E-mail accounts are getting out of hand, aren't they? It's so easy to start new ones, and then all of a sudden you're checking all over the place and missing mail because you forgot passwords. We checked in today to count up how many accounts we've accumulated, and how much in need of consolidation we are. Share your own e-mail overload on our Facebook page.

News that Twitter is making some changes — hooray for graphics no longer taking up character space! — got us thinking of other improvements we'd like to see in our favorite succinct social-media source. If you have some improvements to recommend (or just want to co-sign our cry for editing capabilities), talk to us in the comments on our Facebook page.

Today, we're fretting about Facebook. Here's a road-map to our conversation so you can tune in where you like:

00:56 Intros and What's New With You — Catherine's traveling this week, and based on her recent flight, she can share a bit of human nature: If someone is removed from a flight due to a possible heart attack, fellow passengers will waste no time trying to claim the empty aisle seat. Meanwhile, Nicole has a bug guy coming to rid her home of black widows, so there's all sorts of life-and-death drama going on.

05:58 The Facebook Police — Used to be, moms would watch the neighborhood, and you always knew that if your kid was up to mischief, it would be handled and reported. For today's moms, the surveillance detail includes social media, but we haven't quite figured out yet what you do with that incriminating information. We discuss the merits of watching, ratting out, and maintaining blissful ignorance.

19:10 Big Day — Besides feeling the pressure to monitor other people's kids, we're feeling some Facebook heat to make a grand gesture for every birthday, anniversary, holiday, and who knows what-all. Is it allowable, Facebook etiquette mavens, to just blow it off, or does that make you a bad friend/spouse/child? How much time do you have to devote to finding old pictures and writing meaningful posts and feting every friend? We're beat.

30:45 Interview of the Week — Of course, sometimes kids take a break from social media to hit the playing field, and there's plenty of ways for parents to behave badly there too. Catherine interviews Janis Meredith, author of 11 Habits for Happy and Positive Sports Parents and the website JBM Thinks, about ways to stop doing those things you know you shouldn't be doing but just can't seem to find a way around.

42:08 Shameless Self-Promotion — Amanda has a new blog post up called My Kids Have Both Learning and Attention Issues and Autism, and It's Complicated; Terri has an old behavior plan on her Mothers With Attitude site that she's stll proud of; Nicole has some great articles o her own at The Inclusive Class; and Catherine will have some new sports parenting articles up on her VeryWell site sometime soon.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our podcast and 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.

Through snow and carpooling and book finishing and bad parenting karma we struggled to bring you this group chat. Here's our road-map of what we discussed, for your fast-forwarding convenience:

0:44 Intros and What's New With You — Nicole is chewing her toast during our podcast, not chewing her toes. An important distinction.

2:19 Keeping Caregivers Informed — When we heard about Little Peanut on the Go, an app that facilitates sharing of information with babysitters and other caregivers (including grandparents, if they're app-friendly), it got us thinking about how we communicated with our kids' sitters back in the dark ages when you had to rely on whiteboards and didn't have to worry about wifi.

14:44 Keeping Schools Informed — Speaking of the free flow of information, how come schools still send you home 100 pieces of paper at the start of the school year? Shouldn't we be able to fill out forms online? And get texts and e-mails instead of handouts? And act like our kids are going to school in the 21st century? Is there an app for that?

26:55 Interview of the Week — From caregivers and schools, we move on to communicating with doctors in a chat with author and blogger Robert Rummel-Hudson about the relationships parents of kids with special needs form with our kids' doctors and specialists. (Warning: that all goes away when they become adults, alas.)

39:15 Shameless Self-Promotion — Terri mentioned a blog post about Parenting Karma; Amanda shared a colleague's infographic on the Anatomy of an Effective Email to Your Child’s Teacher; Catherine introduced the transition of her About.com site to Verywell; and ... have you heard Nicole is writing a book? It's got her kind of preoccupied. We also thanked those who've been shamelessly promoting us with iTunes stars and reviews, especially Maos and SusieMein. Keep those kudos coming, please!

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our podcast and 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.

It's no secret that the four of us spend way too much time hanging out on the Internet, enjoying the excellent procrastination opportunities that social media affords us. But what about our spouses? Are they similarly Internet-friendly? Or are they resolutely unplugged? We give our answers and you can too, in the comments here or on our Facebook page..

None of us is podcasting from her car this week, and it's a good thing, because judging from our conversation, that's the least of the trouble Nicole might get into. Here's a road map to our actual non-automated conversation, in which we try to stay in our lane and only honk at people we're unlikely to see in real life.

0:40: Introductions and What's New With You? — As we prepare to podcast today, we're spilling tea on ourselves, tearing ourselves away from romance novels, preparing to meet people we've only known virtually, and being amazed that it's raining in Southern California. (Break out the hot chocolate!)

5:23: What's Your Driving Personality? — Terri remembers a Disney short about driving from her high-school years (that is indeed on YouTube), and its Jeckyll and Hyde storyline isn't too far removed from what we feel when we get behind the wheel. Only a touch of the road rage, so as not to scare the children, but boy, could we go for some full-fledged lose-your-bleep catharsis.

16:25 Our Favorite (and Least Favorite) Social Media Sites — We're all about the social media, yo, but some spots are more comfy than others. Do you prefer text-based services like Twitter and Facebook, or visual patchworks like Pinterest or Instagram? Do you tumbl or SnapChat? Do you believe that there are now college courses in social media, and do you feel like you could use one? See how we come down on these important questions of the day.

26:10 Interview of the Week — Most parents would be happy for their kids to put down their social-media devices and get a job already, but for parents of kids with special needs, that's complicated. We talk with Robert Rummel Hudson, author of Schuyler's Monster and blogger at Fighting Monsters With Rubber Swords and Support for Special Needs, about that transition where our kids start wanting to work but employers (and parents) aren't quite ready to deal.

38:52: Shameless Self-Promotion — Terri shares a blog post about cameras in the classrooms that maybe she still hasn't quite written; Amanda has a blog post on the documentary 2e: Twice Exceptional; Nicole is excited about an upcoming online inclusive education course; and Catherine offers some spring activities for family fun.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our podcast and 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.

Sometimes we're thrilled to see a follow from a friend, colleague, or person we admire. It's a joy to return the follow then -- but what if it's an anonymous person with an egg for a Twitter avatar and a string of spammy posts? We talk about who we will and won't follow and why, and hope that we're still on each other's lists at the end of it. What are your follow criteria? Comment here or on our Facebook page, or tweet us @RoundAboutChat.

Hey! Welcome! We know technology is scary, but don't be afraid! Listening to a podcast is easy, and it doesn't require you to learn anything new. Just press play, and here's what you'll be listening to and when:

1:28: What's New With You? — Amanda thinks she's found a new system that will help her cut down on multitasking and focus on one thing at a time. Ha! Good luck with that. Meanwhile, Terri's focused on finding a human being on the Macy's customer-service phone line, and not having much success with that either.

6:20: Teaching Old Dogs New Tech Tricks — A forced conversion to Outlook is making Amanda cry, Catherine's still hiding out with in Yahoo! mail, Nicole just can't with this magazine website redesign thing, but Terri's willing to embrace the new even if it fries her phone.

16:18: Our Parenting Philosophies — We've been asked if we all share the same parenting philosophy or if we have disagreements, and what we mostly agree on is that there are as many right ways to parent as there are parents and children and families. Also, that the article going around about no rules making your kids creative is questionable (and reminds Terri of a West Wing scene.)

25:25: Interview of the Week — Robert Rummel Hudson joins Terri and Amanda for a chat about the value to parents of reading other parents' stories and learning from their experiences, even the bad and wrong and embarrassing ones.

37:47: Shameless Self-Promotion — Terri shared an article on "When Parents of Kids with Special Needs Are Each Other’s Worst Enemies"; Amanda: shared a checklist of "Questions to Ask Before and During Your Child's IEP Meeting"; Nicole was too busy working on her book to share, but you should check out her website The Inclusive Class anyway; and Catherine shared an article on getting your kid to drink more water.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our podcast and 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.

We are there for you, for all your procrastination needs. But if endlessly listening to our podcast is not quite filling your work time sufficiently, we have some other black holes to leap down, including word games, Web MD, food videos, and of course constantly refreshing Facebook. What do you do to keep from doing those things you're supposed to do? Share in the comments here or on our Facebook page, or tweet us @RoundAboutChat.

We all have one, right? A wish list of things that would make Facebook so much easier and more pleasant to use? A politics blocker? A suggested-friend limit? A hoax-buster? An auto-liker? Join us as we fantasize about our most-hoped-for Facebook features, and share yours in the comments here or on our Facebook page, or tweet us @RoundAboutChat.

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.

Maker Faires are springing up all over, in a city or a Barnes & Noble near you, and we asked Kathy Ceceri, author of Making Simple Robots and the upcoming Paper Inventions, about what these events are all about and how you can bring some cool DIY tech into your child's life. It's okay -- you don't have to have a 3D printer in your garage or understand complicated computer functions. Kathy talks about how English majors, artists, and crafters can participate in and benefit from Maker Faire. To see some of the projects from Kathy's book when it comes out, go to the Make: site.

Video games are specifically designed to keep kids engaged and working at the peak of their ability, something that classroom learning often seems to very much not be. Kathy Ceceri -- who writes about homeschooling on the All About Homeschooling Facebook page and her site Crafts for Learning, and has a new book coming out about how kids can design their own video games -- chats with Terri about a recent Games in Education Symposium she attended and what's going on in the field of learning games. Among the topics they touched on were using video games to differentiate instruction, make classroom reports more interesting (with Twitch-like videos), and encourage kids to dive into literature instead of just reading it. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

We started our weekly group chat with a look at a Buzzfeed survey on when kids are the right age for various social milestones, from drinking coffee to getting tattoos. We checked in with our own preferences for our kids on things like pierced ears, staying home alone, walking to school, and dying hair, and applauded Amanda's son for pursuing Facebook membership with the intent of being an annoying little brother prototype for the digital age. 

Speaking of age, we felt ours when we talked about tech that was common in our youth and incomprehensible to our kids. Remember pay phones? Cassette tapes? Turntables? Rotary phone dials? Typewriters? Even just first-generation iPods and cell phones without keys on a screen? You're closer in age to us than your youngsters, then. But some things, like sturdy old Legos and rugged toy trucks, never go out of style.

Finally, we made our recommendations for the week: Catherine suggested a visit to About.com's Kids Food and Fitness section; Amanda's been enjoying the Kids React YouTube Channel, a dial phone episode of which inspired today's second topic; Nicole invited us to her Google+ page; and Terri mentioned Parenting Roundabout's Google+ page and our YouTube Songs That Make Us Cry Playlist.

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

For this week's group chat, we thought we’d talk about some of the ways that adults are just suckin’ all the fun out of the Internet for kids. We started with a look at the way kids are using Twitter to cheat on standardized tests -- and not very smartly, as it turns out, 'cause the testing company caught them. We debated whether it's creepy for test-makers to be scoping out test-takers' online activities, and whether parents should be more concerned about that or the cheating. The need for parents to be doing some prety close surveillance themselves was clear from this and our second topic, which started with a look at the really horrible app Burnbook (read about it on Mashable and Cool Mom Tech) and the way parents invaded it with positive statements and guaranteed that kids would either be encouraged or flee the premises. From there, we talked about parents' general responsibility to police the Web for their kids, and for the kids of people who don't bother to do that; the risk of embarrassing your kid, or having your kid embarrass you; and the way even parents who are social-media savvy can get exhausted by it.

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine had some Easter party games to get your kid moving instead of overdosing on Peeps; Amanda and Nicole both suggested tech resources for parents—Common Sense Media and Tech Savvy Parenting, respectively; and Terri mentioned some new articles on her About.com site, including ones on watching what you say about school in front of your child, how to get a hold of school personnel when they're ducking your calls, and the difficulty of letting your kids make their own decisions.

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.)