Parenting Roundabout

It's almost Mother's Day, so we shared some of our favorite memories of our own moms (including how they are with our own kids). We hope all our listeners feel appreciated this week and every week.

It's a good time to set feet free from shoes and socks. But sandals can be problematic if your spouse disapproves, you have a foot condition that requires sturdier footwear, or your part of the country demands pricey versions.

We've tried cute little notes, temper tantrums, and repeating ourselves over and over (and over) again. And yet, our families ignore our wise counsel and basic rules.

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, Nicole's enjoying traveling the world with Ed People on TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@edpeople]. Catherine's shouting out Milk-Bone Good Morning Daily Vitamin Treats for helping her dog's creaky joints [https://www.milkbone.com/dog-treats/vitamins/good-morning-healthy-joints]. And Terri has a spiffy new tripod standing desk that lets her travel from room to room with her laptop [https://www.intension-design.com/tripodtable].

Spontaneity is easy and fun when you have no jobs, kids, or pets. At our stage in life, we require plenty of time for advance planning and advance worrying.

An article suggesting "10 Practical Ways to Improve Happiness" [https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/04/happiness-research-how-to-be-happy-advice/629559/] got us complaining about exactly how practical it is, for example, to walk an hour a day, read for pleasure an hour a day, and exercise, and socialize with your colleagues, and on and on. It doesn't make us happy to have to follow these rules, OK?

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2: Bridgerton took a bit of a darker turn and gave us some traumatic Bridgerton family backstory. So we forgive Anthony's rakishness, for now. Next: "Victory."Luckily, The Afterparty brought the mood back up with a lightweight musical episode. It didn't bring us any closer to solving the mystery, but it was fun to watch. Next: "Chelsea."

Like Duh-nelle on TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@i.talkwith.myhands/video/7079877885867314478], we are unapologetically not crunchy moms. We are the opposite of cloth-diapering, gardening, chemical-free parents--which makes us soggy moms. How about you?

It's the kind of thing we'd love to say that we do—especially Terri, who used to work for Hallmark—but between the cost and the time and the organization needed to actually buy and mail something, we're not exactly on it.​

In this episode, we're talking about kids today—or really, kids' activities today and how they're really kids' and parents' activities. Because why wouldn't we want to balance parenting, working, family relationships, and maintaining a home with a full-time job as a soccer mom?

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, Terri recommends Wakeout!, an app that she says makes exercise fun [https://wakeout.app/]. And in Nicole's absence, Catherine resurrects the Instagram Minute with her shout-out of Depths of WIkipedia, which will add randomness and giggles to your Insta feed [https://www.instagram.com/depthsofwikipedia/].

With TV shows like Full House and iCarly returning with re-imaginings and reboots, we obsessed about who, exactly, these shows are really for: The kids who used to watch them, or their moms?

Catherine got to spend a few days with one of her oldest (as in longest-standing) friends, and this prompted some complaints about how hard it is to build that kind of friendship as an adult. Thankfully, we've found that podcasting is one way to make friends!

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, Bridgerton is indeed "Off to the Races," as suitors line up to compete for Edwina Sharma's hand and Eloise and the Queen continue their pursuit of Lady Whistledown. Next: "A Bee in Your Bonnet."On The Afterparty, this week's storyteller was Brett and his genre was "car chase/heist movie." Maybe he's not such a bad dude, but rather a dad looking for a beloved stuffed koala! Next: "Yasper."

When we heard about Sniffspot [https://www.sniffspot.com/], an Airbnb-type service that lets you rent out your yard to curious canines, we brainstormed about all the kids' stuff we could profit from in the same way: Swing sets! Books! Legos! Barney videocassettes (there's a market for those, right?)! Mentioned: Our garage sale episode [https://www.parentingroundaboutpodcast.com/blog/time-for-a-garage-sale].

We love our dogs so much; we talk about them all the time on the podcast (and sometimes you can even hear them in the background). But birthday celebrations? Maybe a spoonful of peanut butter and a pat on the head.

It turns out we're all obsessed with certain hotel amenities. Free, fast Wifi is a given, but you can also make an impression with easy access to hot drinks, USB ports, lap desks, and Netflix.

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, we close out our entertainment-inspired week of episodes with a couple of pop-culture picks. Catherine's son discovered a high-concept book called S (just the letter S!), but there's a book within the book called Ship of Theseus [https://www.mulhollandbooks.com/titles/j-j-abrams/s/9780316201643/]. Terri recommends wallowing in a sad country song called "Flower Shops," from ERNEST, featuring Morgan Wallen [https://youtu.be/SOyd2H0l334].

On today's entertainment-inspired episode, we're obsessing about TV procedurals and all the parenting mysteries, big and small, that a crack team of investigators could examine--from who ignored the IEP to what happened to all the charging cords.

Continuing our entertainment-themed episodes this week, today we complain about TV shows that overlook certain types of moms and families--the types we are. We have some ideas for you, network execs.