Hello. My name is Molly Baker and I am a writer living in suburban Philadelphia. I live with my husband, nicknamed Slim by a ranch hand out West – as in “Slim, those chaps are a little small, why don’t you try these chinks?” Said husband and I raise (well, at least live with) our three boys, not-so creatively nicknamed Thing One, Thing Two, and yes, Thing Three (If it worked for Dr. Seuss, it can work for me).

Professionally, I write about all kinds of things — pop culture, technology, and business. Personally, on this blog, I write mostly about things that interest me as a thinking parent on the home front — less what Washington has to say about child safety laws or how I get (or don’t get) my laundry done — but somewhere in between the two. Like, what is the right age to show your child “The Godfather”? You know, the important stuff.

My writing career started long ago when I published a multipage family newspaper which I forced my siblings to be interviewed for, my father to copy on his office mimeograph machine, and my mother to read. Then came the college daily and glamorous summer internships covering the Boy Scout Jamboree and the price of gas. Every day. A detour as an investment banker on Wall Street for a few years led to a reporting job and a daily stock market column at The Wall Street Journal.

And then there were babies. Full stop. End of story. This is when I was writing for the Journal about the internet. There was no writing for the internet. I distracted myself from diapers by getting an MFA, writing a narrative nonfiction book following a mutual fund team around for a year, and freelancing for magazines and newspapers. Soon I found myself with more things to research and write about than editors had room or interest, so I started a blog to pursue those stories. Playgroup With Sylvia Plath was born. And, really, I still can’t see why the editors didn’t go for it. While I loved the newspaper reporting, the community of readers of the blog became a valuable source of energy and engagement I hadn’t expected. But then I was offered a job I hadn’t expected.

I worked with really wonderful people. I wrote about business and the stock market and people and companies doing amazing things. My children saw me go to work (mostly) everyday and I was rewarded once again with this wonderful thing called money — which is still very difficult to find on the internet. Five years later, I am excited to return to professional writing and reporting. And once again, I have ideas, stories, research and a renewed confidence that will be right at home here on the blog.