Mojo Mom Podcast, TheMotherhood.com and Courageous Parenting

This week I am kicking off a series of Mojo Mom Podcast interviews with my Courageous Parenting anthology contributors. The goal of this book is to give parents the skills and strategies they need to raise independent kids, with courage and confidence rather than worry and fear.

On the podcast we can have further conversations about Courageous Parenting. The angles explored by each author are so different that there is plenty to say! Check in next week for the announcement of the final list of contributing authors.

So listen in to this week's Mojo Mom Podcast with Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann, founders of TheMotherhood.com, the most intelligent, creative and friendly social networking site for Moms:



On The Mojo Mom Podcast, this week Mojo Mom is joined by the founders of the social networking site for Moms, TheMotherhood.com, Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann. This dynamic duo returns to the podcast to talk about how community support can empower us all to be more courageous, and how they plan to transform a chat we had about Courageous Parnting at TheMotherhood into a chapter for the new book.

You can register to receive a free e-book copy of "Courageous Parenting" by signing up to receive the MojoMom.com newsletter and Party Kit, so stop by and sign up today!

Three chats on TheMotherhood.com--Join me tomorrow!

I'm one of the co-hosts for a live chat on TheMotherhood.com tomorrow from 1 to 2 pm ET to discuss our new Courageous Parenting anthology. TheMotherhood.com founders Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann are going to use this chat as the basis for their chapter and we would love to hear your thoughts about what Courageous Parenting means to you.

Their three talks this week are so great I wanted to share them all. I love Rosalind Wiseman's work. She is a colleague of my recent podcast guest Rachel Simmons on issues affecting adolescent girls.

And on Thursday, the chat about Growing Up Online will feature none other than my former Mojo Mom Podcast co-host Sheryl Grant in her new role as a Director of Social Networking for the Digital Media & Learning Competition, supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

So I encourage you to consider participating in one or more of these chats. Just sign up as a member on TheMotherhood.com and then follow the links at the chat time to join in.

TheMotherhood Talks this week!

TODAY at 1 pm ET: Rosalind Wiseman - author Queen Bees & Wannabes
We're talking about mean behavior, in our lives and our daughters' and how hurtful it can be. Join the conversation here.

Wednesday at 1 pm ET: We're writing the chapter of a book together, live.
Be a part of Amy Tiemann's anthology on Courageous Parenting! Share your life experiences, thoughts and tips! The book comes out in March 2010, and contributors receive a copy. We're talking here.

Thursday at 1 pm ET: Social Media and Our Kids
Join the MacArthur Foundation and The Online Mom to talk about our kids growing up online - your approaches, experiences and fears. We'll all take away great information and ideas on how to deal with our kids online. Join us all here.

We look forward to some GREAT conversations. See you there!

Emily and Cooper

The chats are also archived, so if you can't stop by during the live event, you can come back later to follow the links, see how the conversation unfolded, and add your comments.

Sign up for my e-newsletter on www.MojoMom.com to receive a free e-book of the new Courageous Parenting anthology when it comes out in early 2010!

National Mom's Nite Out Party at TheMotherhood.com

Tonight is National Mom's Nite Out. If you don't already have plans to cut loose with your girlfriends, it's not too late to join in this celebration of motherehood. You can join in the party at TheMotherhood.com that my friends Cooper & Emily are throwing.

Emily writes:

We hope to see you in TheMotherhood tonight for the very first National Mom's Nite Out! The brainchild of Maria Bailey, National Mom's Nite Out is happening live in more than 800 locations across the country and online right here!

Put your feet up, grab a glass of wine or cup of tea and join us for the biggest party of moms EVAH! Starting at 7:30 p.m. EST, we'll be talking (using text), sharing photos and all-around celebrating ourselves, and we'll be sharing what's going on around the country. Additionally, you can follow the action through live streaming video on MomTV.

It will be our pre-Mother's Day extravaganza!

Hope to "see" you tonight at 7:30 p.m. EST!

Emily & Cooper
The Motherhood

Mojo Mom podcast with the founders of TheMotherhood.com

It's been a busy week! I had a great author event last night, and we still managed to get this week's Mojo Mom Podcast produced. We took off last week because my book release schedule was too jammed, (I hope you heard me as a guest on The Manic Mommies), but we plan to bring you new shows weekly until school gets out for the summer.

I love this week's guests. I've gotten to know Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann as organizers, writers, activists...they are Mojo Moms through and through who have been a real inspiration to me over the years. Here's this week's episode.

Listen to the podcast now:



The new edition of Mojo Mom came out last week, and Amy is back this week with guest co-host Patty Ayers to talk about her book release, as well as Patty's adventures traveling back and forth between Mexico and North Carolina.

Then Mojo Mom interviews Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann, founders of the social networking site TheMotherhood.com. Amy got to know this dyamic duo when they all worked together on MomsRising.org activism, and Cooper and Emily are interviewed in the new Chaper 10 of Mojo Mom, "Spreading Your Wings: Mothers as Leaders."

TheMotherhood.com is an amazing site with cool technical features, a ton of integrity and goodwill, and a heaping dose of mojo, so we hope you will stop on by and say hello.

Check out the relaunch of The Motherhood

Today two of my favorite Mojo Moms in the whole world, Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann, are relaunching The Motherhood, bringing us a totally revamped version of their intelligent, innovative and authentic social networking site for Moms.

You can read all about the launch in Cooper's blog post in The Motherhood News circle.

Check out the photo she posted--what an amazing quote. It's giving me chills. I want to get the story about that wall! I'll ask Cooper about it when she'd had a weekend to at least exhale. I know their whole team has been working incredibly hard for today's launch.

There's something in the air: More Opinionated Women

Since hitting the "publish" button this morning I have been ecstatic to find that more of my favorite bloggers have also been talking about opinionated women:

Earlier this morning I went over to read PunditMom's blog as a reward for finishing my post, I found that last Friday she had written about The Power of Words, asking:

Why is it that women who blog get loads of attention if we're criticizing one another, but not if we want to engage in a real discussion on important issues?

Good question, one that groups like the Women's Media Center are working hard to address.

Which brings me to Deborah Sigel, author of Sisterhood Interrupted and the Girl with Pen blog, has an exclusive piece out today through the Women's Media Center. In her Wired, She Wrote essay, she exhorts:

Did Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell say, “I’m too old for a blog!”? Did the Freakonomics authors think, “No time to learn new tricks!”? Time to get over any residual technophobia, ladies, and embrace our collective presence online!

And finally, my extraordinary friends Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann gave me a shout out on The Motherhood Link List this morning. They have one of the best new sites around, and their link list is perfect for busy women who don't have time to scan every blog every day (which describes just about every mother I know).

Being connected with other women who are out there creating a presence, writing, speaking out, and supporting each other has really helped me get my mojo back. So it feels like a good day to link to them and say THANKS!

Welcome to Cooper & Emily's neighborhood, TheMotherhood.com

Cooper Munroe and Emily McKhann are two of the most dynamic women I have ever met. They co-author a wonderful blog, Been There, which was turned into an instant community bulletin board providing relief opportunities to everyday people after Hurricane Katrina. I also know them from the Executive Team at MomsRising.org.

And now these two have launched a new website for Moms, TheMotherhood.com. Right out of the gate the site is professional and inviting. Before now, I have had very little desire or incentive to get involved in social networking sites, but I've been eagerly anticipating the launch of TheMotherhood for months now.

If anyone can create an intelligent, involving site for Moms, these two are the women to bet on!

And yes, they listed Mojo Mom on their blog ticker, which I really appreciate. This is a great feature for all of us who want to read the latest updates on other women's blogs but don't always have time to visit each individual site. It's like a news feed customized for Mojo Moms (if I do say so myself).

Seeing my blog listed on their site gave me a great kick in the pants to make sure I am writing here regularly. These days I have still been getting used to writing for both MojoMom.com and (parent . thesis) on the uber-tech site CNET. I don't quite have the kinks worked out yet to tell me how to do it all. But you know I'll still be here. The summer months are both fun and trying as I patch the holes in my normal childcare schedule.

And I'll find time somehow to meet you on The Motherhood!