Top 5 Best NYC Parenting Blogs

Best NYC Parent Blogs: The Top Five

NYC parent blogs are as common (and sometimes as clogging) as double strollers on sidwalk on the  Upper West Side. But if you know where to look, and what to bookmark, you'll find an astonishing array of entertaining, insightful, and genuinely useful websites on everything from ways to amuse a toddler on a rainy day, to navigating the NYC school system (public and private), to getting the most out of your parenting dollar, to talking to--and, as important, listening to--your teenager. Smack in the middle of raising a couple of City kids ourselves, we've grown to rely on and enjoy the following parent bloggers more than any other. Here then, is the Glenwood list of the 5 Best NYC Parenting Blogs:

1. Time Out New York Kids
The most obvious choice of parent blogs, perhaps, but Time Out New York Kids is still the best when it comes to figuring out what to do with the whole family on any given day, or weekend, or school vacation. Food, fun, sports, movies, music, theater, books, parties, museums, New York City institutions we may have forgotten, one-time-only events we never would have heard about otherwise: it's all here, up-to-date and easy to navigate.

2. Mommy Poppins
This huge group blog is comprehensive in its listings of events and activities and camps and freebies and artsy outings and weekend getaways and "urban nature" and the like, but Mommy Poppins also touches upon the less logistical, and more subtly challenging (and, so, more rewarding) aspects of raising children in New York City. Written with an obvious passion for parenting and a love of this town--especially its quirkier byways--Mommy Poppins is a solid, independent alternative to the parent blog Time Out.

3. Urban Baby
Although it takes some getting used to in order to fully access all the site has to offer, Urban Baby sits nicely in the middle ground between pure what-to-do-with-kids listings--though its weekend guides are first-rate and often unique in their suggestions--and community-building and experience-sharing among parents. The heart of the site, say Urban Baby founders Susan and John Maloney, is the Talk section, filled with energetic, uninhibited message boards on topics that cover all of the joy and confusion and pain and laughter and fun that comes with being a parent. Recent topics have ranged from the "gifted" education tag (the consensus: hate it) and public breast feeding, to hilariously inappropriate birthday parties and where to get inexpensive, durable kids furniture. Warning: we've spent way too long here at this parent blog some days, throwing our two cents in.  

4. Mom and Kiddo
Mom and her Kiddo live in a "tiny apartment with no outdoor space" in Brooklyn... but that doesn't stop them from having more artsy-craftsy fun together in a week than we can usually summon up the energy and inspiration to pull off in a month. Titled "What Do We Do All Day?" and filled with excellent projects and ideas for both indoor and New York City-wide activities and adventures--included complete recipes and step-by-step instructions, when appropriate--this first-rate mommyblog is written with tons of love and humor, and keeps us coming back for more. Bonus: a great blogroll of other independent blogs and sites.

5. Babble
Not a New York City-centric blog, true (and more a magazine, really), but Babble is so packed with excellent writing, funny stories, sharp insights, and moving observations of life as a parent--as well as whip-smart, often sassy, and always useful product and cultural reports and reviews--that over the years we've probably logged on here more often than any other parenting site around. There are sections on Pregnancy, Baby, Toddler, and Kid; the Blogs and Features are rife with celebrity and literary guest contributors; the Health and Food pages offer huge amounts of practical information; and the Community page, called the Babble Playground ("all the fun, none of the goldfish crumbs") is always guaranteed to contain multiple threads that spark our interest.

Have any favorite NYC parenting blogs that we didn't mention? Let us--and other readers--know about them in the comments!

Posted at 01:39PM Nov 17, 2009 by Scott in Events  |  Comments[1]