I am a freelance writer and mother of two unruly children.

A few years ago, I analyzed my interests--coffee, parenting, writing, traveling--and promptly founded a family travel web site called Travel Savvy Mom. I'm also pretty passionate about the novels of Jane Austen, but couldn't figure out a way to work that in.

My essays and articles have appeared in Parenting magazine, the Utne Reader, and in the award-winning anthology Toddler: Real-life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love.

I have traveled extensively with and without my children. My top three pieces of family travel advice are:

1. Never leave home without
   peanut butter.
2. No child is too big for a stroller
3. Bring plenty of new toys—$50 for three pounds of plastic crap will seem like
   the deal of the century at 3am in a London hotel.