With weather getting warmer, school rules about flip-flops and spaghetti straps and short-shorts are getting parents' attention, and so we started our chat with a look at how kids dress at school and how much we ought to care. Is the right to wear crop tops and miniskirts a legitimate feminist concern? Could shorts bans force boys to wear pants in the dead of winter? And what exactly would you have to Google to find an eighth-grade dance dress that is not excessively skin-baring?

Dress codes and uniform policies tend to get people up in arms, but of course, arms get up pretty easily these days in an online culture of over-the-top shaming snark. We talked about the ways that Amanda is, according to commenters, single-handedly ruining the Internet; Nicole's extremely polite way of rousing rabble; Catherine's policy of never writing anything people could care enough about to get angry; and Terri's plan to issue everybody a reality-check buddy to prevent postings you'll regret later.

Finally, we made our (non-snarky, completely upbeat) suggestions for the week: Catherine likes the Sports section on Understood.org; Amanda directed us to a dad's opinion on dress codes on the Scary Mommy blog; Nicole thinks everybody should study up on essential Facebook etiquette; and Terri recommended a book she recently blurbed, Going Solo While Raising Children with Disabilities by Laura Marshak, who was a co-author of an earlier book she liked, Married with Special-Needs Children. Plus, we all think you need to follow @SavedYouAClick and @HuffPoSpoilers on Twitter, though sadly @AvoidComments is no longer active.

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.)

College graduation marks the end of many long years of getting your child through school and homework and testing and adolescence. What it doesn't end is your need to parent and worry and figure out what's next. Terri chatted with Kathy Ceceri, who writes about homeschooling on the All About Homeschooling Facebook page and her site Crafts for Learning, about independence and whether it's the top priority for every single young adult; the need for a support system even when you're off working a fabulous job; the value of living at home and saving money; and the fact that current young adults can't necessarily count on getting the kind of job that will allow them to have their own individual out-of-the-nest lives in the first place. Read the Washington Post article that Kathy found to make Terri feel better about her advance-stage helicopter parenting, and if you're seeing this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

For their weekly entertainment chat, Catherine talks about her latest book-club selection, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes; Terri talks about David Letterman's last late-night episode; and they both talk about the phenomenon of following the end of a series like Mad Men solely through the tidal wave of tweets from critics and TV writers we like. To check out some of the links we talked about:
+ You can view That Amazing Letterman Montage in the video at left, find out more about each tiny clip in the fantastic Facebook round-up by Adam Nedeff, and view the whole episode on CBS.com for as long as it's there (and if it disappears, Gothamist has a live-blog with clips). 
+ Wondering what the dispute was about Million Dollar Baby and disability rights? Terri has a round-up of opinions.
+ The Mad Men scene with Stan and Peggy is available on YouTube, but beware: if you were of a certain age in the '70s, Stan's outfit may give you upsetting flashbacks.
Reading this somewhere without hyperlinks? Come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

A tweet this week from Catherine about a 14-year-old in her carpool lamenting "where did my life go?" inspired this week's first chat topic -- because where did our lives go, and why do kids seem to feel their lives are moving as fast as ours? We talked about the aging properties of seeing the edgy entertainers of your youth becoming cherished institutions (happy retirement, David Letterman!) and, in your own youth, finding out that the pop singers you enjoy are younger than your own young self (it's tough being the same age as Taylor Swift). At any rate, we agreed to all meet at Nicole's retirement fantasy home for bingo and bocce ball real soon.

One way to mark the passage of time is annual traditions, and we talked about one that's common at the high school behind Terri's house: a "don't drink and drive at prom" pageant involving a cracked up car, ambulance, body bags, staged teenage wailing, and a guy on a loudspeaker. Do presentations like this really convince kids who intended to drink and drive to stop, or do they just freak out the kids who would never do anything wrong but are easily spooked? We chatted about after-graduation events, the need to talk about not texting and driving as well as not drinking and driving, and the importance of "do what I do" over "do what I say."

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine has an article on 22 outdoor activities to do with your family (because it's Memorial Day weekend, ready or not); Amanda thinks you should use the weekend to go geocaching (on which Catherine has two articles); Nicole suggests visiting the website www.donttextdrive.com; and Terri has gathered links to all of Noah Galloway's dances on Dancing With the Stars for those who want to view them again or learn more about the army vet who danced with one arm and a prosthetic leg.

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.)

On the one hand, as parents of kids with special needs, we're desperate for them to do the things their age peers are doing. We want them to be adept at the tools of the world today and fluent in the language of our times. On the other hand, don't lie and stop cursing and don't make secret social media accounts, and get away from that computer and stop playing video games and put down that phone. Amanda chats with Charlie Zegers, who writes about sports and also about parenting kids on the autism spectrum, about how you tease out what's the condition and what's the age, and how to discipline without stamping out important developmental progress. Are we expecting more from kids on the autism spectrum than we'd expect from typical kids, as About.com's autism expert Lisa Jo Rudy asked in an article on her site? Or should we be expecting more from typical kids? Listen in for some good food for thought on parenting on and off the spectrum (and if you're interested in getting your kids coding, the sites referred to are Scratch and Game Salad). If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Who do you feel is more judgey about your parenting -- your kids' grandparents or Pinterest? According to Susan Adcox, grandparenting expert for About.com, your parents and in-laws may actually be trying to free you from that 500-crafts-you-must-make-for-your-baby's-birthday-party ideal. Susan chatted with Catherine about the things grandparents want to tell their children — like enjoy life, eat healthy, put down the screens, stop spending money on meals out and cars, and more wisdom picked up through experience — but may stop themselves from saying because both parents and kids need to learn things on their own, and keeping the lines of communication open is sometimes more important than being right. For more on what your parents would like to tell you about your parenting, read "8 Things Grandparents Would Like to Say to Parents" on About.com Grandparenting; and for the article Catherine mentioned on dinner planning, read "5 Ways to Deal with Dinner Time (When You're Never Home at Dinner Time)" on About.com Family Fitness. Reading this somewhere without hyperlinks? Come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience. 

Catherine has two movies to talk about -- three if you count her homework for seeing Pitch Perfect 2 of watching Pitch Perfect. In addition to catching the new a capella comedy with a gaggle of 13-year-olds, she caught up with the much smaller but still entertaining Chef thanks to Netflix, and came away most impressed by its youngest star. Meanwhile, Terri spent the week watching very very short movies: the trailers created by networks to sell their new series. She gives thumbs up to this trailer for Supergirl (find the Glen Weldon post defending the show's rom-com-iness here), thumbs sideways to the one for Code Black, and thumbs down to Quantico, and in general figures that six or seven minutes is too long of a trailer for a sitcom and may be enough to un-sell her on a drama as well. What's looking good to you in the upcoming season? Give the comments here a try, or talk back on our Facebook page or @RoundAboutChat on Twitter. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Are you ready for the summer? We're not so much ready for the summer as ready for the school year to END. In an early-morning podcast recording that had us saying "energy up!" on a regular basis, we talked about end-of-the-school-year field trips, end-of-the-school-year burnout, and end-of-the-school year exams upon exams that have Nicole ready for her daughter to graduate the University of Middle School. While we're light on actual constructive advice, do listen in to find out how to make it look like you didn't really sign all those lines of the reading log in one sitting.

Of course, once you have that glorious TGIthe-end-of-school moment, you have to figure out what to do with your kid during those structure-free months. We talked about camps both exciting (tall ships!) and not (typing camp!), the hopeful pursuit of a modest minimum-wage McJob, educational and sports programs for serious summertime progress, and the dreadful prospect of no structure when kids and parents must have it to function.

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine wants to keep you moving with her articles "How to Stop a Fitness Backslide" and "Have an Active Summer"; Amanda thinks you should look at that IEP (eek!) over the summer with her article "Reinforcing IEP Goals Over the Summer"; Nicole suggests checking www.summercamps.com for lots of fun summer camp options; and Terri commisserates with your end-of-year woes with "10 Things to Hate About the End of the School Year" and your routine-and-structure needs with "Camp Mom" and "DIY ESY."

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.)

Fresh off hosting 75 people for a four-year-old's birthday party with a theme of "Space, Ranbows, and Superheroes," Lexi Walters Wright chats with Terri about present protocols, color-coordinated superhero cupcakes, backyards vs. bowling alleys, how birthday parties have changed over the years, and why you won't find a pinata at her house. For more advice on birthday parties, read Lexi's articles on Understood.org:

+ 3 Reasons Kids May Struggle With Birthday Parties
+ 8 Ways to Make Your Young Child’s Party a Success
+ Common Party Pitfalls for Grade-Schoolers With Learning and Attention Issues

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

Before TV networks started showing off their shiny new series to critics and advertisers at the upfronts this week, they cleared the decks of a whole lot of shows you may have hoped wouldn't get canceled. We started our chat with a different sort of canceled -- the kind where you get beheaded, as Anne Boleyn was at the end of this first season of Wolf Hall (500 year old spoiler alert!) -- and then took a brief spin past the Dancing With the Stars semifinals before landing in the TV show graveyard for a look at whether anything we cared about was lost in the carnage. (Wondering if your favorites still have a pulse? Mashable has a list of the dearly departed.) We also tipped a hat to shows that have survived in creative ways, by jumping to other content providers, getting a final year as a victory lap, or getting a gimmick (good luck with that all-live season, Undateable!) Are you mourning the dead, celebrating the living, or looking forward to something new? Share with us on Twitter at @RoundAboutChat, on our Facebook page, or on the comments here if you can get them to work. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

What promises would you make to your child if you had the opportunity to do so publicly, on Twitter, for everybody to see? That's the question asked by an Understood.org campaign, #ParentPromise, to inspire parents to demonstrate their devotion with a selfie and a commitment. Amanda promised to see the world through her children's eyes and put them before the laundry (literally, judging by her photo); Nicole promised to help her children survive and thrive, and earn college degrees they won't have to lease out later; Catherine promised to help her kids grow up to be their own persons, and to not complain too much about the cost of skating equipment; and Terri promised not to make big promises, but maybe some small easily achievable ones like "I promise to let you watch TV at least five hours a day."

From promises to keep, we moved on to promises we often see people break, like, "I promise to respond promptly when you send me an e-mail" and "I promise to leave a voice-mail message if I expect you to call me back." We discussed such digital dilemmas as accidentally replying-all, posting to the wrong Twitter feed, properly using social-media slang, and knowing when you can stop saying "Thank you" at the end of an e-mail conversation.

Finally, we gave our recommendations for the week: Catherine thinks you should get out and enjoy National Bike Month, Bike to Work Day, and the National Bike Challenge, which might score you the coveted prize of a year's supply of TP; Amanda has not yet read Emily Post’s Manners in a Digital World, but she thinks we should all look it over and compare notes; Nicole mentioned another online-comportment resource, Kindness Wins by Galit Breen, for parents who are new to social media and want their kids to behave; and Terri recommended her articles on putting together your own Camp Mom do-it-yourself day camp (in case your #ParentPromise was, "I promise to forget to enroll you in a summer program until school is almost out and every deadline has passed.")

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.)

Although embarrassing children has long been a specialty of parents, the addition of social media to the options for spreading stories about that thing your kid did has raised privacy issues and caused concern over the way parents of children with disabilities in particular portray their youngsters and to what purpose. Terri chatted with Robert Rummel-Hudson, author of Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter and blogger at Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords and Support for Special Needs, about the value of parents sharing their stories, the importance of balancing bad with good, the danger of pity parties, the hope of preparing a platform from which kids can launch their own adult advocacy, and the sneaking suspicion that a generation that's grown up online doesn't have the same conception of "privacy issues" that their pearl-clutching elders do. Listen in, and check back the first Thursday of every month for more conversations with Rob about raising kids with special needs.

Is the weather finally nice where you are? If you're looking for fun things to do outdoors with your kids, pediatric occupational therapist Meghan Corridan, who blogs at MAC&Toys, has some ideas for you. She and Catherine chat about simple and fun activities like riding a scooter, doing some gardening, drawing with sidewalk chalk, and blowing bubbles that are simple springtime pleasures and also provide lots of opportunities for motor planning, proprioception, fine- and gross-motor skill-building, attention focusing, sharing, problem-solving, and family fun. On the topic of wheeled conveyances, they both recommend the Razor RipRider 360, a three-wheel bike that both older kids and grown-ups will enjoy pedaling around. What are you doing outdoors with your kids these days? Share in the comments or by tweeting us at @RoundAboutChat, and if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Mother's Day is almost here, and so it seemed like a good time to talk about mothers in books, movies, and TV, particularly since Catherine's latest book-club read is Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. We chatted about that book and two others focusing on mother-daughter relationships, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry, and then moved on to discuss moms in movies like Freaky Friday, The Parent Trap, and Almost Famous (see video clip for mom Frances McDormand putting the smackdown on rocker Billy Crudup), and TV shows including Mom, Brothers and Sisters, Parenthood, Modern Family, and My So-Called Life. Who are your favorite moms in pop culture? Share in the comments, tweet them to us at @RoundAboutChat, or talk back on our Facebook page. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

An e-mail about a campaign to get Cosmo treated like a porn magazine because its dicey sexual content is harmful to minors got us thinking about magazines in general, whether minors think of them as a bad-for-you delivery system when they can get cable TV for free, and how much attention we ourselves even pay to magazines anymore. We chatted about the relative dangers of sexual content vs. unrealistic expectations of beauty and body image; our own experiences with magazines' promises of coolness and perfect dried-flower arrangements; whether anybody understands what wrapping something in a brown paper wrapper even means anymore; and the way that a world in which entertainment can be delivered instantaneously and in greater quantity than we can possibly consume makes waiting for an issue of a magazine to be delivered seem impossibly quaint.

One of the things we used to depend on magazines for was telling us how to dress (even though Seventeen deeply betrayed young Terri's trust), and now we're more likely to turn to Twitter for interpretations of dress codes and occasion-appropriate attire -- as both Catherine and NPR's Linda Holmes recently did. We shared our preferred freelance uniforms, our exhaustion at the prospect of dressing up, our search for perfectly comfortable footwear, and our trust in Pinterest to provide guidance for women of our particular demographic.

Finally, we mentioned our recommendations for the week. Catherine pointed us to an article titled "What Training for the Boston Marathon Taught Me About Fashion, and Myself" for further thoughts on the meaningfulness of what we wear; Amanda told everyone to go online shopping for clothes that you don't have to go somewhere and try on in front of a nasty mirror (to which Terri added that the website Mode-sty will help you find things that won't show your underwear like you're a twentysomething Cosmo reader); Nicole gave us her Pinterest search formula; and Terri talked about a "podcast upfront" she attended featuring NPR podcast hosts and a lot of talk about the significance and future of podcasts, commentary on which you can find by looking up the #HearItUpfront hashtag on Twitter, where you may come upon this photo of the back of Terri's head and the green shirt she chose to wear).

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.)