When you have kids, it’s inevitable that they will start asking for a dog. They’ll plead and promise they’ll take care of it, but we all know in our hearts that the dog will be ours and that we will end up taking care of and loving it. Our family gave in to the dog plea four years ago and we love our bossy, barky, shaggy beast. The only part we don’t love is having to leave her behind when we go away, whether for work or on a family vacation. But now there's Rover.com.

I originally found out about Rover from a friend who had a great experience and I was looking forward to trying it for myself. Then I learned that, in honor of National Love Your Pet Day (Friday, February 20), Rover is helping pet parents make adorable #RoverGrams and donating $1 for every share to Save-A-Vet, a charity that rescues retired military and law enforcement dogs.

Read on to learn more about the easiest way to find a pet sitter, how to make a funny RoverGram video to help dogs, and get $25 toward your first night of dog sitting with our sponsor Rover.

When the IDNYC cards debuted last month, there was a lot of excitement. In fact, so many people wanted the FREE municipal identification cards, the city couldn’t handle the demand. A website was launched for booking application appointments online, but it had glitches, and soon slots through the summer were all filled up. But this week, the city opened new enrollment centers, which means suddenly appointments are available—but don’t hesitate! I was just able to snag a slot for the end of March, but these new appointments will likely book up fast. Click over to nyc.gov to make an appointment now, and then come back and read our tips and answers to frequently asked questions about IDNYC.

Mommy Poppins is hiring! We have a few positions listed on our Jobs Page, including our call for new NYC editors.

Is it your dream job to get paid to run around the city with your children, checking out the coolest things going on? Are you an excellent writer, great researcher and brilliant editor who wants to work in an environment that is supportive of parents? Do you love organizing information, engaging on social media and connecting with the community?

Mommy Poppins is hiring new editors for our NYC site. We’re looking for amazing writers and editors with at least two years editorial experience who are passionate about living in NYC with kids, and are seeking a telecommuting-friendly, full- or part-time position with flexible hours, a competitive salary and benefits.

The holiday season is coming to a close, so whether you went and cut down your own Christmas tree or bought it at the corner deli, it's time to start thinking about how you are going to get rid of it. You want to make sure your tree goes back into the land, not the landfill. The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation has a great program for turning your Christmas tree into mulch that's FREE and easy. Even those of us who don't buy Christmas trees appreciate smelling yours as we walk through our city parks, so please recycle your tree. Another option is to leave your tree curbside for pick up by the New York City Department of Sanitation, but there are certain rules you need to follow for your tree to be recycled. Read on to find out how simple it is to recycle your Christmas tree in New York City.

 Every year I find myself googling the same information - how do I make sure that my Christmas tree ends up being made into mulch and not heaped in the landfill. In fact, I usually start the season by googling around trying to decide how guilty I should feel about having a Christmas tree at all and is there some other alternative that would be cool, environmental and not make my children feel like I'd killed Santa Claus. I am happy to announce that after years of debating this whole issue I have finally come to a concrete conclusion. So here is my Definitive Guide to a Greener Christmas Tree Experience from the question of getting the tree to the question of getting rid of it:

Disney is really on a roll. After the amazing success of Frozen last winter, the studio has created another lovable animated movie that is sure to be a huge hit with kids and adults alike.

Big Hero 6 is the story of a boy, Hiro, and his robot Baymax, a charming plus-size goof turned butt-kicking justice machine. Along with their band of faithful friends, Hiro and Baymax embark on an action-packed adventure to solve a life-changing mystery.

There's a lot to love about Big Hero 6. Mommy Poppins partnered with the New York International Children's Film Festival on a pre-screening and you can see the enthusiastic reactions of some of the school-aged kids in this video. But parents should also use caution before taking little kids as the film definitely earns its PG rating. Here’s what you need to know to decide if Big Hero 6 is right for your family.

Welcome to Mommy Poppins. Click here to go directly our virtual food drive.

Confronted with the statistic that one out of every five children in the U.S. is food insecure, a friend expressed incredulity. "How can that be true? I don’t know a single person like that.” That's the tricky thing about hunger today. Not only has the demographic of who suffers from hunger changed, it's a problem happening right under our noses without us realizing it.

Sometimes situations that lead to food insecurity are complicated. And, let’s face it, people don't introduce themselves by saying, “By the way, I don’t have enough money to feed my children” unless they are panhandling on the street. I speak from experience because I was food insecure as a child, and most of the people around me had no idea, outside of one English teacher who frequently bought me a bagel for lunch if I hadn't eaten that day.

That’s why I’m proud to sponsor Unilever Project Sunlight, a program that brings awareness to the issue of hunger in America and encourages supporters to Share A Meal to fight childhood hunger. I hope you’ll consider joining me in our virtual food drive. Our goal is to raise $1500 through Feeding America, and if we reach it, Mommy Poppins will double the amount by adding an additional $1500 donation.

There’s been lots going on here at Mommy Poppins. This month, we completely upgraded our back end, and moved to a server that can better handle our growing site traffic. While we're still working out some bugs (thanks to those of you who alerted us to any issues you noticed), that didn't stop us from launching our newest site: Mommy Poppins Philadelphia. So tell all your Philly friends!

If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time during the last eight years we’ve been around, you know how hard we work to share carefully curated activity ideas with local families. Although we are a technology-based publication, we are not a start-up. Our goal is not to grow big fast and sell out. We love what we do and want to keep doing it. Over the past few years, we’ve added New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, Boston and Los Angeles to our original NYC home base. We also started a Family Travel site a few years back featuring city guides and destination reviews all over the world.

The launch of Mommy Poppins Philadelphia is unique for us in that it marks the first time we are expanding by teaming up with an existing site. The family activity site, Playground Buzz, is joining the Mommy Poppins family to become Mommy Poppins Philadelphia. This partnership means we start off with a full directory of businesses and activities, a jam-packed calendar and an experienced team to run the site. We are thrilled to have Lori, Kristen and Amy from Playground Buzz with us now.

Mommy Poppins Philly will be just like all of our other sites with an Event Calendar, a Directory and editorial coverage. We will add our regular guides as we create more content (the Halloween Guide is already up and running). You can also sign up for the Mommy Poppins Philadelphia weekly activities newsletter.