We all try to be the best parents we can be. But even the most well-intentioned among us doesn’t get it exactly right all of the time. So we asked our childhood development experts at SeedlingsGroup to share some of the most common (and innocent) ways parents can negatively affect their children’s behavior—without even realizing it.

As mom to a 3-year-old and editor-in-chief of TreeHugger.com and PlanetGreen.com, Meaghan O’Neill cares a whole lot about what’s in her household cleaners. So we asked her to help us sort through all the options labeled eco-this or green-that, and provide us with an ideal shopping list for toxin-free housekeeping.

Most first-time moms have no idea what to ask prospective sitters. There are the obvious questions: How long were you at your previous job? Do you know infant CPR? May I check your references? . . . But how can you really determine if someone is a good fit for your family?

Remember when pushing the clocks back meant an extra hour of sleep? Yeah. That was cool. This Sunday, of course, you’ll most likely be waking up an hour earlier—since your baby could care less what the clock says. In a desperate attempt to salvage those precious morning zzz’s, we asked (begged) the top four baby-sleep experts for their advice on how to survive the time change.