that a shot on her recent family Continue Reading
A Gift Guide for Tweens: A Ton of Giveaways!
If I need a gift for a toddler, or a first or second grader, I head on over the The Toy Insider, because I know they don’t just list a bunch of toys, these people research and test and try and can rattle off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of any toy on the market. It’s almost freaky. Continue Reading