GIVEAWAY: Rosie Pope's Must Have Beach Bag For Kids (Ends 7/14)

I've spent enough time in the world of parenting writing, that nothing should shake me. Especially when you add in where I live: the Catskills, home to the stars who skip the Hamptons and head straight for "normal" for their kids. But after a season of watching Rosie Pope's Bravo show, Pregnant in Heels, for my day job, I couldn't help it. I got an email in my inbox from The Children's Place touting how the maternity concierge to Manhattan's chi chi mamas is a fan of their towel buddy bags.

OK, enter uber dork mom. Did I mention I'm all over these bags? I got one last year for my kid for swim lessons because they are exactly what the name describes . . . a towel that folds into a bag, so it can be slung around a kid's shoulders like a backpack. GENIUS.


Now this isn't your standard "review" blog. I don't just give away anything, and for good reason. I have to find use for it, and after an entire summer of sending the sitter and my daughter off to swimming lessons in 2010 with a Children's Place towel buddy bag, I sincerely found them. . . useful. If it was in the wash, I had to pack all her goodies in a traditional canvas bag, the type I use for grocery shopping. And by "stuff," I mean her sunblock (or is it sunscreen -- FDA, I just can't keep track!),  her extra clothes, her towel. The beautiful thing about the towel "buddy bag" is that the towel folds up into a "bag" with ropes as towel, but it leaves room for STUFF.

That's the thing. Yeah, Children's Place just gave me an extra free buddy bag because I took note of the Rosie Pope photo (helllooooo disclosure), but I loved the extra space back when I was paying for it too. I was on my first summer of "Mom with a mother's helper," and I was all about over packing those girls before I droppped them off at the pool for kidlet's swimming lesson. Even if I swabbed her down with sunblock (crap, sunscreen?), I was packing more. Water. Extra clothes. The whole nine. And it all fit! And despite my husband's inability to fold this thing because he is, ahem, male, it worked, PERFECTLY.

Compare that to the summer before that when I was not working full-time, when I didn't have a mother's helper, when I forget her towel about HALF the time on swimming lessons days. Yeah, having the towel BE the bag wasn't just green, it was practical. It helped with momnesia. It saved space. It made sense.

Oh, and did I mention because I write about Rosie Pope over at the day job all the time, and I have talked about the wonders of how much I LURV The Children's Place over here, there's a camo buddy towel bag up for grabs? Oh wait? I forgot? Yeah, so, there's a buddy towel bag, just like that bag hanging off Rosie's arm, hanging off the handle of my guest room door handle right now (hey, it keeps it safe from my cats!).

If you want it, you can have it! Just leave a comment tell me your favorite Children's Place product (with an URL to the item) that's on your shopping list

Want extra entries? Of course you do. Soooo, you can:

1. Become a Facebook fan of Inside Out Motherhood, and leave a comment telling me (and drop by to leave me a comment on there too if you want -- I'm a glutton for looooove).
2. Follow me on Twitter @jeannesager and tweet this giveaway -- you MUST have an actual link to the giveaway in the tweet, or it doesn't count. Leave a link to your Tweet in the comments below.
3. Grab my purty new button (you'll see it at left), post it on your blog, then leave me a link in comments so I can come visit you and say hi!

I think that's it. Oh yeah -- make sure I have some way to contact you if you're the winner. If you're a blogger and have a contact on your blog, that'll do so you don't have to put your email out there for the world to see. But if not, how about a Twitter handle, something, so I can reach out. Or you can check back. The contest will end July 14.