Sep 16, 2016
On this week's group chat, we talk about the burden of
decision-making, debate the pros and cons of school schedule
changes, shout out some stuff we like on the Roundabout Roundup,
and hear Catherine's and Terri's impressions of the new ABC sitcom
Speechless. Here's your road map to the episode:
6:47 Uneasy Lies the Head That Wears a Crown — We lament the fact that we have to make all the decisions in our families, at least partly because we won't let anyone else do it. Well, two of us handle decision-making that way — find out which of us has discovered the blissful state of decision freedom. You'll also learn about Nicole's Mexican-food ordering strategy and why Catherine does the laundry in her kitchen.
21:11 Speed Round: Fast-and-Loose School Days — Wait ... a half day again? We whine about shifting school schedules and get a little schooling on why teachers are grateful.
29:18 Parenting Roundabout Roundup — Catherine recommends ReviewMeta.com for keeping Amazon reviews honest; Terri was moved by a post by monthly Parenting Roundabout guest Robert Rummel-Hudson on the toll special-needs parenting (including, ahem, making decisions) takes on us; and Nicole likes bringing her radio station out of her car and into the house with iHeart Radio (on which you can also listen to this very podcast).
33:59 Speechless Pilot Preview — Terri's been eagerly awaiting the new ABC sitcom Speechless, starring (oh rarity for TV) a teen with cerebral palsy as a teen with cerebral palsy, plus Minnie Driver as his roughshod-running Mama Bear. When the pilot turned up on the ABC website, she watched it at once and urged Catherine to do so too to provide a non-special-needs-savvy POV. Listen to their review (but if you're severely spoiler-adverse, might want to go watch the pilot first). Also mentioned: Cerebral Palsy Foundation's interaction with the show, an interview with Minnie Driver and John Ross Bowie, and Zach Anner's review. (And indeed, that was Nicole's dog barking at Terri's dog through the Internet in the intro to this interview.)
50:32 Shameless Self-Promotion — Terri had herself a little rant on her Too Old for Cool blog about too-folksy salespeople; Nicole offers some tips for teachers to make classrooms more inclusive; and Catherine shares some tricks for using screen time to increase kids' activity levels.
Thanks as always to Jon Morin for our fun in-and-out music. If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.