Saint Louis Zoo

When it comes to taking your kids out for some family fun, what's better than free?

Our go-to free destination is the Saint Louis Zoo, but it's not on this list.  Don't get me wrong – we love the Zoo with a passion. We are members and go so much we're actually on a first name basis with the anteaters. But the Zoo's reputation proceeds it; everyone knows it's awesome.

So here are the first five of my top ten list of my favorite kid-friendly, free gems of the city. Minus the Zoo, but it's implied.

The holiday season is upon us here in St. Louis, which means that many St. Louis families are busy, busy, busy with shopping, decorating, and holiday gatherings.

Caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season? Don’t forget that our city offers many wonderful holiday traditions for families to enjoy, so gather your kids and take advantage of these fun and festive ways to celebrate the true magic of the holidays:

Any mom who has breastfed knows that, well, it's not as easy as it looks. In the earliest stages there can be problems with your baby latching on. It takes an enormous time commitment (on top of everything that is new parenthood). It's difficult to breastfeed if you are going back to work (you'll have to pump, and some workplaces still don't have adequate facilities for pumping moms). And you likely won't sleep for more than three hours at a time for as long as you're doing it.

And those are just the practical concerns. Add in society's seemingly endless enthusiasm for judging new and seasoned moms for breastfeeding in public, and you've got the potential for causing some serious pearl-clutching, even if you don't end up on the cover of a national magazine because you dare to breastfeed your toddler, or make headlines because, horror of horrors, you fed your hungry baby in public.

But given all of this, breastfeeding moms are a resilient bunch, and that's a good thing. The rewards of nursing to mom and baby are significant.

St. Louis will be rolling in the deep when sharks and stingrays swim back for an encore at the Saint Louis Zoo this season. “Stingrays at Caribbean Cove featuring Sharks” opens on April 20 and runs through September 30, 2012.
 
It’s a season-long pool party like no other in town starring some smooth operators – bonnethead, white-spotted bamboo and nurse sharks, cownose rays, southern stingrays and horseshoe crabs.