MyBrownBaby on the Today show: Tips for Beating the Back-to-School Blues

One of my favorite writing gigs is my job as a columnist, contributing editor and Mom Squad member at Parenting magazine. The last office job I held before I became a work-at-home southerner was in Parenting's Manhattan offices, where I toiled as the features editor, assigning and editing the Ages & Stages section and some of the main features, and coordinating and writing the annual mom-tested gift guide (which earned me the affectionate title, "Big," because, like the Tom Hanks character in the hit movie, I played with toys for a living). When Nick and I decided to head South for more peaceful writing pastures, Parenting graciously hooked a girl up with the Reality Check column, which, under the capable hands of editor-in-chief Susan Kane, is now called, "Ask Denene." Every month, I give advice to more than two million moms looking for help handling their tricky, sticky parenting dilemmas; you can check out my columns in both monthly editions of Parenting—the Early Years, for moms with kids from newborns to age five, and the School Years, for moms with children ages five to 12. If you haven't given Parenting a good read lately, it's time for you to take a second look; the stories are beautifully written, super informative, and told from a heartfelt mom-to-mom perspective. There's no stuffiness here—the advice is down-to-earth and relatable.

Occasionally, Parenting brings those stories to television, and invites me to speak on the magazine's behalf in interviews on various TV shows. Yesterday, I got to mix it up with the Today show's Matt Lauer in a segment that kicked off the popular news program's "Back-to-school" series; we tackled how to help your kids shake the back-to-school jitters. Check it out:

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To read Parenting's feature on conquering the back-to-school blues and other great Parenting stories, click HERE.