The 5 Most-Talked-About POPSUGAR Moms Stories This Week

We all want our children to be able to care for themselves and their own homes when it's time for them to fly the nest. So what skills should we teach our children to prepare them for eventual independence? We asked our Top 25 Home Management Mom Bloggers to share the essential home management skills every parent should teach her child, and many of you liked what they had to say! More than 87,000 of you read their tips, and more than 200 of you shared their advice, making this our most popular story of the week!

Many couples makes a conscious effort to maintain the romantic spark in their relationship once the baby is born. But hectic schedules and stressed finances often put a dent in their best-laid plans. Luckily, you don't have to have a lot of money to enjoy a night out with your partner. We gave you our tips for enjoying a low-cost night out, and many of you shared our ideas on social media. So how many of you are going out this weekend?

Do you find yourself watching old episodes of Leave It to Beaver, wishing you could trade places with June Cleaver? Or maybe you dream of mothering during the loosey-goosey days of disco and daisy prints? While we all love the perks that come with modern motherhood — what would we do without all those parenting apps? — sometimes we wonder if our parenting style is better suited for past generations. More than 2,000 of you have taken our quick quiz to see what decade you were meant to parent in. What were your results?

In 2008, Antonia Ayres-Brown noticed something during a routine trip to the McDonald's drive-through. After ordering the restaurant's famous Happy Meal, an employee asked if they should provide a "girl toy or boy toy." This did not sit well with the then-11-year-old, who went home to write to the CEO of the fast-food chain. Unfortunately, the higher-ups did not share her opinion, writing that her experience was unusual. Many middle schoolers would shrug off the response and move on, but Antonia would not stop until she saw a change.

This past Summer, Antonia conducted a study of sorts in which young boys and girls went into various McDonald's and ordered Happy Meals. Then Antonia, now 16 years old, noted which toys were included in their meal. She found that 92.9 percent of the time the children were given the trinket that was designated for their gender. Antonia took her findings to Donald Thompson, McDonald's current CEO. This time, she received some positive feedback.

Source: McDonald's