health + wellness

Anxiety feels like a constant companion at my house these days, and I've been making good use of meditation apps for years now to help I'm happy to say that when I use them, they really dp make a difference. After all, we're learning mor…

High-tech beauty products have improved significantly in recent years, making it possible to save a lot of money on expensive salon treatments for your skin, lips, nails, hair, and nearly everything else. It's no wonder we're all excited…

It's always a good time to talk about how to best clean your phone and gadgets. But especially this time of year. With cold and flu season now meeting Covid-is-back season (again, sigh) it's important to know how to safely clean your pho…

If your kids are using a laptop or Chromebook for their schoolwork (or gaming), there are a few simple things you can do to help them avoid tech neck . Yes, it's totally a thing (says the person who's on her computer most hours of the da…

For those of us with college students (already!), we know how stressful it can be for our kids to get adjusted to a totally new schedule and, often, a new living situation. We even included meditation apps among our recommendations of ap…

If you need help for kids with anxiety, I am so grateful for these terrific mindfulness podcasts for kids. We all know that unfortunately, anxiety is on the rise for lots of children, including my own . Maybe you're trying to help a chil…

We thought it would be a smart idea to put together the best apps for college students, and especially college freshmen. After all, when parents send our kids off to college -- whether close to home or across the country -- you really wa…

It's no secret that we are huge fans of Star Wars here at Cool Mom Tech, so when we heard that Headspace just launched new mindfulness and meditation content for kids 5-10 called Find Your Force with Star Wars , I rocketed over to watch …

I love listening to music, audiobooks or podcasts (like Spawned of course!) when I'm outside. But there are so many times it's not really safe for us to completely tune out our surroundings, like when I'm running alone at 6 AM, or should…

With all of the heavy news right now , sometimes we really need someone in our corner telling us "You can do it! Keep trying! Don't give up!". This is the actual pep talk I got this morning from a chorus of joyful Kindergartners when I d…

We know that online mental health therapy access has exploded over the past two years, and increasingly so have other kinds of therapy. As a parent with a child in therapy (and a toddler who naps during the day), I know that just getting…

I'm grateful for any tech that makes bedtime easier, so I was excited to discover Netflix Jr.'s brand new Bedtime Stories podcast -- and I figured a whole lot of parents might be too. The podcast features some of my kids' favorite charac…

So let's talk about my absolute obsession with HappyLights, more technically known as light therapy lamps. I've always kind of dreaded the shorter daylight hours of the winter, knowing that Seasonal Affective Disorder tends to hit me har…

Even in pre-Covid days, I always hated sitting in a doctor's waiting room just thinking about the "bonus" rotovirus we were probably contracting on top of the ear infection we were there to treat. That's a big reason I am so excited abou…

Not everyone loves a big, splurgey, outrageous tech gift -- some of us are happy with practical tech gifts. Especially these days, when those gifts just may help us get through another ( deep sigh ) long winter. Colder weather has offici…

I'm always trying to get my anxious son to do mindfulness exercises with me, but it can be a tough sell. Especially when we're competing with a barrage of toys and streaming services. But when we tried out the new Zenimal device , which …

We're all talking about "that" Wall Street Journal article about Instagram: Facebook Knows It's Toxic for Teen Girls . You're probably talking about it. Or your kids are. I know it's all we've been seeing in our social feeds this week ar…

It's been a while since we shared our favorite apps to help you get better sleep. So long, that our last post about favorite sleep apps seems to include apps all recently acquired by mattress companies. Hm. I did recently write about my …

This week, a wonderfully human, poignant video from husband-wife team Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody went viral. Perhaps you've seen it? They used the platform to respond to a Princess Bride fan named Amanda Webb (@Alaska_Webb), a youn…

As someone who now regularly attends physical therapy, let me be the first to advise you about the importance of ergonomic laptop accessories: So important! Given how much time we all spend on our computers these days, it really pays in …

Each time there's a live streaming Apple Event to announce the new products and updates, we watch diligently to see what's new for parents and families, or which advances and improvements will actually make our lives a little easier, mor…

Has anyone else's teens struggled with interrupted sleep since the pandemic? My kids' slower social lives and reduction in extracurricular activities certainly plays a part, but turning to tech to connect with friends is making an impact…

Since the new year started, I've been digging into the Apple Health app to try to do a better job of managing my health. What's cool is that it gathers data from multiple apps to give you a comprehensive picture of your health in one pla…

Every year, we share our top 10 most popular posts on Cool Mom Tech. From the best podcasts for kids to customizing your iPhone 14 home screen, here are the posts we wrote this year that resonated the most with our readers in 2020. Also …