Parenting Roundabout

We are nothing if not predictable. If you bugged our homes, here's what you'd hear--over, and over, and over again. The major topics: Pets and meals.

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, Making It is back with its usual contrived stories about why these projects are happening. Let's just let the makers make stuff!We also checked out Kevin Can F Himself, starring Annie Murphy (late of Schitt's Creek) as a sitcom housewife who's also living in a bleak drama. It's a high concept that's well done, but requires the viewer to live with a lot of unpleasantness. Mentioned: Pop Culture Happy Hour's discussion of the show [https://www.npr.org/2021/07/19/1017885733/no-laughing-all-crying-the-sitcom-reconsidered-in-kevin-can-f-k-himself].Next week: Making It episode 7, and we return to Veronica Mars season 4 one last time with Veronica Mars Investigations' wrap-up episode [https://www.veronicamarsinvestigations.com/vmi/investigations4].

On this week's Round 1, a Tiktok (of course!) prompted us to look back nostalgically at our university years, in the time before Internet, cell phones, and laptops. You know, back when we used a quill and an inkwell to write our papers.

Here's a this or that for you: delicious ice-cream-rich beverage, or something people use to hide spinach and worse? Yeah, Nicole and Terri are all-in for milkshakes. Catherine ... well, we'll stay her friend, we guess, but we're not going to drink anything she gives us.

Some childhood fears we've gotten over. Others have stayed with us. You just never know when Jaws is going to come up through the drain of a swimming pool! Mentioned: This 2016 episode on what was scaring us at the time [https://www.spreaker.com/episode/18923142].

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup: Terri recommends the cheerful "Fancy Like" fan video from Walker Hayes [https://youtu.be/E08puACaHfY], which he kindly posted on YouTube for those of us who can't handle TikTok. Nicole's Instagram Minute returns with geoscan.show [https://www.instagram.com/geoscan.show/], a business that puts on drone light shows (so if you liked the one at the Olympics, you might enjoy this account). Catherine's singing the praises of a Knox Rose summer dress from Target [https://www.target.com/p/women-39-s-short-sleeve-wrap-dress-knox-rose-8482-pink-floral-m/-/A-82044440], plus a side recommendation for the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin [https://www.jmkac.org/].

Last year, we fretted about Nicole's impending empty nest [https://www.parentingroundaboutpodcast.com/blog/the-emptying-nest]. And then, she got a one-year reprieve as her daughter stayed home and took her classes online. Now she's leaving, for real, and Nicole's still not ready. Mentioned: You Need a Budget [https://www.youneedabudget.com/].

Nicole's getting ready for her first Covid-era airplane flight, so Terri thoughtfully helps her figure out everything that could go wrong so she can prepare with plenty of pre-emptive worry.

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2: Terri tried Schitt's Creek, a show Catherine has watched in its entirety but Terri had never seen. We selected 5 episodes recommended by IMDB [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvGQh9lwYY8]: Season 1/episode 6, “Wine & Roses”; season 2/episode 5, “Bob's Bagels”; season 4/episode 2, “Pregnancy Test”; season 4/episode 6, “Open Mic” (recently inducted into the Extra Hot Great canon [https://www.extrahotgreat.com/364/]); and season 6/episode 5, “The Premiere." While Terri wasn't as hooked on the show as IMDB promised she'd be, she enjoyed the time she spent in Schitt's Creek.Next week: Making It returns, and we'll follow Annie Murphy (Alexis Rose on Schitt's Creek) to her new project, Kevin Can F*** Himself, on AMC+. Never heard of AMC+? Neither had we. Here's how to watch it [https://www.amcplus.com/ways-to-watch].

Once we're released from parenting obligations like homework supervision, chauffeuring, and attending concerts and games. we find ourselves at loose ends. Is it time to take up knitting?

​​We've got our piles of past concert souvenirs, sure, but the cost of doing memorabilia business has gotten to us in recent years.

Do you still have your high school yearbook? We compare and contrast the yearbooks of our day with those of our kids.

This week’s Roundabout Roundup is a very tasty one. Nicole's shouting out her favorite Greek restaurant in Los Angeles, Papa Cristo's [https://papacristos.com/]. Catherine's also going Greek, with a recommendation for Yasso Greek yogurt bars [https://yasso.com/products/bars/]. And Terri's recommending a breakfast that might look like cat food, and sound like baby food, but tastes pretty darn good: Mush ready-to-eat oats [https://eatmush.com/products/mush].

On today's episode, we're obsessing about whether we're superstitious, whether it's something we learned from our parents, and whether we might be passing it on to our kids. Because really, why tempt fate when it's just as easy not to open that umbrella inside the house?

We complain about what it takes to be a team player (and how that works when combined with our rule-following natures) and also about how it's hard to go it alone. You see our dilemma.

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2: We failed to realize that Making It would be pre-empted by a little event called the Olympic Games. So we dipped back into season 1 to compare its "All of the Holidays at Once" episode to this season's similarly themed ep. Turns out the reason there's more making and less emoting in season 1 is: There are fewer people. This throws a wrench in our "Don't send anyone home ever!!" proposal. Mentioned: The makers on Instagram; they're all linked on this post from Melanio.Continuing the flashback theme, we watched the movie Practical Magic, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman and also delightfully featuring Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest, as well as Goran Visnjic as a most un-delightful boyfriend. It was a wonderfully witchy trip back to 1998. Mentioned: This article comparing the movie to its source material, Alice Hoffman's book.Next week: We'll keep Making It and Veronica Mars on hold and challenge Terri to try Schitt's Creek with 5 episodes recommended by

On today's Round 1, we're talking about college majors and degrees and how much influence parents have over their kids' choices. Our parents were supportive of our decisions (in Nicole's case, wisely steering her toward teaching) and we're trying to be the same for our kids.

Printing or cursive? Board games or card games? Painting or drawing? Writing or reading? Hear our answers to this latest batch of questions and play along!

First it was tiger moms, then helicopter parents, then lawnmower parents and even elephant parents. Well, we can come up with click-baity parenting "styles" too!

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup: Terri recommends the Good Sudoku app [https://www.playgoodsudoku.com/] if you're looking to play that unpronounceable game on your phone. Nicole had a happy customer-service experience with Delta Faucet [https://www.deltafaucet.com/]. And Catherine and her family immersed themselves in Beyond Van Gogh; see if it's coming to your city in this rundown at ArtNet [https://news.artnet.com/art-world/immersive-van-gogh-guide-1974038].