Parenting Roundabout

After watching the most recent season of The Amazing Race (which just wrapped up), Catherine obsessed about which of her family members she'd team up with on a race around the world--and she made Terri and Nicole play along too. Mentioned: GeoGuessr [https://www.geoguessr.com/], the Holderness Family [https://theholdernessfamily.com/].

Today, we're complaining about those times when we disagree with our spouses about a parenting issue. We don't understand how this happens, since our way is always the right way.

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2: As We See It's episode 4, "The Violetini," centered on a birthday party that did not go well for two out of three roommates--plus, Mandy's staying (who would have guessed?). Next: "Ever Had an Edible?"On The Gilded Age, the New York City aldermen find out what happens when you cross George Russell (and insult his wife--big mistake), and it's not good. Plus, both Marian and Peggy receive proposals that take them aback. Next: "A Long Ladder."

A surprising weather event in Southern California got us talking about life experiences we, and our kids, have missed out on (or been spared from), like broken bones and sleeping under the stars.

It's family birthday season for Catherine and Terri, and book launch season for Nicole, so it seems like a good time to review our celebration traditions, from ceremonial plates to congratulation cheesecakes to paying too much for dinner.​​

Kids thrive on routines, but so do parents. So today we're complaining about having to deal with changes to our daily habits—and the best ways to bug other people until they fix things.

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, Nicole had us all drooling over the Baskin-Robbins Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Layered Sundae [https://order.baskinrobbins.com/menu-details/reese-s-peanut-butter-cup-layered-sundae?id=95ea2b0c-3e7f-41b2-bda4-5f218f60d25e&sizes=%5B%5D]. Catherine went practical with her pick for KN95 masks from Bona Fide Masks [https://bonafidemasks.com/face-masks/kn95-respirators/]. And Terri went cozy with a fleece blanket from L.L. Bean [https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/121749?page=polar-fleece-blanket-full-queen&bc=&feat=blanket-SR0&csp=a&searchTerm=blanket&pos=3].

A Wall Street Journal article titled "College Students Have to Learn to Make Small Talk Again" [https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-students-forgot-how-to-talk-to-each-other-11644627316?st=xvyy5prs97qhn5h&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink] got us obsessing about the ways social media. the ubiquity of smartphones, and of course a global pandemic have changed the ways people interact with others in public.

This week's complaint is about a mom-shaming incident we read about [https://www.parents.com/news/neighbor-shames-mom-for-using-car-to-soothe-children-to-sleep/], in which an anonymous (cowardly!) neighbor told a mom to stop using her car as a baby sleep aid. We say, Let he who is carbon-neutral cast the first stone. Mentioned: The Snoo baby sleep solution from Dr. Harvey Karp (we're looking for an adult version, please) [https://www.happiestbaby.com/collections/snoo-accessories].

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, the As We See It roommates continue to navigate family ties, friendship, and romance in episode 2, "When Violet Met Douglas." Next week, it's another Violet-titled episode, "The Violetini." Mentioned: A book about sex for young adults with disabilities [https://norabaladerian.com/the-rules-of-sex-for-those-who-have-never-been-told/].On The Gilded Age, George Russell throws his money at a problem on behalf of his wife Bertha and we are just as impressed as Mrs. Astor (even if we didn't get the morning off like she did). Next: "Face the Music."

An article about an ingenious solution for parents juggling small children and work [https://www.moms.com/desk-parents-with-toddler-goes-viral/] (or just Web surfing; here's a pic [https://twitter.com/FamiliesFwdVA/status/1484940785476935690]) got us talking about the ways in which we restrained our little ones when we needed to--and suffered when we couldn't.

Gas line work in Terri's neighborhood and the need for a young fellow to come in the house and turn stuff off and on led her to wonder: Is it good manners to chat in a friendly way with workfolk in your home, or should you just shut up and leave them to do their thing? So of course, she checked in with Catherine and Nicole for a consensus.

If kids can sue their parents just for being born [https://news.iheart.com/featured/coast-to-coast-am/content/2019-02-04-indian-man-wants-to-sue-his-parents-for-giving-birth-to-him/], do we need to be prepared to defend our every parenting decision in a court of law? If you'll all be on our jury, we'd feel better about it.​

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, Terri tried a tasty new Pop-Tart (the Lemon Creme Pie flavor [https://www.poptarts.com/en_US/products/favorites/pop-tarts-lemon-creme-pie.html]). Nicole's daughter found a helpful Facebook resource: Interior Design: Ask Everything [https://www.facebook.com/groups/205442120227387]. And Catherine's following Jackie Wong, @RockerSkating on Twitter [https://twitter.com/rockerskating], for tons of Olympic figure-skating news. Mentioned: the men's individual event, especially Nathan Chen, Yuma Kagiyama, and Jason Brown.

A Character Lab tip about honesty, and how stress makes it hard to practice [https://characterlab.org/tips-of-the-week/honest-people/], got us obsessing about times when we've been honest, or tried to teach our kids honesty, with mixed results.

Nicole finished her last course in her master's program (yay Nicole!!), which got us complaining about how finishing a big project or meeting a challenge just leads to needing another challenge. Mentioned: National Novel-Writing Month (NaNoWriMo [https://nanowrimo.org/]).

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, we returned to As We See It with episode 2, "I Apologize for My Words and Actions." We continue to be most interested in the lives and challenges of the three roommates, and less so in their caregivers (except you, Joe Mantegna). Next: "When Violet Met Douglas" (episode 3).We also pivoted from Abbott Elementary to The Gilded Age (quite a 180) with episode 1, "Never the New." It's an escapist joy to watch beautiful people in beautiful rooms wearing beautiful clothes scoff about New Money. Mentioned: The Fug Girls' coverage [https://www.gofugyourself.com/the-gilded-age-recap-01-2022}; actor Simon Jones as an audiobook narrator (he has over 100 credits on Audible, but Catherine heard him read the middle-grade novel Lionboy). Next: "Money Isn't Everything" (episode 2).

Happy Valentine's Day, lovely listeners! As the calendar demands, on today's episode we talk about how we observe this day with our spouses and kids. We've all been married for a long time, so things have ... evolved.

Like folks didn't already have enough to disagree about these days, top sheets have become a hot topic on the Internet. (Or they were when we recorded this. Given the lifespan of Internet hot topics, people have probably moved on to some other ridiculous triviality by now.) We give our opinion on this vital issue, and though we do not agree, we remain civil. It can be done, people.​

Marie Kondo and her KonMari method are all over our social media feeds, thanks to her Netflix show [https://www.netflix.com/title/80209379]. So today, we discuss our tidying-up takeaways. In a nutshell: We're #KonMaybe. Also mentioned: Minimalist Joshua Becker on Young House Love Has a Podcast [https://www.younghouselove.com/podcast-128/].