Palmetto Parents is a weekly email for families in the Lowcountry. We write about the parks, events, restaurants, and small local things that make a week with kids easier — with real addresses, real times, and an honest note when something isn't worth the drive.
It comes out Friday mornings. It's free.
Who writes it
I'm Courtney Berk. I write most of the Summerville edition. I'm originally from Chicago, I've been in Summerville for years now, and I have two boys — four and two — plus a third on the way this fall. Most of what ends up in the newsletter is something we tried, something a friend told me about, or something I've been meaning to get to and finally did.
My husband Daniel bylines some issues and handles the business side.
The Charleston edition is written by Jenna Winters, with help from me.
Two editions
We publish two local editions, because "things to do with kids" means something different in Summerville than it does downtown.
Palmetto Parents Summerville — Summerville, Nexton, Cane Bay, Carnes Crossroads, Moncks Corner, and the surrounding Dorchester and Berkeley County towns.
Palmetto Parents Charleston — downtown, West Ashley, Mount Pleasant, James Island, and the beaches.
Plenty of families read both. They're separate emails, so subscribe to whichever fits your week — or both.
What's in an issue
Every Friday issue follows the same shape, so you can skim to the part you need:
To-Do — one outing worth planning around, with hours, admission, and the honest caveats. Every one of these also lives on our Things to Do page.
Events — what's actually happening in the next week or so. Date, time, address, price, and who it's for.
Restaurant — a local spot, reviewed like a parent: kids' menu, noise, patio, high chairs, whether it survives the 5pm meltdown hour. These collect on our Restaurants page.
Palmetto Piece — a short essay about the actual experience of raising kids here. These live on the Palmetto Piece page.
How we pick what goes in
A few rules we hold ourselves to:
We live here. This isn't a national listicle with a city name dropped in. If we name a playground, it's one we've stood at.
We say when we haven't been. If a restaurant is on our list but we haven't eaten there yet, we tell you that instead of pretending.
We check before we print. Dates, times, addresses, and prices get verified against the venue or the city's own page. Hours change constantly, so we link the official source rather than baking in numbers that will be wrong by October.
We flag the caveats. Mosquitoes, shade, parking, registration deadlines, the age a thing actually works for.
No "best of." We don't rank things we haven't done.
Supporting it
The newsletter is free and always will be. If you want to chip in, a Palmetto Parents Supporter membership is $5 a month or $40 a year. It goes toward the time it takes to actually go to these places.
If you run a local business and want to reach Lowcountry parents, our sponsorship page has the details.
Getting in touch
The best way to reach us is to hit reply on any issue — those come straight to us, and we read all of them. Tips, corrections, a restaurant we've been getting wrong, a park that just reopened: send it. A lot of what runs in the newsletter started as a reader reply.
Start here
New around here? These are the guides we keep updated: