A product testing program with expert reviews and feedback from parents
By Today's Parent
Updated May 28, 2020Photo: Stocksy United
We know how challenging it can be for parents—especially new parents—to make decisions about which products to buy for their family. You can spend hours and hours clicking through all the strollers at just one retailer, and then there’s car seats, breast pumps, baby monitors, baby carriers, pacifiers, diaper rash cream… It’s overwhelming, to say the least! But we want to make things a whole lot easier with Today’s Parent Approved.
Today’s Parent Approved is an exhaustive product testing program that looks at a wide range of products in the categories most important to parents and determines which are the best on the market based on three criteria:
We also recognize that no product is perfect for everyone, so we publish thorough reviews of every Today’s Parent Approved pick, highlighting the results of our testing so that you can select the product with the features that matter most to you and your family.
How to we decide which products are Today’s Parent Approved?
We put each product through a battery of tests in our Today’s Parent Approved lab, and we send the product out to parents to try it at home and give us detailed feedback. Before we dive into testing, we think long and hard about all the ways families use each type of product, and then we develop a customized set of criteria and tests that will help us assess its quality, ease of use and value for money.
Every product that earns the Today’s Parent Approved seal must do the job it claims to, and it has to do it safely. We look at everything from how easy it is to set up or assemble the product to consistency of performance to how simple it is to clean (we know how much that matters to you). Our tests run the gamut from measuring noise levels to testing plastics for staining by letting them sit overnight in a sink full of water with a bit of spaghetti sauce added.
Scores are calculated for the lab tests and the parent tester feedback to determine overall scores for quality and ease of use. Next, we compare those scores to the product’s price and factor in our parent testers’ feedback on value to determine whether the product offers good value for money. These three scores together determine which products are worthy of the Today’s Parent Approved seal.
What can you expect in our reviews?
Our Today’s Parent Approved reviews are packed with expert insight and real-parent feedback, as well as an overview of the product’s features. We give you the most important info up front: who it’s best for, the top benefits, considerations that may or may not affect your decision to buy, the price and links to Canadian and US retailers, as well as features and specs. Then we get into the nitty gritty, outlining how we tested the product and how it performed, and sharing detailed feedback from our parent testers who used the product in their day-to-day lives. This thorough assessment will give you a clear picture of where the product excels as well as identify anything that may be an issue for some users. After all, a must-have for you might not be important to another parent.
Whether you’re combing through our reviews or you see the Today’s Parent Approved seal on packaging when you’re shopping, you can rest assured that all Today’s Parent Approved products are dependable, quality items that offer good value for your hard-earned dollars.
If you have any questions about Today's Parent Approved, get in touch at editors@todaysparent.com and we'll make sure it lands in the right person's inbox.
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