Introducing 'Ask Your Mom': Our New Parenting Advice Column

We may be the most stressed-out parents in recent history. Not only do we work more, we parent more, spending most of our non-working, non-sleeping time with our children (and even our sleeping time on those rough nights). We are also parenting in the age of the most ever access to information. This may seem like a good thing, but the abundance of contradicting and fear-inducing parenting "guidance" can add to our stress, guilt, and doubt instead of giving us the answers we desperately seek.

This is why I'm here, as a psychologist and a mother, writing to help you navigate through it all. If your kids are anything like mine, they ask one million questions every day, and they expect you to have all of the answers. You always have the answers! But who do moms and dads turn to when they have tough questions? That's where 'Ask Your Mom' comes in. This is the place to air your thorniest parenting problems. Maybe your mother's generational difference does not match, and your closest mom friends can't figure out. Let me be the mom who helps you find the answer. I have worked with children and families as a clinical psychologist for more than 10 years. I became a mother exactly one year into my first job, and three children later, I know firsthand the intersection of what experts tell us we should do and the real-life reasons experts can miss the mark for us and our children.

• Submit your questions to Emily, here

My education and training have drilled into me the importance of understanding science and evidence, especially in this climate of provocative headlines and misinformation. I have observed that parents, and often mothers, can be vulnerable targets as we are all looking for answers to the parenting mysteries that leave us sleep-deprived, anxious, and full of self-doubt. As I was figuring out my new identity as a working mom, I launched The Art and Science of Mom, a parenting blog blending science and common sense to serve as a voice of reason in a cyberworld full of emotion and exaggeration. As important as my psychology expertise may be, it's my real-life experience as a mother that serves as the best lens for this expertise.

I never pretend to have all the answers (being a mother is a constant exercise in humility), but I know where to look for the most reliable expertise, and how to think critically about complicated parenting questions. Parenting never has a one-size-fits-all answer. Our children may not fit into the latest parenting trend, and we may not either.

I'm here for you and your most pressing questions—the ones that an internet search can't answer. I'm here to lift us all up, empowering us with good information, while embracing our humanity as parents doing our best to be the best for our children.

You can read my first column right here: Ask Your Mom: How Do I Tell Another Child to Stop Picking on my Child?

Submit your parenting questions to Emily here and they may be answered in future Ask Your Mom columns.