Opinion by Raakhee Mirchandani for CNN

Growing up, there were a lot of mothers on TV — Mrs. Brady, Roseanne, Angela Bower, Clair Huxtable, Aunt Viv and a host of other 1990s sitcom moms who all felt interchangeable to me. Some of them were tough, others were “cool moms” — but none of them were like my mama, an Indian immigrant raising an American girl.

I never searched for either of us on TV. Truthfully, as a kid, I never knew I could.

What are the top-recommended picture books of 2021? It’s been a fantastic year in publishing with stunning writing, kid-approved page-turners, and meaningful topics with more representation than we’ve ever seen.

These new picture books make great read alouds for younger children –but also for older children as well. Remember that picture books are also for Elementary-age readers as well as toddlers and preschoolers.

Best Books for Kids & Teens is your guide to the best new Canadian books, magazines, audio and video for children and teens. Whether you’re stocking a bookshelf in a classroom, library or at home, every title in this guide has been given the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s stamp of approval.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for The Today Show

My 7-year-old daughter Satya takes up a lot of space in the world. Literally. Her stuff is everywhere.

Every surface of the apartment is covered in the things that fill her life: notebooks, my vintage copies of "The Baby-Sitters Club,"squishies, scrunchies and paradindis. Bindis share space with slime and graphic novels, side by side, all of them equal parts of what this little girl is made of.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Market Watch

“Why don’t any of the signs say Kamala?” Satya, my 6-year-old daughter, asked me. She recently learned how to read, and these days there is no sign nor cereal box left unread.

Names are a connection point for Satya and the Democratic vice presidential hopeful, Sen. Kamala Harris. Besides sharing Indian first names, the duo share the same middle name, Devi, something my kid finds endlessly fascinating. 

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Market Watch

What I really want for Mother’s Day is to spend a day with a handle of Tito’s and the stack of books teetering on the edge of my nightstand. Or to binge “Workin’ Moms” and “Never Have I Ever” with a bagel and a latte, immediately followed by a showing of “Becoming” on Netflix with a burrito. 

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Market Watch

Circle time is not for the weak. 

Turns out, you can’t really make a circle with three people, but that’s the size of my family. Plus, we already know what the other people in our circle/triangle have been doing for the past two weeks because, well, we’ve been self-quarantined and spending nearly every minute of every day together. Sharing? That’s all we do: share snacks, hopes, dreams and art supplies for the 17 crafts my daughter, Satya, and I make, usually before lunch.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Shape Magazine

There are a lot of things that make me cry: The lyrics to Beyonce's "Brown Skin Girl," listening to my 6-year-old daughter sound out words as she learns to read, and that damn Sarah McLachlan ASPCA commercial. Now, I get why those make me cry: Beyonce is a queen, kids unlocking literature is the single greatest sound in the world, and "Angel" paired with adorable animals in cages who need our help is on the same level of emotional torture as every episode of This is Us.

So when I started crying while I was out on long runs, well, I didn't think much of it. I'm a crier; this is just who I am.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

It’s the mother of all scheduling conflicts. You head to work and while you're out hustling, your kid does something amazing. For the first time. Literally something they will never do again, in that same way, and you've missed it.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

Another school lunch to pack, another day I fill my daughter's tiffin with poopie.

I don't set out to send her to school with a sack full of shit—I spend time making the daal, chopping the veggies and simmering and sautéing everything in just the right amount of herbs and spices. But any way I slice it, my daughter's friends think her lunch looks like crap.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

Like so many of us, my American story is an immigrant one. My dad, came to this country eager to try his luck; my mom came as a brand new bride, unsure of a new land where she neither looked nor sounded like her neighbors. Their story has a happy ending: from Bombay to the 'burbs of New Jersey, kids, houses, Sunday temple trips followed by pizza nights. 

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

If a sign goes up in Texas, does it piss off moms across the country? 

The sharing started slowly―a friend here and there, casually leaving it on her Facebook wall, a sanctimonious reminder of yet another thing, dear mamas, we're screwing up. Some were inspired by the misguided missive: "A good reminder for us all," wrote one. Others, closer to my heart, hurled expletives.

For the record, here's what it said:

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Today Show Parents

Briana Lopez doesn’t know what her favorite TV show is, but she knows how to spell petechiae. That’s what happens when you’re diagnosed with cancer at just 11-years-old.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

Most days I'm a fine mom: Satya, my 3-year-old is fed, mostly clean and laughs more than she cries. She has more veggies than cheese in her tummy, enough crayons on her easel and an unhealthy obsession with both Wonder Woman and FLOTUS. I love seeing the big wide world through her little eyes—kids have the crazy ability to find little bits of happiness in every situation and I'm naturally a more glass-is-half-empty-holy-shit-fill-the-fucking-glass kind of person.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

When my 3-year-old daughter wakes up on Christmas morning, there will be no presents to unwrap under the Christmas tree. There will no unboxing videos, no tears because we couldn't find a Hatchimal, and no chance that I wasted a minute of sleep or single breath on fulfilling a list of demands targeted to a portly stranger from the North Pole.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

Papa, can you hear me? There's some bullshit brewing in Brooklyn.

"Hipster Dads Now Want to Be Called Papa" a headline blares in The Daily Beast. The article cites "anecdotal evidence" (playground chatter, several quotes from Brooklyn "papas" and some "mamas"), and posits that its comeback (it was last popular in American English in the 1870s) is "perhaps as part of a return to the authentic and artisanal—the old made new again."

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

She was inconsolable. The tears were streaming down her face, the stress was palpable: "I don't want to President, I want to be me!" Satya shrieked, her tiny little face red with worry.

This one was on me. I had laid out a sweet little "Future President" t-shirt, complete with a tutu and a pair of Doc Martens. It was #toddlerswag, #outfitgoals and whatever else moms much cooler than me would call it.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

My little Satya,

I thought when you woke up this morning we would celebrate with ice cream for breakfast—a sweet treat to toast the new lady President we've been talking about for so many months. It was a joy to take you to the polls yesterday, in matching "The Future is Female" shirts, no less—a cheeky little girl-to-girl wink we giggled about all day.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for NBC News

It’s the same sweet scene most morning: Agan stands over the sink, fabric in hand, stretching it and then wrapping it, carefully placing the thick black cotton in perfect folds on his head.

It’s methodical, deliberate, and badass.

By Raakhee Mirchandani for Elle Magazine

It was bedtime and I was reading "The Story of Ruby Bridges" to my almost 3-year-old daughter Satya. She was wiggling and squirming, picking things out of places I would rather not mention. A little frustrated—like, hello, little toddler, don't you see me totally killing this parenting thing right now?—I let her have it, "Satya, if you don't want to listen to mama, I can just stop reading." She sat back down. The kid loves story time.