My name is Denise, and I’m a Mean Mom.

That’s the very first line of my book, Mean Moms Rule, published in 2012 by Sourcebooks.

Grab a copy from your favorite bookseller: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Reviews of Mean Moms Rule

From Publisher’s Weekly:

Schipani has a solid track record of writing on parenting topics and no shortage of opinions. Self-described as “relentlessly practical” she is also funny, witty, and loaded with suggestions for keeping kids in their place (e.g., stash the grown-up ice cream in the back of the freezer and eat it after they go to bed).

From NY Metro Parents:

“Denise is a professional writer, and it shows. Her posts are sometimes on the lighter, funnier side, and sometimes on the more serious, but they are all written in the engaging, punchy style of a journalist who knows her own voice.”

Essay on helicopter parenting in the New York Times’ Room for Debate

Q&A about raising boys on Blogging ‘Bout Boys

Guest post on Lenore Skenazy’s Free Range Kids

Live on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends:” Debate over corporal punishment in Alabama school

Live on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends:” Does Technology Hinder or Help Child Development?

Fits, Starts & Matters of the Heart

An excerpt from my essay in this anthology of love, loss and everything in between:"I have an engagement ring I love. The central stone, says the guy who appraised the antique my now-husband bought, was originally cut for another piece of jewelry, probably in the early part of last century. How long did the stone itself take to form? Hard to say. I understand just enough about geology to know that it takes millions of years for carbon, pressed deep into the earth, to turn into diamonds. And I also know that the same earth that produces the sparkly stones is not so solid. It's on the  move all the time, giant plates shifting under foot while we pretend it's safe."Grab a copy from Amazon.

P.S. What I Didn't Say: Unsent Letters to Our Female Friends

An excerpt from "What I Wish I'd Told You the Last Time I Saw You""After that quick visit, I never saw you again. (Except in my dreams, that is.) I haven't even been to your grave yet,and I can no longer keep making the excuse that I'm here in New York (with my husband and two sons, none of whom you ever got a chance to meet, which feels like a big hole in my life -- you'd love my husband), and you're buried way up in Maine, near your parents' cabin and that lovely lake. I wonder if it's because going to that part of the world -- which is just so beautiful -- makes me think of the nagging, not-so-nice reason I didn't see you more, devote more time to you, at the end. When you were dying."Find it on Amazon.