crazedparent is a blog with random riffs about parenting and life by me, Charlene Prince Birkeland. I live in Silicon Valley with my husband, two sons, Seven and Q., and my lab puppy, Luna (also known as Luna Lovegood, Luna Negra, Looney Luna, Lunalicious, LuLu and Damn Dog). I also adore Rick Springfield. And baseball (my next dog will be called Posey).

But you can blame my kids for exposing me to the world of the crazed parent. I started this blog in August 2004.

I'm a journalist/writer/editor/blogger/producer/person-who-is-good-at-telling-stories. I'm a Bay Area native and graduated from UC Berkeley. (Go Bears!)

I recently left a sweet gig as the parenting editor of Shine, Yahoo's site for women. I joined Yahoo! to help launch the site in March 2008, and wrote about everything from how to be a crafty mama to teen pregnancy, Little League, kids swearing, and well, just about anything related to being modern mom and dad. I also contributed to Shine's Food, Healthy Living, and Pets channels, because I simply love writing and sharing tips and useful information.

As Shine's parenting expert, I regularly appeared on television and radio programs and talk shows, including ABC's "View from the Bay," Martha Stewart Lliving Radio on Sirius XM, Oprah Radio on Sirius XM and CNN Radio.

Why'd I leave? To start my own website and company. No, I can't tell you about it yet.

Before becoming a Yahoo!, I was the editor and director of blogger outreach of the online parenting community, Maya's Mom, which was acquired by BabyCenter. My writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, with stories that focus on cool families with creative homes; child-friendly gardens; and introspective essays on parenting. I was one of Disney's Parenting Team Advisors for Disney Interactive Group's Family.com, and have written parenting articles for the site.

I also served as the the editor-in-chief of the women's work/life balance blog, JobMom, and was a staff writer for two leading parenting-related blog networks. My writing also has appeared in Forbes, HallMark Magazine, on NBC News and AOL and on Dateline NBC. crazedparent has been featured as one of the best parenting blogs on the Web in Blogosphere: Best of Blogs. It was also highlighted in 7x7 San Franciso's Cyper Patrol column.

Check out my work at Shine and watch some of my television appearances. (If you're a Rick Springfield fan, you'll want to see these interviews, too, where I turn into a 15-year-old, swooning, lovelorn girl.)

For a complete archive of my articles for the San Francisco Chronicle, click here.

To see my articles for Family.com, click here.

To return to the crazedparent home page, click here.

Contact me at charlene AT crazedparent DOT org.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Charlene