It sounds like hyperbole to say that my life has been changed by blogs and blogging. Perhaps enriched is the best way to say it – I have learned and been challenged by the incredible roster of good writing out there that I am going to leave you this long weekend (the first or the last) of the year.

I know some of the writers behind some of these blogs, others I met at blogging conferences and others I have never met, and wouldn’t recognize walking down the street even though I have read their intimate words.

I was going to organize them into categories like: passion, knowledge, laughs but the best bloggers have all of that in almost every post. So here is who I read regularly (in no particular order).

Do you think kids these days are coddled? Do you think that in the interest of keeping kids safe, we have created a culture of overprotection? Do you think that we have to allow our kids the freedom to fail and to be hurt in order for them to be independent?

Lenore Skenazy does, and she collects stories from all over North America that will convince you that we are shielding our kids from harm in totally inappropriate ways. She is the founder of Free Range Kids and has been a tireless advocate for kids' independence. recently, she announced the  "2010 Golden Helicopter Awards: For great moments in over-prenting and media fear-mongering about kids". I have picked some of my favourite examples:

I don't know what makes baby names lists so interesting. I can pore over them even though my naming time is done. The lists are good mirrors of our pop culture moments and the predictions are a signpost to where we think we are heading.

We know that a fraction of babies are named from the top ten lists as opposed to in the 60s. (Though as one of the few adults named Emma, I can tell you it feels like there are a lot of Emmas out there.) This has resulted in people trying to be different and more Internet-search friendly with odd names and spellings. I applaud people's desire to call their children something unique. But I implore all parents-to-be to use the Supreme Court Justice test when naming their child.

I personally find it bizarre that you would choose a name after your favourite Teen Mom from MTV, or even from Twilight (so glad we didn't choose Bella which was on our top three -- our little one would have encountered a lot of sparkly jokes). I asked a few friends on Twitter and who work with kids some of the more -- um -- unusual names that they have heard recently. Wait until you read this list!

People do a lot of stupid things in winter. The cold and the never-ending blanket of white makes kids (and some adults) go a little crazy.

A couple of years ago my eldest son came home from school telling me a story about his friend's tongue that kept bleeding and how hilarious and gross it was. Finally, I got the story out of him of what happened to the top layer of his tongue. You guessed it already didn't you? 

Cue the oohing: my daughter turns five on Christmas Eve. Yes, she was the very best Christmas gift ever. Yes, it is very sweet.

But let's be honest, having a Christmas birthday is not the best. Her birthday always gets overshadowed by the holidays, her friends aren't around to celebrate and she doesn't get very many gifts -- and we are Jewish. I'm with Scary Mommy who is campaigning to have March be named national abstinence month so that no other kids have to suffer the indignities of a Christmas birthday (and she's Jewish too).

Not that my little girl lets herself be overshadowed.

My best friend was making plans at her door with the dad of her son's play date. The dad was sort of angling for a dinner invitation for his son, which she gladly agreed to, figuring she would cobble something kid-friendly together as she was on her way out.

And then just as he was closing the door, the dad said: "Don't forget we are Kosher, and my son is gluten-free. Shouldn't be a problem, though."

Except it is a problem. And it is a parent play date fail. There are unspoken guidelines for parents of play dates -- especially at the homes of families with multiple children.

"But I want this toy," she said tearfully, clutching the the alligator Lego to her chest. I didn't really know what to do.

I probably shouldn't have brought her to drop off the bag of unwrapped toys to the fire hall for donation. But I did have the best intentions; I thought that she would get to see some firefighters and hopefully, get a sense that we were doing something good. But instead, we were at an impasse in the wet snow outside of the empty fire station. Should we abandon the do-gooder project? Should I let her keep the Lego?

I had my kids in my thirties, even though my husband and I had been together since high school. We waited until we had some work experience under our belts, some financial stability and some ephemeral sense of maturity.

Many women in my mother's group had babies in their late thirties. They were proud of their choice to have kids later, feeling that they were secure enough in their careers to be able to take time off or to make a knowledgeable choice about not going back.

Imagine your 5-year-old child is sick, it is snowing and you have to rush to school get your other kid. What do you do? Do you bundle your little, feverish bundle up and force her to walk the two blocks?

Your youngest has karate at the end of the street starting in five minutes, your seven-year-old has just started a show and your 10-year-old is sitting on the computer. You need to take your little one immediately but the others are refusing to budge. What do you do?

Marketers used to think they knew us moms, how to reach us and how to sell to us but now in the digital age they aren't so sure. So they are studying and polling us trying to figure out how to tailor their message to us plugged-in moms.

There are a lot of studies floating around that index and classify today's digital mom. Microsoft Advertising recently published one as well. It is called "We're Talking About Moms: the decision-maker, influencer and digital doyenne" (full disclosure: I contributed some quotes to the paper and I spoke on a Microsoft Advertising panel).

Commercials try and paint us as neurotic, germ-obsessed, apron-wearing throwbacks but what is coming out in the studies is that we are so much more than the cardboard cutout of a mom. We plugged-in moms may already know that we have diverse interests and abilities, and hopefully, the marketers are now waking up to the fact.

The Microsoft study found: