It's almost a new year, and although Terri still has a hundred or so episodes of 2015 TV languishing on her DVR, it seems like a good time to look forward at the new entertainment we'll consume in 2016. Catherine resolved to try some new TV shows she's heard about but hasn't had a chance to watch yet, Terri resolved to read one of Catherine's book-club books (with sufficient notice), and they both resolved to get a Parks and Recreation binge-watch going ASAP. Listen to find out what other big promises we're making in our last ep of 2015, and join us next year to see if we keep 'em.

[This is an encore presentation of a Parenting Roundabout episode originally released on January 7, 2015. If you listened to it the first time, this is your second chance to follow up on all the resources and ideas mentioned that you just never quite got around to. And if you didn’t listen to it the first time -- hey, it's new to you! Either way, please listen and enjoy.]

This week on Parenting Roundabout, we talked about our New Year's Resolutions -- and whether resolutions are a good way to get yourself going toward a goal or just to make yourself feel like a failure right from the start of the year. Then we looked at some highlights of 2014, including birthday and school milestones for our kids, trips and injuries, and catching a pop-culture wave. For more on New Year's resolutions, follow these links:

• New Year's Resolutions for Family Fitness and Health
• Little Goals Can Be Better Than Big New Year’s Resolutions
• Realistic Resolutions
• Mini-Resolutions for Every Day
• Use New Year's Resolutions to Motivate Your Child
• Make a New Year's Resolution ... for Someone Else.

For other stories mentioned, read about gluten-free Girl Scout cookies on the Mashable blog, follow Terri's dog on Twitter, and meet Catherine's black dogs on Instagram.

It's hard to talk about entertainment this week without addressing the latest Star Wars installment. It's also hard to talk about Star Wars without breaking spoiler protocol. Catherine was one of those first-weekend viewers who now knows the film's secrets, but she tried to keep her review spoiler-free and focused on general enjoyment. After discussing something new, we looked back on older holiday fare that we often revisit this time of year, including Love Actually, Elf, Home Alone, To Grandmother's House We Go, and the "Noel" episode of The West Wing. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, go to parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

With the holiday season in full swing, we wanted to talk about that modern addition to Christmas tradition, the Elf on the Shelf. Where do we stand on that little spy? Catherine and Terri take a pass on shelf-elf wrangling (and really, house decorating of any sort short of the last minute), while Nicole's and Amanda's families have adapted the concept to their own creative purposes.

It's not like "toy elf mover" was ever part of any job description we expected to have in our lives. As we reminisced about old employment for our second topic, however, we found that our past employments have included such duties as crushing rocks, scooping ice cream, editing greeting cards, and memorized the names of every county in the state in alphabetical order. We're just happy to be able to add podcasting to all our resumes.

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine mentioned an article on her site on healthy New Year fun; Amanda revealed the Facebook page for the Yeti on the Shelf, her family's elf-substitute; Nicole liked a Forbes article on preparing your teen for getting a summer job, which it is apparently not to early to get started on; and Terri suggested tweaking your traditions to tailor the holiday experience to your family's needs.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episodes and Kristen Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Susan Adcox, who writes about grandparenting for About.com, joins us on the third Wednesday of every month to chat with Catherine about grandparenting issues. This time, they spoke about holiday traditions and celebrations, especially adapting them for new circumstances and family members of different faiths. Find out what new traditions Susan is a big fan of, and one she thinks might be a little bit harder for her to get on board with. The book Catherine mentions is Dear Santa, Love Rachel Rosenstein. Happy holidays to all! (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

With Christmas just a certain number of days away that Terri refuses to acknowledge, it seemed like a good time to take a look at some TV and tunes of the season. Combining both those things is Netflix's A Very Murray Christmas, in which Bill Murray and an appropriately random gathering of celebrities put together exactly the kind of offbeat Christmas special you'd expect to be directed by Sofia Coppola. Thanks to the generosity of her podcast-mates, Netflix newbie Terri was able to watch it instead of just listening to Catherine describe it, and they give it two thumbs up, with particular kudos to performances of "Fairytale of New York," "Alone on Christmas Day," and a George Clooney-enhanced "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'." They then moved on for a chat about holiday music in general, what we're hearing on the radio and TV, and what constitutes a "contemporary" Christmas song. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

It's bad enough getting your child ready to go out the door and to school every morning. Then they have to keep moving that finish line, with delayed openings and early dismissals and half-days and snow days and days with alphabet letters and alternate hours. We gripe about the scheduling creativity that seems to be commonplace these days, while appreciating how useful the extra time is for teachers and wishing there was a high-tech way to get us coordinated.

If such school shenanigans make you nostalgic for your childhood when everybody went to the school at the same time every day, our second topic -- on whether our kids still watch TV or even believe us when we talk about how we used to watch -- will keep you looking back to those olden days when cartoons were only on Saturdays and you had to get up to turn the dial. We chat about your kids' screen habits and our own, and probably get the Love Boat theme stuck in your head too.

Finally, we share our recommendations for the week: Catherine likes a cute new PBS Kids show called Nature Cat, which she reviewed for her site; Amanda wants to point people to the site Angela’s Clues, from Angela Santomero, the educational consultant behind shows like Blue’s Clues and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood; Nicole passes on a guide to finding streaming shows on Netflix; and Terri thinks you might enjoy her Special Needs Christmas Carols.

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 somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

[This is an encore presentation of a Parenting Roundabout episode originally released on June 10, 2015. If you listened to it the first time, this is your second chance to follow up on all the resources and ideas mentioned that you just never quite got around to. And if you didn’t listen to it the first time -- hey, it's new to you! Either way, please listen and enjoy.]

With a summer full of superheroes and superhero merchandising ahead, Lexi Walters Wright chats with Amanda about the challenge of getting through a supermarket or a Target without accumulating a cart-full of pricey licensed items that really do not have superpowers no matter how much your kid believes. They talk about the lesson kids learn about advertising when the branded stuff disappoints and the financial challenge of finding the name-brand stuff your kid just has to have, and recommend these sites for parents fighting the good fight against licensed everything:

+ Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
+ Commonsense Media
+ Center on Media and Child Health

If you're reading this someplace without hyperlinks, visit http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Since Catherine was busy all weekend watching her daughter's synchronized skating team compete, we thought we'd step away from our screens and consider the entertainment that energetic youngsters put forth on the ice, and the sometimes puzzling choices their coaches make on their behalf when it comes to costumes and music. Can you guess which popular song popped up the most? What a costume for a Casablanca-themed skate would look like? What late-night show inspired a team's theme? Or what carbonated beverage? Listen in for a mom's-eye view of the competition (and watch the video above to see what kind of skating we're talking about -- come to http://parentingroundabout.com to do that if you're reading this somewhere else). 

It’s that time of year when all the people have all the feels all the time, isn’t it? You're extra-busy, it’s dark all the time, it’s cold, maybe your kids are starting to have academic and behavior problems at school. And so you visit your social-media channels for a little dose of good cheer, and instead you get socked all over again. We have a good gripe session about how our social-media interactions affect our moods, how seeing certain topics in our feeds make us sad or angry, how certain friends appear to not know us at all, and how we have to learn again and again to NOT READ THE COMMENTS. (By the way, to all our friends who listen to the podcast, we're not talking about you. No! Of course not! Someone else entirely. You know, that person. Please don't write nasty posts about us.)

Next, we stop grumbling for a minute and celebrate those things we've learned in the process of being parents. Like how to make a competition-approved bun for an ice-skating kid using only our own two hands and a ton of hair gel. Or all the words to every heavy-metal song there is. Or how to score $300 worth of uncut keys and uncoded transponders online. Or who was on which lifeboat of the Titanic. Just like we recently said "Thanks, Podcasting" for a libsyn promotion, we now say "Thanks, Parenting!"

Finally, we share our recommendations for the week. Catherine directs us to her list of active toys for kids and her Round 3 with more suggestions from pediatric OT Meghan Corridan; Amanda thinks we should all go read Pew Research's "Psychological Stress and Social Media Use"; Nicole has a way to prevent that by studying up on ways to hide annoying Facebook posts; and Terri follows up on an earlier podcast with a checklist on when it's time to fire your pediatrician.

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

In a special Round 4, Nicole Eredics, founder of The Inclusive Class and a member of our weekly Parenting Roundabout group chat, shares her experience yesterday in the vicinity of the shootings in San Bernardino, California. Although her family was thankfully not caught up in the violence, they did have to deal with the lockdowns and the manhunt that accompanied it. We talk about how events unfolded for her family, as well as whether students should have to take tests the day after a for-real lockdown, how we get our news in this age of social media, and how our kids have survived their lockdowns and lockdown drills (and we adults waiting nervously at home too). 

Each month Meghan Corridan, a pediatric occupational therapist, joins Catherine to share some of the toys and activities she uses with her clients and her own 5-year-old daughter. This time, they talk holiday gift-giving, because Meghan has a huge list of ideas for kids and tweens on her blog MAC&Toys. You can also see Catherine's suggestions for active toys at her site. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, go to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience).

Thanksgiving weekend is a great time to let entertainment flow over you. For this week's post-Thanksgiving episode, Catherine and Terri start with a chat about the gigantic balloon hovering over the holiday, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, discussing live vs. home-viewing options, the fun Broadway show snippets, the possibility of heating the area where Broadway performers in skimpy costumes perform, and the certainty that whatever you are doing and wherever you are going at this point in history, you will surely hear Shawn Mendes singing "Stitches" at least once while you are doing it. Then we left the NYC hoopla behind to talk about houses that would probably fit inside some of those balloons and floats. Catherine watched a lot of Tiny House programming -- who knew there was so much? -- and reports in on how FYI and HGTV are making a big splash with little living. (If you're watching this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Was your Thanksgiving happy? Did you eat a lot of traditional family foods? Did many of them involve cream-of-mushroom soup, marshmallows, or Jello? To start off this week's group chat, we run through the many possibilities for turkey-day cuisine and draw the line at the things we will not eat. Or will, enthusiastically! It's like the battle of the Tootsie Rolls all over again.

Next, we move on to the other big activity of this holiday weekend: trying to find good deals on holiday gifts. Do we rush out and elbow folks at the Walmart for the best deal on a big-screen TV, or do we hide at home with our computers and cybershop? We discuss the merits of online versus standing-on-line shopping, strategies for holiday cards and gift cards, how early in the year it's acceptable to care about this stuff, and the impossibility of shopping for spouses.

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine suggests consulting her Round 3 podcast with grandparenting expert Susan Adcox on gift-giving issues; Terri mentioned our episode of Libsyn's "Thanks, Podcasting!" podcast; Amanda recommended an article on "8 Ways to Help Your Child With Food Sensitivities Enjoy the Holidays"; and Nicole enjoyed reading about how sweet-potato casserole came to be.

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

Yesterday Catherine and Terri chatted about the first day of the Dancing With the Stars finals, and today they follow up with a quick review of the second day -- a two-hour show that offered approximately 105 minutes of padding, 10 minutes of competition, and 5 minutes of award-giving. But who's complaining? There were lots of slick pro numbers, video retrospectives, the return of defeated contestants, musical selections, and Victor Espinoza popping up like he was in some sort of giant Whack-a-Mole game. We chatted about the long-predicted winner, the gracious losers, and who they might scrape up ... that is, recruit for the next episode coming in the spring. Did you watch along with us this season? How do you feel about the results? Share in the comments here if they're working, and if not, find us on our Facebook page. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Dancing With the Stars has finally made it to the end, and we're one show away from someone hoisting the mirror-ball trophy. After watching Night 1 of the finals, Catherine and Terri discussed their favorites and predictions, the freestyles they liked and didn't, what constitutes a gimmick, how hard a lift is, and how enjoyable a show can be when you don't pack it full of unprepared non-professionals trying to learn too many dances. They'll be back tomorrow to discuss the winner, but in the meantime, they took a moment to chat about Netflix's new series Master of None and Terri's new favorite Undateable Live, which she finally got Catherine to watch. The verdict: thumbs up on both, but if you think Undateable's 8 p.m. timeslot means its safe for the kids, be warned that it very much is not, as the above clip will illustrate. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

It’s been a rough week out in the world and in our own little worlds too. We started with a gripe session about a pair of issues most parents have faced: a child's health crisis, and a doctor's clueless attitude that makes said crisis so very much worse. From prescriptions given to mollify mom to casual announcements that "It could be nothing, or it could be a brain tumor," we tell our bad doctor stories and praise the white-coats who really seem to get it. 

A scary story that's been on our minds this week, especially when it comes to how to explain it to children, is of course the tragedy in Paris. Where once we only had to worry about giving our kids the gentlest possible understanding of a horrific event, now we have to factor in what they're going to see on social media and what they're going to say on social media. Should they change their profile pictures in solidarity? If they make a post or a comment, will their understanding be peer-appropriate? Are social-media gestures in these situations like the Instagram likes of the news world, done more to fit in than to make a statement? Do we need to worry about that? We think back nostalgically to the days when you could just hide the newspaper and turn off the TV.

Finally, we share our recommendations for the week: Catherine liked blogger Rebecca Woolf's post on dealing with worldwide heartache; Amanda recommended a PBS Parents article on "How to Help Kids Feel Safe After Tragedy" and one from the Washington Post on "Don't Let the Paris Attacks Infuse Your Parenting With Fear"; Nicole appreciated Terri's article on the dreaded wait-and-see; and Terri passed on articles about choosing the right pediatrician.

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

For this week's Round 4, Amanda once again recorded with her husband, Jon, our audio engineer and blogger at My Happy SAHD Life, to talk about one of the many not-so-easy pieces of special needs parenting—PTSD. Like many parents of kids with autism, they have a kiddo who has meltdowns, not tantrums. There's a difference and Amanda really, really wants people to understand and thus recommended this hugely popular article, "The Difference Between Tantrums and Sensory Meltdowns." (Yes, she wrote it, but, yes, you should also read it.) So, Amanda and Jon worry more about the “when-ifs” of a crisis occurring than the "what-ifs." They talked about how that affects their parenting: How do you keep calm so you don't create a crisis with your own reaction? How do you tag-team when both of you are feeling panicked and one person needs to at least appear calm? And how do single parents of tough kids handle all of the "when-ifs"?

Amanda and Jon share their experiences, frustrations, and strategies in a podcast that will have traumatized parents of complicated kids nodding in agreement and sympathy. And if you're not one of those parents, listen in to see what it feels like! (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience).

Susan Adcox, who writes about grandparenting for About.com, joins us on the third Wednesday of every month to chat with Catherine about grandparenting issues. This time, they spoke about some of the sticky situations that come with holiday gift-giving, from cousin rivalry to value clashes to what to do about those thank-you notes. They also have some gift recommendations for you that might help:

+ Gifts for Grandchildren of All Ages
+ Inexpensive Stocking Stuffers for Grandkids of All Ages
+ Active Toys for School-Age Kids
+ Active Toys for Toddlers and Preschoolers
+ Active Toys for the Whole Family
+ Board Games with a Healthy Twist

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

On a new Round 2, Terri and Catherine chat as usual about Dancing With the Stars, which this week included three dances for each star, a withdrawal due to illness, a number involving a rope and a nearly invisible bodysuit, another involving a box and another rope with a lightbulb on it, and a fake-out non-elimination that was really kind of mean. We chatted about this year's likely winners and how the show could be improved in the future, if the producers would just listen to us and people who write on Internet forums. Next, after discussing the problems with asking a 17-year-old to dance dirtier, we turned our attention to shows that ask kids to do other unlikely things, including fashion designing and cooking with unusual items. Catherine shared her thoughts on Project Runway Junior, Terri did the same for Chopped Junior, and they joined Catherine's dog in strategizing other possible reality-show permutations. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

A mention last week of a teen social-media queen's exposure of the falsifying of images and plea for kids to get real led us to talk more today about all the new-tech ways adolescent girls now have to feel bad about themselves. Teen actress Zendaya complained when a magazine doctored images to trim a little bit off her body, but apparently many girls are happy to do that to themselves on Instagram and other popular photo sites, and the falsification even goes so far as paying for "likes" and the status that goes with them. We compared notes on how our daughters are doing with this new opportunity to feel judged and inferior, and wondered what the equivalent was back in our day. 

We then gave some likes to the topic of regional expressions, drawing on our geographical distance from one another to create a collection of our own New England New Jersey Wisconsin California Canada Australia lingo. Listen to find out more about E-ticket rides, SIG alerts, sassy and wicked, thongs and rubbers, babies getting nookie, the right way to say "ayuh," the wrong way to order coffee, and what you call that carbonated beverage.

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine appreciated a New York Times Motherlode blog post on why kids love Snapchat and why that’s OK for making her feel better about her parenting; Amanda thought the Jezebel article "Trying to Change Your Regional Accent Is Practically Impossible" was wicked good; Nicole passed on a fun article about the fake vs real side of Instagram; and Terri had some articles from her site about the danger of using figures of speech with kids who have issues with language or literal thinking, and a good book for teaching those confusing expressions.

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

Each month, Amanda gets together with Lexi Walters Wright to talk about the things that come up when you have younger kids. This week, what came up was a lot of agita and complaining. In particular, Lexi and Amanda had a lot to say about what it's like to feel exhausted, like you're messing up all over the place and missing those mom moments you're supposed to be around for.

When they weren't complaining, they did talk about how their husbands and support systems should be getting more credit than then advertisers would have us believe, as noted in this article, Lowe's and LG's Poor Portrayal of Dads Says We Still Have a Long, Long Way to Go. Skeptical? Check out the Lowes ad itself on YouTube after you listen to Amanda rant about it! (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience).

This week's Round 2 started as it has for the past many weeks with a chat about last night's Dancing With the Stars, which reveled in its live status by not knowing until the very last minute whether one of its stars would even be able to make it onstage to dance. But Tamar Braxton didn't let a little pneumonia keep her out of the race for the mirror-ball trophy, arriving from the hospital just in time to avoid automatic elimination. Did we mention this show is live? Tom Bergeron did, a lot. Also live: the NBC sitcom Undateable, which Terri is going to be talking about a lot until you watch it (or at least Catherine does), and the unfortunately titled Best Time Ever, also on NBC, which is maybe not the best time but still a good time and full of the kind of completely random entertainment moments you don't see that much of anymore. Catherine ended the episode by reporting on a re-watch of the movie Big with her son. Listen and see if the scene that got the biggest laugh in her house would get the same in yours. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

This week, the arrival of standard time and the influence of the Bloggess threw us into a tailspin of dark days and mortifying memories. After a brief opening chat that included the discovery that the "OJ Chase" is not something you can refer to and expect your teenager to know what you're talking about (it's what brought us the Kardashians, kids!), we compared notes on how we're surviving the change of time and light, and most especially the juxtaposition of the time change and Halloween, which is great for parents of teens, not so great for parents of tots who wake up at the crack of dawn demanding candy. (Where's that coffee IV when you need it?)

Next, inspired by a Twitter stream of mortifying events shared by followers of @thebloggess, we were moved to share our own misstatements (like saying "Love you!" at the end of conversations even when it's wincingly inappropriate) and missteps (like the one that sent Nicole sprawling on the floor of a Las Vegas casino). We wondered, among other things, why the sound in a room always drops just when you're yelling that embarrassing thing, and what the statute of limitations is for blaming farts on your kid.

Finally, we sought to redeem ourselves by sharing our recommendations for the week: Catherine introduced us to Minecraft Story Mode; Amanda liked a video called Taking Back Time that turns the time change into a disaster movie; Lexi passed on an article about long lines for story times; Nicole thought a video about a young woman exposing social-media deception had a worthwhile message, even if it made Terri grumpy (that video has since been removed, but you can get the gist from this one); and Terri shared an article of hers about time-change-related bad behavior (your child's, and yours too).

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristen Eredics for our happy in-and-out music (and for being a live studio audience for part of the podcast). If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

[This is an encore presentation of a Parenting Roundabout episode originally released on April 1, 2015 as a Round 3. If you listened to it the first time, this is your second chance to follow up on all the resources and ideas mentioned that you just never quite got around to. And if you didn’t listen to it the first time -- hey, it's new to you! Either way, please listen and enjoy.]

Involving special-education students in IEP meetings is an important step along the road to self-advocacy, but one which parents may reasonably feel carries the risk of detonating a landmine. 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 that treacherous transition; how his daughter, Schuyler, now 15, is handling it; and how he's handling including her in an often hurtful and antagonistic process. We considered the power of a kid handing over an iPad with a question to be asked; our suspicions that the barrage of test scores that opens an IEP meeting is just there to break parents down; and how really lousy it must feel to sit in a room where people are saying things about you that you don't understand but that don't sound good. For more on IEP meetings, read Robert's recent blog post on IEPs and meet the players in Terri's IEP team article. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, please come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)