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<p>crazedparent is a blog with random riffs about parenting and life by me, Charlene Prince Birkeland. You can blame my kids for exposing me to the world of the crazed parent. I started this blog in August 2004.</p>
I live in Silicon Valley with <a href="http://www.jeffbirkeland.com">my husband</a>, two sons, and my lab puppy, Luna (aka Luna Lovegood, Lunabell, Luna Negra, Looney Luna, Lunalicious, LuLu and Damn Dog). I love cooking, coffee, crafty stuff, and baseball (my next dog <a href="http://www.crazedparent.org/2009/09/dear-buster-posey-my-kid-is-your-no-1-fan.html"><b>will be called Posey</a></b>). Also? It is my desire to live with my handsome husband, adorable sons and crazy dog in a beach house on a Hawaiian island.</p> And I write about all of this and more at crazedparent.
<p>I'm an online editor and content creator. I'm also Bay Area native and I graduated from UC Berkeley. (Go Bears!)
</p>I'm the former parenting editor of <a href="http://shine.yahoo.com">Shine</a>, 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 who swear, 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. </p>
<p>As Shine's parenting expert, I regularly appeared on television and radio programs and talk shows, including ABC's <a href="http://search.abclocal.go.com/search/results?station=kgo&q=birkeland&startNum=0&endNum=20&ranking=0&type=s">"<b>View from the Bay,"</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/radio">Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius XM</></b>, <a href="http://www.oprah.com/oradio"><b>Oprah Radio on Sirius XM</a></b> and <a href="http://www.cnnradio.com/cgi-bin/cnnradio.cgi"><b>CNN Radio</a></b>.</p>
<p>Why'd I leave? To start <b><a href="http://www.kidzer.com">my own website and company</b></a>. Don't ask me when it will launch. It's like telling an expectant mom, "You're <i>still<i> pregnant!"</i>. Duh.</p>
<p>Before becoming a Yahoo!, I was the editor and director of blogger outreach of the online parenting community, <a href="http://mayasmom.com"><b>Maya's Mom</b></a>, which was acquired by <a href="http://www.babycenter.com"><b>BabyCenter</b></a>.
My writing has appeared in the <i><a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/as/qr?term=%22charlene+prince%22&smode=and&Submit=S&Go.x=32&Go.y=14&Go=Search&scope=byline&source=&dmode=preset&period=all&minm=01&mind=01&miny=2005&maxm=12&maxd=31&maxy=2005"><b>San Francisco Chronicle</b></a></i>, with stories that focus on cool families with creative homes; child-friendly gardens; and introspective essays on parenting. I was one of <a href="http://family.go.com/blog/pta_index.html"><b>Disney's Parenting Team Advisors</b></a> for Disney Interactive Group's <a href="http://www.family.com"><b>Family.com</b></a>, and have written parenting articles for the site.</p> <p>I served as the the editor-in-chief of the women's work/life balance blog, <a href="http://blogs.payscale.com/job_mom/"><b>JobMom</b></a>, and was a staff writer for two leading parenting-related blog networks.</p> My writing also has appeared in <i<b>Forbes</b></i>, <i><b>HallMark Magazine</b></i>, on <b>NBC News</b> and <b><a href="http://www.aol.com">AOL</a></b> and on Dateline NBC.
<b>crazedparent</b> has been featured as one of the best parenting blogs on the Web in <i><b>Blogosphere: Best of Blogs</b></i>. It was <a href="http://www.7x7sf.com/people/profiles/8500647.html?charPage=1000000"><b>highlighted in 7x7 San Franciso's Cyper Patrol</b></a> column.</p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting">my work at Shine</a> and <b><a href="http://video.yahoo.com/search/?p=charlene+birkeland&t=video">watch some of my television appearances</a></B>. (If you're a Rick Springfield fan, <a href="http://video.yahoo.com/mypage/video?s=4361680"><b>you'll want to see these interviews</a></b>, too, where I turn into a 15-year-old, swooning, lovelorn girl.)</p>
<p>For a complete archive of my articles for the <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>, <a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/as/qr?term=%22charlene+prince%22&smode=and&Submit=S&Go.x=32&Go.y=14&Go=Search&scope=byline&source=&dmode=preset&period=all&minm=01&mind=01&miny=2005&maxm=12&maxd=31&maxy=2005"><b>click here</b></a>.</p>
<p>To see my articles for Family.com, <a href="http://family.go.com/search-familycom/birkeland"><b>click here</b></a>.
<p> To return to the crazedparent home page, <a href="http://www.crazedparent.org"><b>click here</b></a>.
<p>Contact me at charlene AT crazedparent DOT org.</p>
<p>Thanks for stopping by!</p>
<p>-Charlene</p>
photo credit: Carla Duharte, <a href="http://babyjidesign.com/about_us.htm"><b>baby ji designs/photography</a></b>
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