One person can only be in one place at a time, which is a real limit. There are good businesses in Boise and Baltimore and Baton Rouge that I am never going to walk into.
So if somewhere treated you and your kids well — anywhere in the country — write it up and send it here.
What I’m looking for
The same thing I write myself: what actually happened. Not a star rating, not a list of adjectives. The specific moment when someone made your day easier or harder. Whether there was a changing table. How long you really waited. Whether anyone was kind to a kid having a hard time.
Write it the way you would tell a friend. Two hundred words is fine. A thousand is fine.
What happens next — and what doesn’t
Let me be straightforward, because I would rather set the expectation now than disappoint you later. Sending an entry in does not mean it gets published. This is a submission for consideration, not a queue. I read every one myself, and most do not run.
That is usually not about the quality of your writing. More often I already have something similar, or the entry describes a lovely time without quite saying what another mom would need to know before she walked in. Sometimes it is simply that I can only publish so much.
If I do want to run yours, I will edit it for length and clarity and email you the edited version before it goes live. If I decide not to, I will tell you that too. Either way you hear back.
If your entry runs, your first name and city appear with it. Your last name and email never do.
What I can’t take
Anything about a business you own or work for. Anything you were paid, comped or asked to write. And, in keeping with how this site has always worked, takedowns — if your experience was bad, I would rather help you send that feedback to the owner privately than publish it.