Jan 29, 2015
The end of the NBC series Parenthood — and
with it perhaps the end of all emotional family dramas until the
pendulum swings back from its current spot in dark and violent and
edgy fare — got us talking about why we never took to the
Braverman family saga the way we should have; an
article by Linda Holmes on NPR's Monkey See blog on why such
shows may have fallen out of favor; the family dramas we fell
for in the past (and Terri apologizes here for talking and talking
and talking about those shows — seriously, don't
get her started — but if you want to join her in swooning over that
Once and Again plotline with Eric Stoltz as Mr. Dimitri,
start right
here); and the shows we're paying attention to now. Amanda
expressed appreciation for Jane the Virgin, Catherine
digs a little British family drama called Downton
Abbey, Nicole confessed to going to the dark side with violent
programming after OD'ing on sunny '80s comedies in her youth,
and we all hoped that The Secret Life of the American
Teenager is not as realistic as we fear.
Next, we turned our attention to a couple of recent news stories: one about parents suing a kid who hurt their kid on the lacrosse field, and another about parents sending an invoice for a birthday-party no-show. While it was fun to think of all the things we could sue over and invoice for if that became a thing — read this post from the blog Scary Mommy for some ideas — we decided that perhaps there are better coping skills to model for your kid than "You're gonna pay!"
Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine shared an article on the benefits of being a sports parent; Amanda suggested a book called The Resilience Formula; Nicole added an endorsement of the work of Gordon Neufeld; and Terri mentioned an interview with the parent-owner of KidCompanions Chewelry, which gives kids who need to chew on something a better option than collars and cuffs.
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.)
I am so glad you went back and watched. I watched all of Parenthood and loved it. I do think it had a low point and the addition of Ray Romano was great. I work in special education and have recently found your podcast and enjoy listening.
Lindsey, thanks for commenting! So nice to know I'm not just talking to myself here. :) Glad you're enjoying the podcast! Please keep listening.
So I did finally watch the finale of Parenthood, and then I went back and watched the last five episodes on Hulu, and now I have to find more episodes, because I am retroactively re-hooked. Mostly because of Ray Romano! I had no idea.