About this blog

Mommy's Must Haves features reviews of products and services, giveaways, and promotions of interest to moms (and dads).

Introducing Your Host

I'm Christina, and I'm a married mom of two young girls. I'm also a registered nurse. I've been involved with blogging and social media for over five years now, but I've always been an eager adopter of technology. Yeah, I played Space Trader on BBS boards, and I still have fond memories of writing code in BASIC on my Tandy 1000HX.

When it comes to new products and services, I love being the first to try something and then tell all my friends about it. Blogging has allowed me to widen that circle of friends so I can proclaim my love for my newest toy to thousands!

If you want to know more about me and my family, please see my personal blog, A Mommy Story, and specifically my personal About page.

You can e-mail me at amommystory [at] gmail [dot] com .

Reviews & Giveaways

I'm currently accepting offers of products and services for reviews and giveaways, although due to my full-time nursing job, I've cut down the number of products I'm reviewing at any given time. I used to respond to each offer personally, but due to the number of requests now it simply isn't possible.

Some quick tips:

1. If you have a strict deadline for a review, please make that known in the e-mail - I occasionally get backlogged and a review can take several weeks to be completed. (Or longer if it's a product I need time to assess for durability, long-term use, etc.)

2. I will not review a product or service without personally trying it out first, so please don't offer me "high-res images" if the real thing isn't coming along as well. I firmly believe it's impossible to give an honest review of a location, service or product without actually experiencing it. It's like giving you a term paper on Dostoyevky's Crime & Punishment when I've only read the Cliff Notes - even if it's written well, it'll likely get a grade of C, and sorry, but I was a straight-A student.

3. You don't work for free, and neither do I. While I'm happy to share contests and promote brands I support with my readers, I do have a busy life. Please expect me to ask for compensation for my time based on the amount of work that will be required of me. I often do reviews or giveaways in conjunction with a paid advertisement on the site (or one of my other blogs), but I'm open to other arrangements as well. Obviously a quick promotion about a contest is not as involved as a full-scale social media campaign and will be treated as such. All compensation will be disclosed per FTC guidelines on this site.

**Note: Compensation for a simple product review is usually excluded. I actually prefer to not receive compensation beyond the actual product for a review in order to provide the most unbiased review possible. Advertising, promotions or giveaways that go along with the review are considered separate and will be handled accordingly with full disclosure.


Disclosure Policy

I believe in transparency and will freely disclose when I have received complimentary products for review or received any form of compensation to discuss a product or site. Advertising or reviews that specifically request me to not disclose the details of my relationship with the company will be ignored.

Despite receiving compensation for my time, any words written on this blog are my honest opinions. Besides, my mom has that amazing mom-sixth-sense and can always tell when I'm lying. The fear of her reading a lie on this blog and calling me out is more than enough reason to keep me honest.

Knowing all of this, please expect that I will say exactly what I think of a product or service I'm reviewing. If I have problems with a product, I will contact you before the review is posted. Some prefer to accept the feedback privately and request a review not be posted, while others appreciate the honesty in the review. I'll do whichever you prefer, but I won't say something I don't believe about the product. I generally won't publish a review of a product I completely dislike.

Giveaway Winners

All winners are selected by random drawing from total valid entries using a random number generator, unless giveaway details specify otherwise. A list of winners for each giveaway can be obtained by e-mailing me - usernames used for entry will only be disclosed to protect the privacy of the winner. Winners must abide by the rules of the giveaway or an alternate winner will be selected.