Parenting Roundabout

A post on the Today show site [https://community.today.com/post/5-easy-ways-to-build-your-relationship-with-your-teenager] got us talking today. It's about "easy" (red flag!) ways to build your relationship with your teenager. Despite its quick-and-easy promise, we did find some good advice within, and shared our own too. Mentioned: Transforming the Difficult Child: The Nurtured-Heart Approach by Howard Glasser [https://amzn.to/2HnjdbH].

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, Nicole treated herself to a cozy fleece from Columbia [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MV8MPH8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details], but the plant-based snacks that Catherine recommended, Mustache Munchies Cheddarish crackers [https://www.getgreenmustache.com/products/mustache-munchies-cheddarish-crackers], do not sound like a treat to Nicole. Terri's just happy that Taylor Swift dropped a new album [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLINj2JJM1jxP5aYiX47uBCRu9g8JItDWp].

An Instagram post from the Just Girl Project [https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjst166rqn0/] got us obsessing about self-care, the 5 love languages, and what happens when you mash them up together. Let's just say that some of us love ourselves, and self-care [https://www.parentingroundaboutpodcast.com/blog/the-self-care-struggle], a lot more than others.

The fill-in-the-blank (helicopter, tiger, lawnmower) parent genre [https://www.parentingroundaboutpodcast.com/blog/episode-235-beyond-tiger-moms-and-helicopter-parents] is rich for revisiting, and complaining about, which we are doing today after reading the latest list of suggestions at the New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/17/helicopter-parents-are-last-years-model].

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, foxtrots abounded on Dancing with the Stars, Michael Bublé proved to be a charming judge, and Vinny climbed up out of the bottom two (no doubt thanks to Terri's votes). Next week: Halloween! and the return of team dances.On Rutherford Falls, election day draws nearer (in fiction as in real life) and Bobbie and Feather battle for votes and public goodwill at a pancake breakfast. Mmmmm, pancakes. Next: The season—and series—finale, "Election."

When Nicole got the chance to be her son's guest for Christmas instead of hosting the holiday herself, she jumped on it (maybe too quickly?). That got us talking about how we feel about reversing the roles on holiday traditions and other family routines.

On Speed-Round Sunday, we share a mini episode from our past (in this case, September 2018) for your weekend listening pleasure.​Since Nicole doesn't usually join in on the Round 2 fun, we each give a little report on what's on our TVs these days.

On today's episode, we obsess about online travel booking. Instead of being convenient, we find it's usually far more trouble than it's worth. Cross your fingers that Terri's family isn't sleeping in the car on their next trip.

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, Terri's rocking out to HARDY's latest, The Mockingbird and the Crow [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmoOJX8ck0EMFbYRj21_GAi4i6Vcik5kF]. Nicole's gearing up for some trips to the Northeast with Blundstone boots [https://www.blundstone.com/stout-brown-premium-leather-v-cut-boots-womens-style-500], and Catherine's showing her loyalty to both Delta Airlines and Starbucks [https://www.deltastarbucks.com/content/starbucks/en/overview.html].

Terri doesn't go out much, and it might be because she keeps getting invitations filled with befuddling suggestions for gift-giving.

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, we're coming to you a day late because Dancing with the Stars felt we needed double the amount of dancing this week: First, Most Memorable Year, capped off by the sad departure of Selma Blair, who is unable to continue with the show for medical reasons; and then, a prom night/dance marathon mash-up with a very unsatisfying outcome: Joseph sent home while Heidi stayed. Next: Michael Bublé Night.Then, on Rutherford Falls, we had an enjoyable, but sitcom-101 Halloween episode featuring a cast of condiment costumes (mentioned: Chicago-style hot dogs [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/kitchen-notes/the-unbreakable-rules-of-the-chicago-dog-and-when-to-bend-them]). Next: "Firefighters Pancake Breakfast."

It's a hot topic on TikTok: Are you an almond mom [https://www.self.com/story/almond-mom], or did you grow up with one? Today we complain about these moms, but also about how hard it is to handle difficult topics related to weight, nutrition, and health.

We debate the best response to friendly children who volunteer personal information. Is polite chit-chat cute, or creepy?

If you take us out to lunch, we will gladly pay our share and maybe even yours too. (Just please, take us out to lunch!)

Our kids are in the hot seat on complaint day again this week. This time it's because they have a bad habit of breaking our stuff... until we admit that we're pretty good at breaking our own stuff.

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, Catherine has a two-fer: the book The Lincoln Highway [https://www.amortowles.com/the-lincoln-highway-about-the-book/], and Little Free Libraries [https://littlefreelibrary.org/], which is where she found her copy. Nicole recommends the Waze app [https://www.waze.com/], which has been helping her navigate LA traffic. And Terri's happy it's pumpkin season, so she can enjoy pumpkin spice cookies from Tate’s Bake Shop [https://www.tatesbakeshop.com/pumpkin-spice-cookies.html] and pumpkin spice tea from Gold River Trading Company [https://goldriverco.com/products/pumpkin-spice-tea].

On the one hand, we're nostalgic about all the tasty home-made foods that we got and our kids didn't. On the other hand, they've had many more opportunities to try cuisines from around the world--and vegetables that haven't been boiled within an inch of their lives.

This is the third installment [https://www.parentingroundaboutpodcast.com/blog/wildlife-invasions] of a series [https://www.parentingroundaboutpodcast.com/blog/emboldened-animals] in which we complain about critters. This time around, we're dealing with raccoons, opossums, and spotted lanternflies [https://nj1015.com/spotted-lanternfly-quarantine-zone-expanding-to-all-of-nj/].

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2: It was Disney+ Night on Dancing with the Stars, which meant varying degrees of commitment to costumes from Disney properties: Alan unrecognizable as a zombie (Hocus Pocus 2), Sasha and Selma snappy in suspenders and saddle shoes (The Muppet Show), and Emma as a sexy race car driver (Cars), which prompted a mention of the song "Sexy" from Mean Girls, the musical [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KycXHeUxho].We said so long to Sam, and Vinny and Jessie bounced back from harsh criticism last week to fervent praise this week. Next: Most Memorable Year on Monday, 10/17, and Prom Night/Dance Marathon on 10/18. That means we'll bring you Round 2 on Wednesday, 10/19, instead of our usual Tuesday.Over on Rutherford Falls, it was road-trip time: Terry, Reagan, Nathan, and Bobbie traveled to New York--and away from advancing the plot. Still, we got to revisit season 1's NPR Josh and Rutherford Inc.'s former PR boss, Kaitlyn. Next: S2 E6, "Halloween" (how timely!).

Nicole's daughter is in her last year of university, and Catherine's is right behind her. We've barely had time to digest the Big Life Decisions they had to make to get to this point, and now it's time for more.