Inspired by a Tweet from Shonda Rhimes suggesting that 60 percent of people have slept holding their mobile phones, we thought we'd find out if that statistic held up with our Parenting Roundabout crew. Have you ever nestled down to sleep with your cell phone? Comment on our Facebook page.

Since carpooling schedules so often interfere with our efforts to schedule podcast recording times, we thought we'd take some time today to talk about carpooling instead of doing it, and throw in some thoughts about other things we remember from our long-ago childhoods. Here's a road-map of our conversation:

01:12 Intros and What's New With You — Does the five-second rule apply to licking up delicious things you've accidentally dripped onto your electronic devices? Discuss.

02:57 Carpooling (or Unpaid Uber) — While Catherine does more carpooling than the rest of us combined, we all have traumatic stories to share about driving carpool now or riding in carpool then.

14:53 Those Were the Days — Thoughts of being squished in the backseat with kids you don't like got us remembering more pleasant things about childhood, like eating disgusting food and spending money on silly things and reading all day and generally having no responsibilities at all.

24:46 Interview of the Week — An experience with an apparently unsavory book and a determination to get kids to read no matter what inspired Catherine and Terri to use this week's segment for a little chat on whatever works. Listen to more of their conversations on pop culture on Parenting Roundabout Round 2.

35:28 Shameless Self-Promotion — Catherine has an article for you carpool fanatics on dealing with dinnertime when you're never home for dinnertime; Terri has rescued her old "Love Notes for Special Parents" messages and given them a home on her Mothers With Attitude site; Amanda suggests grabbing her book On-the-Go Fun for Kids and bringing it on your next carpool adventure; and Nicole invites you to visit her Instagram account.

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've got four shows to discuss on this week's entertainment episode of Parenting Roundabout. In case you want to fast-forward over stuff you don't watch or care about, here's a road map through the episode:

0:27 Dancing With the Stars — It was Switch-Up Night on DWTS, and also "Can't anybody do their dang job?" night, as pros failed to choreograph their assigned dances, judges forgot how to hold up the correct paddle, and producers forgot that if you don't even pretend that the scores aren't predetermined, people are going to catch on.

11:54 The People v. O. J. Simpson — So we're a little late in following up on Catherine's initial review of this with a final opinion on the whole thing, but we no longer live in a pop-culture environment where time has meaning, right?

16:19 Parks and Recreation marathon — Our viewing continues with the Season 4 episodes "Operation Ann," "Dave Returns," "Sweet Sixteen," and "Campaign Shake-Up," continuing the generally campaign-centric second half of the season that Terri feels decidedly meh about. The campaigning continues in our episodes for next week, "Lucky," "Live Ammo," "The Debate," and "Bus Tour."

22:35 The West Wing — We're also watching episodes of The West Wing to keep up with the new West Wing Weekly podcast, and so we took a moment here at the end of our ep to chat about "Five Votes Down" and look enthusiastically forward to next week's "The Crackpots and These Women."

Can parents ever stop worrying? Ever, ever, ever? And should we be worrying about not having friends to worry with? And why does Catherine's bathroom fan need bluetooth? These and other questions occupy us on this week's Parenting Roundabout group chat. Here's a road map of our conversation:

0:54 Introduction and What's New With You — As you may hear from the periodic pounding in the background while we were recording, Catherine's having some work done in her house. And it turns out the reason you need bluetooth in the bathroom fan is because it has speakers in it. We live in an age of wonders.

5:44: Is There a Parenting Finish Line? — A tragic story from Terri's old hometown got us thinking about the fact that you can never stop worrying about your kids, no matter how much you want to. Is there ever a moment where your child is successfully delivered to adulthood and you can retire from parenting? We'd like to think so, but we have our doubts we'll ever break that tape.

15:53 Friends IRL — As four friends who met online and mostly interact there, we wonder whether non-virtual friendship is something people still do ... and why, since you've probably already read everything your friend has to say on Facebook.

28:24 Interview of the Week — Amanda called in sick to the podcast last week, and this week she chats with her husband, Jon, about that particular parental hell of having the entire family sick at the same time. Of course, having kids with special needs only up the degree of difficulty.

38:57 Shameless Self-Promotion — Terri shared a blog post on "Inclusion's Chris Traeger Problem"; Amanda has some parent-child behavior contracts for you; Catherine wrote about adventure parks; and Nicole is promoting an online course for people who want to say yes to inclusion and mean it.

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.

On this week's entertainment episode of Parenting Roundabout, we've got four things to talk about. In case you want to fast-forward over stuff you don't watch or care about, here's a road map through the episode:

0:30: Dancing With the Stars — It was Disney week, which meant lots of princesses, cool costumes and props, 8s and 9s all over the place, and Nyle in a loincloth shaking his butt at the camera. So a satisfying night all around, then.

11:20: Zootopia — Catherine went to a movie! Specifically, Disney's latest animated offering. She and the 11-year-olds she went with give it a thumbs up.

17:24: Our Parks and Recreation marathon — Up this week: the Season 4 episodes "Citizen Knope," "The Comeback Kid," "Campaign Ad," and "Bowling for Votes." For next week, join us in watching "Operation Ann," "Dave Returns," "Sweet Sixteen," and "Campaign Shakeup."

24:20: The West Wing Watch We've been watching Season 1 of The West Wing along with the West Wing Weekly Podcast, and the most recent episode was "A Proportional Response."

Apologies for the background noise partway through. Catherine has learned her lesson not to sit under an air vent.

Oh, hello. We're interrupting Nicole's paying of bills to bring you this podcast, on which we talk about other painful topics, like exercise and life without wifi. Aw, c'mon, join us, it's okay. We promise plenty of laughter with those tears. Here's a roadmap of our conversation.

0:58: Intros and What's New With You — Nicole may be paying her bills as we podcast, but Terri and Amanda are working hard to ignore their large piles of tax-preparaton documents.

5:00: What Type of Exercise Can You Stand to Do? — Well, we like to walk ... and do yoga maybe ... but mostly walk ... does sprinting across an airport count? ... and also walking on treadmills. Walking's good! So is a review by Catherine of Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, which may help you understand your personal exercise habits or lack thereof.

15:28: What Can Your Family Not Do Without? — Wifi, of course. That's obvious. Electricity for charging things. But also books. Distractions. Routine. Heated seats. Goofy dogs. Canadian food? Yes.

22:50: Interview of the Week — Catherine talks to pediatric occupational therapist Meghan Corridan about drawing your child into drawing, using tools like Ed Emberley's book Goody Gumdrops and the apps Dipdap and Draw Along with Stella and Sam.

34:22: Shameless Self-Promotion — Catherine shares her whole entire website, About.com Family Fitness, which is full of exercise ideas; Terri plugs our Round 2 Parks and Recreation marathon and her new tumblrs IEP-izeit, Too Old for Cool., and, hey, Parenting Roundabout; Nicole touts our new Instagram account @prpodcast (which in fact appears as all lower case on Instagram and therefore does not require you to think of us as an oddcast); and Amanda shares the three-part series PlayerFM did about us cool and wise women.

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 been one of those weeks here in Parenting Roundabout land (an enchanted place that now spans four timezones), and so we come together for our group chat with a shorter attention span and a more meandering style than ever. But that's where your brain's at too, right? Here's a road map of this week's conversation:

1:43: What's New With You? — Join is in a moment of silence for Nicole, who has just had her parents in her house for FIVE WEEKS. And a moment of thanks for OnStar, which saved Terri from a very awkward conversation with a parking-lot attendant.

5:44: That Storm Was How Big? — You might have heard, it snowed a li'l bit on the East Coast last weekend. We talked about what counts as an OMG STORM! in our various parts of the country. (Visit the French Toast Alert System and a Facebook message from the Bangor Maine Police Department to laugh along with us.)

17:44: What's for Dinner? — A mention in last week's episode of Terri's husband's old-school paper-based meal-planning system inspired us to talk more about how food gets on the table in our houses. Debates over the appropriateness of breakfast for dinner, leftovers for breakfast, and calling ham Canadian bacon ensued.

28:50: Interview of the Week — Amanda chatted with her husband, Jon, about the various complicating factors of going to birthday parties with your child with special needs. (Like, should you go? And should you stay? And is it okay to give homework as a gift?) For more on over-the-top birthdays, listen to Amanda's earlier chat with Lexi Walters Wright on the subject.

39:46: Shameless Self-Promotion — Amanda shared an article on helping your child cope with taste sensitivity; Nicole shared an article calling for people to share their inclusion resources; Terri shared an article on 8 Ways to Make Parents of Children With Special Needs STOP Listening to You; and Catherine shared an article on active party games for kids.

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.

Don't be fooled by our fabulous new intro music — this is still Parenting Roundabout you're listening to. We've done some format-tweaking for the new year, with a longer group chat that includes some introductory conversation, two topics, an interview with one of our regular contributors, and some shameless self-promotion. Here's your roadmap through this week's episode.

1:38: What's New With You? — We've been doing some traveling this week, and some book writing, and some writing avoidance.

11:42: Topic 1 — Are we the kind of moms who find it easier to spend money on and do nice things for our kids than for ourselves? (Hey, we really wanted socks for Christmas.)

24:15: Topic 2: Current Events — We discuss an article about "aspirational parenting" that got our backs up. Of course, we're not aspiring for our kids to be members of the power elite so much as just make enough money to buy us really nice socks.

39:03: Interview of the Week — Catherine talks with pediatric occupational therapist Meghan Corridan about good educational apps for kids. Find links to the apps and companies Meghan mentioned on her blog, MAC&Toys. The app Catherine recommended is Mathmateer.

51:11: Shameless Self-Promotion — Terri shared articles on questions to ask about your child's lunch and recess on her About.com site; Amanda shared a blog post she wrote for Matan called "Without Exclusion, We Wouldn’t Have to Talk About Inclusion”; Nicole shared a blog post she wrote for Disability.gov, "Not Just One Story of Successful Inclusion"; and Catherine shared an article from her About.com site on how to set family goals for the New Year (or how to drag your family into your New Year’s resolutions so you might actually keep them!).

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our podcast and most especially for our spiffy new in-and-out music. If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

We should be coming to you today with a new full-length group chat, but our best-laid plans of recording after Amanda comes back from a business trip were foiled by flight delays. So Catherine, Nicole, and Terri recorded a speed round with their own bad travel stories in solidarity, and to give you your daily dose of Parenting Roundabout. Listen today to Nicole's terrible Canada-to-California journey, Catherine's father's ingenious way of getting car-rental people to pay attention, and Terri's crisis of career faith aboard a grounded plane, and keep an eye out later today or tomorrow for Episode 101 to finally make its arrival.

You talk to the same people for fifty to 100 episodes, and you learn things. Even in this speed round, we uncover a surprising height-related fact about one of our members. You might be surprised that however many surprising facts we've learned, we rarely if ever get together in person. See how many of these revelations about our past jobs and colorful vocabulary and musical knowledge and culinary preferences (one of us doesn't even drink coffee!) you've also gleaned from listening to Parenting Roundabout.

On the first Round 2 of the new year, Catherine and Terri look back on which entertainment product they consumed on New Year's Eve, how their DVR clearing is going, and what they've read and watched this week, including:

+ In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins
+ Call the Midwife (book version) by Jennifer Worth
+ Water for Elephants, both book and movie
+ About Alex (and yes, come to think of it, as we discussed this movie's similarity to The Big Chill, we did accidentally say Phoebe Cates played the young girlfriend in that film when of course it was Meg Tilly. When you're old enough to remember The Big Chill, you're old enough to forget details, apparently.)

We're also plotting a marathon watch, probably of Parks and Recreation (and not Parenting Roundabout, as Terri initially said, although if you'd like to marathon our podcast, go right ahead!), although maybe of the first two seasons of The West Wing. Do you have a preference? Tell us in the comments here or on Facebook, or tweet at us.

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

New for 2016! There's now Parenting Roundabout group chat fun for every day of the week. Tune in at 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday as we answer one quick question. Today we relive some things you should never do on a podcast, including saying things you wouldn't want your spouse to hear, confessing your winter grooming secrets, dissing your customer base, and ... um, wait, what was that ... oh yeah! forgetting your own name.

Woo-hoo! It's our 100th group chat, marking the start of a third year of podcasting for Parenting Roundabout. We took the opportunity to look back on our favorite episodes, play some clips from the past, and then wrap our heads around some numbers in the form of a fun (if somewhat slapdash) quiz. If you'd like to hear more than an excerpt from the episodes we favorited, here's where you can find them:

• Amanda chose Episode 53, "School-Lunch Drama and Scheduling Stress" 
• Catherine chose Episode 88, "Children's Books We Have Loved and Loathed"
• Nicole chose Episode 64, "Uncooperative Parents and Playground Pet Peeves"
• Terri chose Episode 65, "Feeling Anxious About Anxiety"

Throughout the episode, Terri was feverishly working to finish a by-the-numbers quiz on our longest, shortest, most popular, least popular, and otherwise measurable facts about our past episodes. Too many episodes were mentioned to link to here, but you can search the episode titles on this site to find and listen to them. Finally, we shared our 100th set of weekly recommendations: Catherine mentioned her long list of New Year's resolution ideas; Amanda kept with the 100 theme with 100 Activities to Do With Your Child for the 100th Day of School; Nicole added her 100th post on The Inclusive Class; and Terri had suggestions for making New Year’s resolutions for those who need them.

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.)

[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.

[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.

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). 

[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.)

[This is an encore presentation of a Parenting Roundabout episode originally released on June 24, 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.]

Halloween, when horror movies rule, seemed like a good time to revisit a chat Terri had with Kathy Ceceri, who writes about homeschooling on the All About Homeschooling Facebook page and her site Crafts for Learning, about kids and scary movies. Is it a societal contradiction that we worry about kids playing alone outside but don't mind them sitting in front of shoot-'em-up video games for hours? Should Lego be making playsets for movies that kids aren't technically allowed to go to? Are making-of documentaries a good way to introduce kids to scary fare or just a way to ruin all the fun? What's more scary, slasher movies, zombies, or Fraggle Rock? Listen in for some thoughts on whether horror movies and other scary fare are going to break your kids or help them get into film school. You can find Kathy's article on a birthday-party horror spree on Wired; if you're reading this someplace without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout for the full recap experience.

[This is an encore presentation of a Parenting Roundabout episode originally released on May 13, 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.]

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.)

[This is an encore presentation of a Parenting Roundabout episode originally released on January 14, 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.]

Seems like once a month or so, our Facebook feeds fill up with links to an article on Why Parenting Is in Crisis and Parents Today Are the Worst. Are they really the worst? Or just parenting in a time when there are more parenting experts trying to produce more content than ever? We talked about the ways different parenting styles, life experiences, and types of kids make it hard both to parent and to judge parenting; how there's still no judging like in-person judging to make you feel awful; the likelihood that the audience for heck-in-a-handbasket articles is parents who want to feel superior to bad parents rather than the bad parents themselves; and the way that Pinterest is in fact the most judgey feel-bad-about-yourself spot on the Internet.

Then we looked at a place where parents are, perhaps, not judged harshly enough: online support groups, with their dedication to being a safe place where anyone can say anything, and their protected environment for saying things that maybe should not be said. As we discussed our personal experiences, it appeared that in-person support groups were less likely to go bad, maybe because you have to actually put on clothes and face people to participate in them. Amanda and Terri attested to the way that online groups can turn into minefields the longer you participate and the more you care about expressing your opinion

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week. Catherine pointed folks toward two articles on sports parents: "9 Signs of a Sports Mom (or Dad)"and "Are You a Crazy Sports Parent?" (no judging, you understand); Amanda mentioned an article she wrote for Understood.org on using praise to build your child's self-esteem; Nicole invited listeners to a webinar she hosted; and Terri offered help in deciding if your support group is toxic.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music.

[This is an encore presentation of a Parenting Roundabout episode originally released on April 8, 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.]

Are superheroes good role models for little boys? And how much should moms worry about that? Amanda chatted with her Understood.org colleague Lexi Walters Wright about violent comic-book covers, mom-created vulnerable superheroes, and the rite of passage from obliviousness to obsession when it comes to the great wide world of superhero merchandising. What do you do when your child moves on from things like space and rainbows and brown -- things you can understand and share -- to a fascination with a huge and detailed universe you know nothing about? How do you convince him that Batman pajamas don't mean you can fly, dressing up like the Hulk doesn't mean you can hit your friend, and doing the dishes is superhero-worthy work? For more on the topic, follow these links mentioned in the podcast:

+ Marvel cancels two upcoming covers following uproar over new Spider-Woman
+ Violent 'Batgirl' cover pulled after Twitter uproar
+ Mom creates a coloring book to show son that superheroes CAN cry
+ PDF of the coloring book
+ Let Toys Be Toys

What's the superhero situation in your house? Share in the comments, and 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.