Who's the go-to parent in your home? A Huffington Post article on being the default parent got us talking about who wears the responsibility in our families, and a couple of us actually admitted to being backup parents at least part of the time. We chatted about how work schedules influence responsibility-taking, pondered the impact of adoption and step-families on traditional roles, felt for dads who don't get respect when they're in default mode, and wondered why the parent not in charge of logistics can never seem to remember when activities begin and end.

Next, we looked at the names we're called and the names others expect to hear. Other people's kids calling us mom? Okay. Other adults calling us mom? So very not. We took some time to rant about pet name-calling peeves and agreed that it's important to call people what they want to be called even if you think it's silly. But you can still talk about them on a podcast.

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week. Catherine was smiling about a New Mom Tech list of "11 Instagram accounts to follow that start your day off happy"; Amanda urged default and backup parents to follow her recommendations on "Ditching Good Cop, Bad Cop: How to Put Up a United Parenting Front"; Nicole pointed readers toward Huffington Post Parents, which is full of interesting topics for parents (and podcasters) even if it is a little click-bait-y; and Terri suggested checking out The Inspired Treehouse and Lemon Lime Adventures for all your snow-day bored-kid entertainment ideas.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

During our Oscars live-tweet, Kathy Ceceri mentioned her appreciation of Best Animated Feature winner Big Hero 6 for its good depiction of robots, and we thought that deserved more than a tweet's worth of talk. In this week's Round 3, Kathy tells us about the film (in case, like Terri, you haven't seen it), shares a little about the real robots behind the ones onscreen, and gives parents some idea of the kind of projects you can find in her book Making Simple Robots and her website, craftsforlearning.com. To follow along with the balloon-muscle project she mentions on the podcast, see "Make a Robotic Balloon Muscle" on the Make: website.

Read more on robotics from Kathy:

+ "Resistance is Futile: Harvard’s Kilobot Swarm Keeps Fellow Robots in Line"
+ Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future with 20 Projects
+ "5 Real Robots Made from Everyday Stuff"

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

The video at left is not Neil Patrick Harris's opening number from the 2015 Oscars. It is his opening number from the 2013 Tonys, a spectacle so glorious that for Terri's money, it gives him a "Get Out of Jail Free" card in perpetuity for any hosting gig that is less than stellar. After live-tweeting the 2015 Oscars, Catherine and Terri got together to chat about whether this behemoth benefits from having a host at all, whether we really want to hear winners talk and talk, how cool the graphics were, how frustrating the parenthesis situation is in Birdman's subtitle, whether we really needed Lady Gaga and The Sound of Music so far along in an endless show, why John Travolta should really probably just stay home, and of course, the dresses in all their cleavage-baring, peek-a-booing, impossible-to-sit-in glory. You can read our live-tweet in the post right below this on the Parenting Roundabout blog, and Catherine also recommends this Birdman parody from the Independent Spirit Awards, although the showing of the Oscar winner she describes in the podcast sounds pretty fun too.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

With the entertainment extravaganza of the Oscars coming up on Sunday (speaking of which, follow our live-tweet at #OscarsPRP), we took on a couple of pop-culture topics in this week's group chat. First, we forayed into the adult-unfriendly territory of tween TV, inspired by a New York Times column on the awfulness of Nickelodeon's Bella and the Bulldogs. We chatted about whether the show's premise (a girl on a boy's football team? what?!) is still valid, why the same tropes keep coming up in children's and adult programming, exactly how realistic our grown-up shows really are, and the possibility that you can think too much about what your tweens are watching.

Then we turned from TV to movies with a look at Entertainment Weekly's list of 55 movies all kids must watch before they turn 13 or forever be confused by pop-culture references (so no pressure there, 12-year-olds). It looks like our kids won't be having many in-depth conversations with EW writers, because based on this we didn't do too well with the cultural indoctrination. Still, we chatted about kids finding the entertainment they like, judging our entertainmentment faves by their own standards (as a Huffington Post writer did to Amanda's beloved Sixteen Candles), and moving the cultural conversation to things like vlogging, old-timer. (But if you do still want to try for indoctrination, why not check out Pop Culture Happy Hour's list of ways to turn your toddler into a nerd instead?)

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine celebrated efforts to fight childhood obesity; Amanda looked forward to our Oscars live tweet (did we mention, #OscarsPRP?) and to rooting for her cousin in the best adapted screenplay race; Nicole turned up a list of "10 YouTube Stars Your Kids Love" to get you started on that vlogging conversation with your youngsters; and Terri mentioned the 10-Point Comfort Scale she'll be using to judge the dresses on Oscar night (at, ahem, #OscarsPRP).

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

For this week's entertainment-themed Round 2 podcast, Catherine and Terri chatted about the star-studded Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special that took over NBC this past Sunday night. Though they both missed the red-carpet portion (red-carpet portion? really?), Catherine recorded and watched most of the special, while Terri dipped in and out of it and caught up with online clips. They mentioned some likes and dislikes about the special, reminisced about Saturday Night Live of old, and generally wondered if this is really where anybody would have expected the scruffy disrespectful comedy show that started during Terri's high-school years to end up. (To watch clips that Terri mentioned, you can find Paul Simon in his turkey suit on Vimeo and John Belushi talking about feeding fingertips to the wolverines on Yahoo!)

Speaking of over-hyped self-congratulatory star-studded entertainment, we'll be live-tweeting the Oscars on Sunday, and hope you'll join us. Look for the hashtag #OscarsPRP, and study up on Terri's 10-Point Comfort Scale for Oscar dresses to get in the mood for our red-carpet commentary.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

This week's first group-chat topic came once again from the UK, where public shaming of parents who tick other parents off appears to be a thing. A few weeks ago we talked about a parent who sent an invoice to the parents of a child who didn't show up at a birthday party (and had her private Facebook exchanges shared with newspaper readers), and this week we gave our take on a request for group birthday presents for schoolkids that led to a public sharing and mocking of e-mail. We debated which was more ill-mannered, the request or the response; wondered why a parent would think it's okay to do the kind of online bullying we discourage kids from doing; fess up to whether we've ever used another parent's behavior as a hook for online or private ranting; and consider when taking up a collection might or might not be a fine idea.

Speaking of gifts, our second topic dealt with that thing that's supposed to come after gifts: thank-you notes. An NPR article got us thinking about whether thank-you notes are still a necessary courtesy or whether there's a better way to teach kids about gratitude ... and whether if that better way is more time- and effort-intensive, it's moving in the right direction.

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine mentioned an article about "Active Valentine's Day Games and Activities"; Amanda directed us to her WayWire page, which features special-needs-related videos; Nicole had a Valentine's Day article to share too, on "Including All Students During Valentine's Day and Beyond"; and Terri mentioned both Valentine's Day content and a story from Variety about the cast of Grimm making a very useful endowment to a Portland Children's Hospital (plus some thoughts on what use a Grimm could serve in real life).

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

For this week's Round 2, Terri and Catherine looked at entertainment related to Valentine's Day, which (warning to the unprepared) is coming up this weekend. Catherine gave a thumbs-up review to The Hundred-Foot Journey, with a couple of romances making it worthy Valentine's viewing. Catherine and Terri both gave a squeamish thumbs-down to the idea of seeing 50 Shades of Grey in a movie theater with people or really anywhere or even the trailers or the book or really, can we just scrub it out of our brains? On a sweeter note, Terri talked about the many adorable romances and friendshps on Parks and Recreation, and shared a list of her favorite love-themed episodes. And for those for whom Valentine's Day is a little melancholy, Terri recommended two gorgeous recordings to wallow in: a mash-up of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" and "Style" by Louisa Wendorff and Devin Dawson, which started life as a viral video and is now available on iTunes, and the sad ballad "Just Like It Sounds" on Dawson's SoundCloud page. What are you watching, reading, or listening to this Valentine's week? Share in the comments.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

On this week's group chat, we revisited free-range parenting in light of a Slate article that seemed to want to declare a Free-Range Revolution over the police response to a couple of kids walking home by themselves. We discussed where we personally draw the line between appropriate and inapproprite independence; our own fears that people might fear for our kids' safety; the importance of parenting to the abilities of your own particular kid; the dangers of parenting with a capital P; and the many technological solutions available for discreet child surveillance.

Next, we considered giving kids a little classroom freedom by pulling them out of school for family vacations. A recent New York Times article suggested that some schools might consider that illegal, and we talked about the times when it might really be okay (say, for sporting events) and really might not be (if you're teaching your kid that school rules are stupid).

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine directed readers to About.com's children's books site for the latest book award winners, and to her own list on great sports books for tweens and teens, which includes this year's Newbery honoree; Amanda offered snowbound parents her personally tested list of activities to help hyperactive kids beat cabin fever; Nicole recommended Life 360, MamaBear, Find My Friends, and Tile for all your child-spying needs; and Terri was happy about the way actors Chris Pratt and Chris Evans used a fun Super Bowl bet as a way to give sick kids a special experience (and raise money for Christopher's Haven and Seattle Children's Hospital).

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

For this week's Round 2, Catherine and Terri chatted about Super Bowl commercials, including that super-buzz-kill-y Nationwide ad about how while you're watching the game, your kid's probably in the kitchen going through the hazardous chemicals. We talked about how, if you're going to run an ad that will traumatize children, you might want to not put a dog at the start of it; the difficulty of explaining that Fiat ad to kids; the halftime show starring lip-synching sharks; and the fun of watching the ads with Twitter accompaniment (shout-outs to @parksandrecnbc, @TheTonyAwards, and this tweet from Time columnist James Poniewozik). To view the ads we talked about, follow the links below, and then tell us in the comments what you liked and loathed.

Nationwide | Nissan (Cat's in the Cradle) | Fiat | Toyota (Amy Purdy) | Microsoft | McDonald's | GoDaddy | Always | Budweiser | Clash of Clans (Liam Neeson) | Snickers (Brady Bunch) | Jublia (Toenail Fungus) | Cure Auto Insurance | Loctite | Coke