Hello, and welcome to the Parenting Roundabout Podcast for the week of December fourth.
I'm Catherine Hailecho and I'm here with Terry Morrow. Hello for a weekly
episode to talk about parenting in a roundabout way, along with a little pop
culture or pop culture should we say? Is I hear you have an update
on your dog boarding dilemma that you talked about a little while ago. Yeah,
a few weeks ago, I was talking about boarding the dog when we
went away for a winter vacation, and I was worried about the place we
had chosen. But I didn't really know what else to do, and it
just seemed like there were nothing but bad choices. But we did commit to
one place. I made a deposit, and then my sister in law and
brother in law and their kids came to our house for a Thanksgiving race.
I think we discussed that and they brought their dog with them, and the
two dogs got along amazingly. I was really worried about them bringing their dog
because I'm like, what if they don't like each other, It's really difficult,
But no, they just say from the first moment, tails wagging,
they were biting each other's faces and just having the best time. We took
them out in the yard and they chased each other around, tails wagging,
and then came back in the house and they were still doing the same thing,
really having fun together. They were both covered with drowel by the end
of the time, but they seemed super happy. So my sister in law
said, why don't we just take her when you guys go away, and
then the two dogs can have fun together. It'd be good for their dog
and be good for our dog. And so that's what we did. I
canceled the border and that is the plan now. I sure hope it goes
smoothly. The the most difficult part of the plan is that they live in
Pennsylvania and we live in New Jersey, and so we have to get the
dog there before we go to New York. And there is different ways to
do it, but all of them add considerable time to our trip. So
I, you know, that is a wrinkle that still needs to be figured
out, but it's worth figuring out, yeah, to have her go stay
with family and then we hope that the two dogs continue to love each other
for an entire week. Right, And it's not like, you know,
you go over to your cousin's house, and it's real fun for like a
day or two, and then you get tired of each other, and then
you have some little squabble, and then they're tired of you playing their toy
with their toys and don't want you to touch their toys anymore, and your
aunt has to run interference, and it's just when can I go home?
Right? So hopefully dogs are better than children in this respect and do not
get sick of each other in seven or eight days. Right, And she
behaves and is a good house guest and doesn't poop on the floor or you
know, knock things down, do things that we allow her to do that
other people would not allow her to do, like jump up on you.
Right. She jumps up on us, but only when invited, you know,
the tap top on the chest. She waits for the tap tap on
the chest and the tes and you know, the tap tap on the lap,
and then she jumps up. But she know she doesn't like jump on
you as you're coming up the stairs or anything. Ye. And yet I
feel that there are people who would say, do not allow your dog to
do that. That's better, Yeah, But it's different if if they're doing
it on command versus in a spirit of play. Yeah, well, it's
so nice that it's so nice that your sister in law invited her, you
know, so that you didn't have to be like, do you think maybe
you I think she was appalled that I was going to take her to a
border because her dog also has a rescue of history, and so, I
mean, I feel terrible about sending her someplace where she's going to be in
a cage and think that she's been given up again. But you know,
sometimes you have to make decisions that stick. So I think she was maybe
rescuing her from from my bad decision. So well, the outcome is the
same. That's right, that's right. I gave her. I waited a
few days. I gave her a chance to think about it twice and say,
what did I just volunteer to do? I said, nope, nope,
we're already. The dog's excited. I don't know how the dog tells
her she excited. Well, but my dog Layla does seem to be looking
around for that fun dog the humans here, Now, where's that dog?
There's the dog here? Before? By that dog? You guys are boring?
Do your dogs have dog friends? Because this is the first dog friend
Laila has had, and in fact, our past dogs never really had any
interaction with other dogs except just very casual. Yeah. Well, of course
they have each other. That's a big thing. See, this is what's
going to come of this, is that we're going to have to get another
dog. Yeah, it's really not much more to deal with than one say
about children, if you found that to be true. No, but anyway,
Yeah, they have each other. And also when they do because they
have to go to a kennel sometimes and they stay together, you know,
they have a shared room when they do that, so that is nice.
And then we have neighbor dogs. We have we have two houses and yards
that border our yard, and there's a point where, you know, sort
of all three kind of all three yards are close to one another. And
those other two houses also have two dogs each. So there are six of
them, oh my, and yeah, it's it's pretty funny get together in
one yard, not all six of them. Occasionally one of the one one
or two will will come over by invitation or just because they figured out how
to get over the fence by invitation. Yeah, but I mean the one
one of the neighbors definitely wouldn't hesitate if if there was an opportunity, she
would seize it for sure. But one of them is a standard poodle,
and so it's pretty big, and she's black and my dogs are black.
And when this poodle was a puppy, you know, she was like the
size of my dogs or even a little smaller, and she would come over
sometimes and run around with them, and it was so fun and then,
but mostly my one dog would love playing with her, and my other dog
would just go stand by the back door, like, please put me inside
now, I don't want to deal with this puppy. Yeah, I can
see that. It was pretty funny. Well, we'll report back on how
that cousin's week goes, hopefully with a happy story of doggy joy. Yes,
well, so far, so good. It's a nice update. It's
a good story so far. And uh, I guess a good story.
On Dancing with the Stars, would you say, yeah, shocking non elimination,
right, did you see that coming? I mean when they got down
to two and the two were Jason and Sochi, No no, no,
no, it wasn't Jason and Soci. It was Arianna and Soshi. Allison
was safe. Then Jason was safe, and I was very happy. And
then Charity was safe and I uttered an expletive because she was the one I
would have wanted to go instead of Alison. And so it was Arianna and
Sochi and they were both crying and looking terrified. Right, and you're you're
right. Then Alfonso said, hah huh, everybody's staying. So what's the
fan theory on this? Well, right away I saw a lot of people
saying, clearly the judge's favorite got the least votes, and so they just
decided at the last minute to do this right, which is what sprung to
my mind too, like this is fishy and it's unfair because if somebody who
should have gone home winds up getting higher than somebody who legitimately would have stayed
in the end, that stinks. However, cooler heads prevailed. Many people,
including Kristen Birch, who writes about the show all the time, have
pointed out that this is a big show with a lot of moving parts that
is done live. They cannot at the last minute decide, hey, let's
have an extra couple. So it was always going to be a three hour
finale. They needed to fill the three hour finale, So they decided to
keep everybody, But the way they did it is squarely. They could have
right at the beginning of the elimination said, hey, guess what, it's
a party. Everybody's everybody's stand right, which five person finale is dumb?
But okay, the way they did it and the two they put in the
bottom, and the apparent anguish of those two has made a lot of people
mad right now. Could be there just acting. Could be they said,
you guys are safe, but act like you're really worried. Yeah, but
it didn't look that way right. So if I were Val and Pasha,
I would be having a word with the producers, what are you doing to
our girls? Stuff? That it just left a really bad taste in a
lot of people's now. But focusing in on the thing that gives me joy,
Alison and Sasha, I wish them to win, except that then people
would hate their guts. But still I don't know if Allison understands the degree
to which she has become the goat with Harry's departure, and the person that
everybody will focus their eyer on if their particular person does not get high enough
or as high as her already seeing a lot of posts a bat she is
just stopping around the stage. She can't dance, but I thought she danced
just fine. I thought she dunced really good for a non dancer. Yeah,
and I think she's delightful and seems to be having a great time.
She's playing the game very well. She obviously has a huge voter base,
and if she won, I would be very happy. I think she is
a better exemplar of what I mean. Everybody's what this show is about.
It's lame to say that, but if it's about somebody who's never danced before
learning over the course of many weeks to dance, that's her. Yeah,
she's other people. I'm pretty sure everybody else in the finals had some dance
training beforehand, or some movement training or something, because they all hit the
ground really fast. So I don't know. I'm very happy about that,
And it'll be a fun final. They're all fun, they're all fun to
watch, they're all good. Nobody. Well, I don't hate Charity.
I just don't like a bachelorette winning. But Okay, she's fine. I
didn't like her second dance. I didn't think it looked that good, but
they gave it ten, so what do I know? Yeah, but she
just, you know, she just doesn't have a ton of personality. Likely
doesn't you know sometimes people on the show, you're just like, okay,
you know, yes, Arton is also not my favor. Yeah me either.
I mean, wasn't he the one who a couple of years ago,
a season or two ago, he was you know, he wasn't on and
he and his fiance were her wife or whatever who was a former dancer.
Were like super salty about it. Yes, and Sharna were both left off
the same season, and we're just bratty about it, like, yeah,
don't do that. I know, I know, I'm surprised he was back,
but you know, I don't. It's not like a big boo hiss,
let them go, but right, but that if you have to pick
one, she would be the one that I would have liked to have gone
home in the semi finals. But whatever, everybody, you'll get a final,
and you'll get a final. I just I mean, the dances were
all The dances were all good. The dancers were all fun to watch.
I have no nothing particular to say about any of them. And the total
scoring is pretty much the opposite direction of where I would put it amongst the
four who were actually doing a lot of dancing. But Soshi and Val were
great. They could get two thirties, and I thought Jason was underscored on
the Viennese Wolves. But what else is new, right, I don't know.
They continue to Yeah, I don't know. He seems to be doing
very well to me. Maybe he's like parking in somebody's parking space and they're
mad at him. But he didn't he didn't tip the tip the hairstylist,
and so now he's on the outlist, right, I don't know, But
listening to all the I've been looking around on social media and it's so funny
because you see just general social media, people are down on certain you know,
down on Allison, and then you go on Allison's page and look at
all the comments and people are crying as she's doing so well and how much
they love her so right, everybody's got a faction. She must be getting
a ton of boats because they certainly are scoring her to leave. Yeah,
yeah, I mean so the difference between her her total score was fifty one,
and then the next lowest was Jason and Daniella with fifty seven so stupid
because why were they Yes, it is so clearly they are are making their
choice known, But I don't know. It makes me think that it would
be interesting to have a show where you have all celebrities, legit celebrities who
also have dance training, so that you could just have a who is dancing
best competition and they could get honest scores without shenanigans based on their dancing skill,
and I would watch that show. That'd be a good show. Or
you could have a show that was all celebrities that had no dance experience whatsoever,
and then you could judge them against each other, who is coming along
best, who is making the most of it? I would watch that show.
That would be an interesting show. Dancing with the Stars is neither of
those things. So it's like, if you're gonna have some people who are
practically professional from week one and some people who are gonna be learning how to
count to four for the first three weeks, right, you can't be mad
if somebody's getting scored based on their improvement and somebody's getting scored based on their
excellence. That's the only fair way to do it. And shut up.
People don't have a trouble with that. Watch a different show, Bobby,
for the show that you want, But don't be complaining like they're not as
good. Why are they still here? It's not because they're humendously better than
they were when they started, and your person is about as excellent as they
were when they started, so yay. And also it's really has very little
to do with their dance your thoughts. It's all about their the voting and
everything else. Yeah, well it's both. You can't do it. You
can't win just on dance performance, right. You possibly can win just on
votes, but I think you also have to have good gameplay, right,
which is what which is how Bobby Bones were Bobby Bones exactly. Yeah,
But like I mean, I had never heard even before, and I was
voting for him by the end, so it wasn't just the people he brought
with him. Well, and I was mostly despite other people. But still,
as we talked about before, on this season, I mean, it
seems like there's not even any point to having the judges and the scoring because
it's not making a difference, like it's Yeah, and also, to be
fair, the judges aren't making a strong argument for their usefulness yeah, but
yeah, I mean you see people who are at the top of the leaderboard
get sent home people are at the bottom of the leaderboard. Keep saying so
like, why do we have a leaderboard? Yeah, there's ways they could
alter that and they're not. So they could make I mean they had a
judge safe for a while, yeah, and then they stopped doing that.
They could make the votes less important. They could do the votes only for
certain parts, you know, have it just be judges for the first six
weeks and then have voters. But that they're in a bad way because they
need the votes to scare up the people viewing, Yeah, and to scare
up the scare up excitement for the show. So they're kind of stuck,
right, But I don't know, it's fun to watch. Yeah, Yeah,
I would not mind if they just got rid of them. If the
judges were actually doing making sense with their scoring, then I would be all
for it. But they're not, and they're not even really trying anymore.
Yeah, I mean, if they were really saying, like, what we
need to see in a ja JA is xyz. And you know they did
try that last year, right where they had they sort of demo dances,
but you know, when when you can't see the connection to what they're saying
and what you are watching then and when you can't see connection between what they're
saying and what the score is, right, it just seems silly. So
transparency and scoring would be super helpful because otherwise people just assume the fix is
in. Yeah you know, so, yeah, it's it's a show not
without its flaws, and there are flaws that can be fixed and flaws that
are just a part of the setup. Right, but still, but we
keep having back kissing dancing. It's fine, and I you know, people
will scream if Alison and Sasha win, But wouldn't it be cool if Sasha
won from me? Every year? Where are you going? Oh Sasha,
not your year? Man? In fact, I said that earlier this season,
saying, you know, I'd love for him to win. Allison's not
gonna do for it for him, but maybe maybe the Buffy verse is going
to put him over, so we'll see, Yes, we'll see. Not
winning so very much this week are the people on the Gilded Age. There's
a lot of a lot of setbacks and uh, unfortunate occurrences in this episode.
I felt like it seemed really much more plot packed than usual, and
also much less Bertha than usual. Yes, very little Bertha. I think
it was just that one scene where Missus Winterton appeared to triumph over her by
getting the central box. I would have, just if I were Bertha,
let it go as she appeared to. But of course, George, as
we suspected, had put a bunch of money into the net to keep it
going, and he was able to call in that chip to a mortified looking
uh whatever. The guy's name is, Dickie. Yeah, well we're just
gonna call him Dickie, who just looked like excellent work in turning Gray sir
right before our eyes and also being stuck on the moving train, moving train,
but the train has left the station. Well, you'll just have to
get up at the next step. I guess George was pretty masterful with that,
uh negotiation. Yes, unfortunate for Dickie that he was talking to George
before he grew a conscience, so maybe on the way back it wouldn't have
gone quite that way. But uh so, yes, George starts, you
know, goes to the union guy's house and sees how the people live and
why aren't these kids in school? And is there a school and his uh,
who is that guy? Is that his assistant or his secretary? Mister
secretary could not could not be less concerned by care and uh, you know
he's there when the troops are going to shoot all the union guys so they
can get the scabs in all the strikers, and he just at the last
minute tells them not to So what is he going to do there but an
aim and he tells them to stand down instead of fy Yes. Partly another
reason is that he has met mister Henderson, the union man, who has
met his son who is now working for the mill, and who is there
at the protest. So George, like you said, grows a conscience and
is yeah able to see this through. I don't know is Bertha going to
approve of him having a conscience that could be inconvenient for her? Right?
I think there's trouble ahead there, but let's not We have so many other
non winners this episode. Well, it was fifty to fifty with the rector
whether he was going to be a bad guy or whether he's gonna die.
So his dice fell on the die side, and as soon as they said
his back Hurt's like, oh, well, he's doomed. I don't know
what it's going to be, but he's doomed. And indeed it was cancer.
Seriously, they couldn't have given her like at least one episode of happiness.
It was all offscreen when she went to Niagara Phone, Niagara Falls.
I had a honeymoon and she had a happy honeymoon in between episodes. And
now everything's gone. Although speaking of like growing a conscience or becoming a good
person, sort of overnight you go Agnes, she's giving money to Jack for
his clock. She immediately goes to Ada when she finds out wants them to
come to her house. She's like, who is this? And she was
even telling missus astor maybe you want to calm down about the opera thing?
Maybe who is this woman? What happened to her? Didn't didn't the ghosts
of Christmas pass President Future come to visitor at night? Now we just have
to wait for Armstrong the housekeeper to turn it around. Oh yeah, she's
still oh my gosh. Yeah, but all the all the staff pitching in
to uh help Jack get his patent on his clock, which he then was
not able to get. But I have this feeling he's going to keep trying.
Yeah, I think he's going to keep going. One day, you'll
be a famous clockmaker. That's right. We'll say we knew him when that's
right. So his winning is in the future. Was not this this time,
not so much, but but perhaps the saddest, at least for this
week. Oh Marion, oh sweet Marian, Oh no, I mean you
walk into that sweeteart. Oh is it ever, ever, ever a good
idea to propose to someone in public in front of a group of people,
Do not do that? No. In Dashel's case, it was a good
idea because that's the only reason, the way he was going to get her
to say yes, yes, I know. But as soon as he's oh
no, no, no, don't do it, Oh my gosh, and
what can she do? She gives that that romantic answer every man wants to
hear. Well, if you want me to, I guess, okay,
and ada, at least amongst the crowd is looking like, yeah, oh
no, she knows. That's not good. Oh that was so very painful.
Yes, and they're still encouraging us. I think to see Marian and
Larry as the end game for sure. Yes, when he's talking to her
later and she's completely forgotten that she's engaged. I hope he takes encourage.
Oh that yeah, oh yeah, thats right. We'll deal with that later.
If it wasn't for the little girl, she could just go back and
say, are you kidding me? Man? Why would you put me on
the spot like that? I absolutely will not marry you, but show that
little girl's gonna twist the knife. I feel like she can put it off
by I'm going to go live at the rectory and help, yes, like,
hang on for as long as you can her a little time. I'm
saying, Hail Mary's all day to keep you alive. Right, if they're
probably not Catholic, what is it? Probably Anglican or something? Yeah,
that's whatever. Whatever they said, brain all day? Oh man? That
was that was cringe, just a fringe. How will will Agnes's unexpected heart
of gold lasts long enough for Marian to ditch this dude to marry the bridge
guy across the street? Right? Oh yeah, kill scandal? And then
I am concerned about Missus Russell's new lady's maid. I fear that she is
a plant from Missus Winterton and that the young maid who has been displaced will
catch on, but nobody will believe her because they'll think she's just bitter about
it. This is my uncomfortable theory that I please, please please be wrong.
I very much want it to be wrong. But that's just the kind
of thing Missus Winterton would do. It is although she has shown that she
can't do these things, well I can't do these things. Well, that's
true, but she did, which is why she did, you know,
score a little triumph with the box the end did, yes, but I
would have I would have given that that went away. But now that that
George has renegotiated with the guy, and now Missus Winterton's gonna lose her box,
She's gonna be ticked again, if indeed she does. And uh,
but I mean, where's she gonna go? There's she can't go to any
other opera. This is her opera. This is you know, you gotta
you gotta dance with the opera. You got missus ass shut you down.
I wonder if Missus Astor is regretting that right now. Well, well we
have Peggy, oh, yes, being a bit let's say, entangled with
her boss. Yes, indeed, and Mary you know confiding and to Marian
some right, what's been going on? Yes? Yes, that is unfortunate,
that situation which I can't figure out how they back off from that?
Right? He certainly doesn't want to seem to want to be back very delicately
trying to say, like, maybe we shouldn't write all of our stories together,
maybe we should never be alone together again. Can we get a couple
of more staff people in here? Plaze? Oh dear, she's onto another
story? Yeah? And about the schools, yes, in New York this
time? Yes? And I think the only other plot line was Oscar doing
that thing that I don't understand. What's going on? Is he being scammed
by this guy? Is his uh uh intended in on the scam or not?
Right? Yeah? I don't get it either. How much can how
much money does he have? I mean, can he impoverish his mother with
this stuff? I would I would hope Agnes is a sharp cookie. She
wouldn't give him access to more money than she can afford to lose, would
she? I don't think would she trust him like with her funds? I
mean, I think she knows that he can be I hope you know he
can? Yeah? So not be trusted in some things. But yeah,
one I would all have the same questions that you do. You know,
is he scamming her? Is he genuinely trying to help her? Is he
Are they working on this together which that part is? Or is she scamming
him? Right? Yeah, I mean I guess the most charitable expectation is
that they're doing it together to get as much fun as I would hope so,
but I mean I don't generally care for Oscar as a character, but
something rather than stupid. Yes, well, I don't know. Yeah,
I wish we had a little more clarification about what exactly was going on there,
but maybe that's the point. Spence. Oh well, how many more
episodes of this do we have? There's two more? That's it? Two
more? Yes, okay, enough time for the Ada's husband to die and
Marian to either be rushed into marriage or somehow get out of it killed him.
Yes, yeah, but oh that was so unpleasant. And I do
have to give Louis a Jacobson credit for yes playing it like what happened.
Yes, okay, I don't like this. I don't like this at all,
but she hasn't necessarily discouraged him but she hasn't particularly encouraged him either,
and he hasn't. It's been pretty clear what he had in mind, but
he hasn't broached it to her in any personal way. But this again that
he did it publicly because then she couldn't say no, right, so,
which means he's a bad dude or not good husband material at the very least.
Well, and they also gave him a line where he said like,
oh, these poor people like who cares basically right or you're he said you're
not a real teacher. That's what he said. So that's right to really
like twist the nail so that we all know. Okay, so we do
think he's a bad guy though, yes, we know he's a bad guy
now because he said that she's not real teacher. Yes, so clearly she
will not be marrying him. Something will happen to felicitate her escape, right,
and not a moment too soon. So next week we will watch Gilded
Age season two, episode seven, Wonders never Cease. Well, I can
think of some wonders I would like to see if they're never ceasing, Like
dash, she'll saying, oh, never mind, I was just kidding and
uh and miraculous recovery. Like like Ada said, you'll you'll share it from
the pulpit. That's right. Everybody prays for him and suddenly his cancer is
gone. That would be a wonder. Yeah, let's let's hold high hopes
for that, because are going to have something to do with the opera,
that's true. Hmmm, I wonder what wonders will never cease? And then
Dancing with the Stars Season thirty two finale with you a wonder if Ellison It'sasha
Witt. But you know I wouldn't be mad about any of the finalists really,
So see what happens actually tonight as you're listening to this, all right,
we will see what happens. And now once again it is time for
Catherine's Library Finder of the Week. What you got, Yes, I'm back.
I'm back with another crafty book, which is funny because I am the
least crafty person that you've ever met. But this came through and it's called
folded The book itself is called folded book art, which if you google that
then you get all kinds of tutorials on how to make folded book art.
But this was a book that that is the specific title and so when you
see, like you know, books that have the pages artfully folded to make
like a little picture or a word or something, it looks so cool.
This is just like the artistic playment of placement of dog years and no,
which we've discussed before. Don't do that please, Yeah, this is this
is intentional you know, folding and manipulating of the pages to make very cool
looking creations. And as is, the is typical with these kind of books.
You know, when you see one, you'll probably see another one.
So there are there are multiple books telling you how to do this or just
sort of highlighting cool projects. And you know, you could, like like
you would read a cookbook just without actually making anything from it. You could
page through this kind of book and admire the pretty things that you are never
ever going to because I'm not on these books that you're folding. Are they
books that are especially made for that, or they're just saying go to your
library, I mean, go to uh, you know, your bookshelves at
home and pick out a book you haven't read and fold it up. I
think it's that or I think people might you know, get them from thrift
shops or for the purpose garage sales or that kind of thing. It makes
me feel like I'm folding a book into that. That doesn't seem right.
I've done it with magazines. I've done the make a Christmas tree by folding
a magazine in a certain way and then taping it together. But those were
popular in my youth, right back when there were magazines. Remember magazines,
Yeah, I remember, I used to work. I used to be employed
in the magazine. I guess to make this Christmas trees, now you have
to fold up a book, yep, or catalog some catalogs this season.
Surprisingly, yes, I have been a sparse, sad little tree from the
like brochure at the resort of their many certain many activities. Right, So
it's it's a it's a spare little it's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but
it's a Christmas tree. Yeah. Well we'll get into that, actually nervous.
We'll get into that with our with our arc coming up. But anyway,
we will have a link to this particular book. But there are there
are many out there, and it's just fun to kind of take a peek
at I think people can do fun to look at pictures of them. I
think I would feel very bad to actually do it, even though I have
a great many books that are never going to be read again and never going
to be opened, and probably becoming a thing of beauty would be a good
end, better end for them than sitting dust covered and warping on my shelf.
Right, but still, books are sacred, you don't. I mean,
you could go to a little free library and I guess, but it's
seems disrespectful. Yeah, I know, but yeah, but no, I
think it's cool though, and I can see how it would be really nice
and it could make a book even more useful and valuable. But you will
not be doing it. Oh well, many of my books are getting folded
just by the way they're sitting. But anyway, let's let's just leave this
traumatic topic behind and go on a spin through the archives to see what we
were talking about one year ago, four years ago, and eight years ago
this week. Can't call it. How long have we been doing this?
This is ridiculous, way too long. We should be much more famous by
now, like we've possibly been getting less famous as we go along with right
started I note, Oh, well, so one year ago this week we
were shouting out our kids' skills things our kids had learned to do, or
things our kids were just strong in, like my son knowing when we had
something for dinner, what week we had it, and we look back to
where my husband writes stuff down and it's correct. Skills like that. As
you have your kids acquired any new skills in the past year, Well,
my son just about a year ago at this time went to the Technical Theater
Olympics that they have. So every year the state has a theater festival.
It's like forensics in theater, I think. And so their school does a
one act play and there's a it's competitive, you know, they performed a
few times before a panel of judges and based on that they can qualify to
go to this state festival and then they perform it again there and can receive
awards. And then as part of that this whole event, they had this
Tech Olympics and they do they have to do things like you know, s
on a button or set up you know, set up props or do something
with sound and anyway they had hang up a light and he won it wow
for the whole state. And what is even fun for himself? If you
like his shirt one falls off his shirt or just in he just works on
the lights. Okay, the lights. He did the best in them,
the lights, so that was very exciting. He wasn't even you know,
lights are not his specialty yet all but but he won. And so he
actually won a big you know, theatrical stage light for his high school by
doing that. So so that's a pretty cool skill, yes, And that's
that's new newish yeah for him. So that's see what he wants to get
into the technical side of theater, right or directing he wants to do.
He wants to do directing or playwriting, so not not specifically, still working
with lights, but it's still a cool behind the scenes as opposed to right,
right, and probably useful to know how all that stuff works if you're
going to be directing, for sure. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So he did he did that, and then I don't know. My daughter,
I think her a newer skill that she has is making boba te because
she that's where she works is at a tea place, so she knows how
to make all those all those drinks. And she's also of course helping with
the social media for her place of business. So nice making making tiktoks about
bubble tea. Neither of these are things that I could do. Yeah,
nor would I have to be proud. Yeah? Absolutely, I don't know
what we've we've got anything new. My my daughter's learned how to make grilled
cheese sandwiches are a little electric grit special. She makes herself grilled cheese.
Make it for you, she does occasionally, Yes, and I will gladly
eat a grilled cheese sandwich in any form. I like mine super crispy.
Hers are a little soft but still delicious, bread butter and malta cheese in
any combination. Yeah, I'm good to go. Yeah, I'm not real
picky. Right. Well, She also she makes herself eggs, sometimes microwave
eggs, which I taught her to do, but she she, you know,
fix the stuff herself. Pretty Soon she'll have her kitchen downstairs and she'll
be able to just make what she wants to make. If we decide to
plug in the oven. I still have not decided that yet. It's an
elderly gas oven and stove that's disconnected because I was smelling gas, and so
it's now like, shall we hook it up, back it up again?
Just leave it bait. She can come upstairs and use the oven. It'll
be fine, my son. I don't know. He's been working at home
depot for quite a while and seems to be doing pretty well, so I
guess he's picked up the skills necessary to help people load things into cars and
tie Christmas trees onto roofs and such like. Right. Oh, he's definitely
learned how to use a credit card to buy things from event. That is
an awesome skill. He has acquired to the degree that the front of his
credit card is peeling off, so pretty soon he won't be able to do
that anymore because he can't can't slide it in. Try to see how we
get a new one. It's just like wear and tear, right, excessive
wear and tear from being slipped into vending machines. But oh, my goodness,
has he been doing that a lot? So tire credit card is like
the same charge over and over and over over again. Right, But you
know, good for him, Yeah he can. He can buy himself patented
chips, right y goodness knows what else? So let's see, So what
about our own skills, because we also talked about that that was eight years
ago. Skills. Golly, what have I gained a skillion. Do you
have something that you picked up back way back eight years ago? My skill
was making a making a competition ready hair hairstyle. I don't have to do
that anymore. Yeah. I think it's you know, it's studiously ignoring the
online grades. I'm good at that. You're a stronger mom than I am.
I was. Are they up yet? Are they up yet? Are
they up yet? Yeah? Recently my sister asked me, like, well,
how is he doing in school? I'm like, I don't know.
I cannot look for my own mental mental health. I cannot. I cannot
look, and there's nothing you can do about it anymore. So there's nothing
I can do. Yeah. And and with the high school ones, you
know I was so anxious about because you know, he was really at risk,
but it didn't mean anything until the very very end. Yeah, So
there was no point in looking at it because it could completely change, yeah,
better or worse. Yeah. So like, if you looked at it
and it was good, so what, you can't relax because it could it
could all fall apart, right, And if you looked at it and it
was bad, like, well that's bad, But am I les stay bad?
Who knows. Oh Man, Welcome to parenthood people. Yep, this
is the way it is, always, always I am. I am trying
to acquire the skill of not caring and just letting my kids have their lives
and not feel like I'm responsible for everything. That it's okay for them to
make mistakes and it's their life and what they want to do is what they
should do. I'm I don't. It's less that I'm not in charge anymore
than I don't need to be in charge anymore. Right after years and years
of having to make decisions for them and having to figure things out and maybe
this worked, maybe this didn't, I can turn things over to them to
a large degree, not entirely, not as much as maybe for some kids
their age, but still pretty much. I need to just care less,
no problem. I have not quite developed that skill, as my daughter will
tell you, but I'm working on it. I'm attempting to acquire it,
to care about the things that are important, which is just that they're neat
kids, and they're you know, they're working, and they can work things
out themselves, right, And if my son tells me he wants to do
something, we can do it. If he doesn't. We cannot do it.
And I can let my daughter go move downstairs where we don't see what
she's doing every single minute, and that will be a good thing. Right.
So it's hard when they're still living in your house. It's hard,
and when they have some issues that cause you to question their decision making skills.
But you know what, pretty sure everybody who has a kid in their
thirties questions their decision making skills. So it's really you know, look at
them, they're typical, say stand down, mom. My mom couldn't stand
down. And I'm having a hard time with it. But that's the skill
I am pursuing. That would be a super parenting skill to have. Yeah,
live your life, honey, I'll be over here, make a podcast.
It's a tough one. It's very tough. But I'm proud of you,
Terry, thank you. Well, leave me wait till I just get
my daughter a lecture yesterday. So it's not going so weak, but maybe
it's maybe it can all happen at once. Yes, Yeah, these are
these are long held habits. And just the fact that I was I had
to be so involved when they were in school, then I mean, this
is me, This is me less just giving her lectures. Yeah, I'm
not going to our workplace and talking to our boss, which I have a
strong urge to do, such a strong urge to do. But I'm being
good. I'm working on it. Yeah, I'm betting there, Yes,
and the others. The other thing that we were going to look back on
was an episode called The good Enough Christmas back in twenty nineteen. And you
know you you already mentioned fashioning a tree out of a brochure. That's what
we do. Yes, we go to this resort for Christmas, a timeshare,
and I make the little tree from whatever multi page paper product I can
find, and we buy each other presence cheap presence from the gift store and
put them under the tree. And that is our extent of our Christmas decorating.
It's great, it's fun, and yeah, I mean it's fine the
house at all because we're not going to be here for much of the time.
So just you know, we've we've nobody cared about it but me,
and so all I had to do was stop caring about it and then good
enough. You're all there. Yeah, well but you and you've made you've
made a new tradition and it's working for you. Yes, so it is.
That's great. So yeah, so are you now that what do you
what are you guys going to do for Christmas? Is everybody coming home?
Or are you going to look for another charming Airbnb? No, well,
the kids are coming home. My daughter's coming home specific because she has jury
duty. Oh well, shes right? She? I mean, she would
have come home anyway, but she kept going required to, don't. Yeah,
she kept getting called and she put it off a couple of times,
and then they were like, you have to do this, you know.
And also the odds are that she will actually have to do it are small,
right, but she still has to be like on call. Yes,
so she'll be coming home, you know, the week prior, because that's
the week that she has jury duty. And you know, we can all
we can all be pretty sure that no one's gonna have a jury trial that
kicks off on December twentieth. But whatever, she still has to come home,
right or she still had to, you know, make her plans according
to Doesn't that sound like a Hallmark movie? Yes, I had to come
home for jury duty. And then in the jury pool, she saw that
she knew in high school, right, and so they different opinions on the
case, and they fought about it the whole time. But then exactly,
love, I see it. I see it for sure. So that's happening.
And then right after Christmas, she's going back to Michigan because her boyfriend's
sister is getting married, so she's going to that, and then the rest
of us are going to go visit my family, my parents, siblings.
So where California. WHOA, that's not just like go over the river and
through the woods. That's no, we're doing it so plame flight. As
we discussed last week. Yes, so that's exciting, say hello to my
home state for me, although it's not that part of that part is not
my home state, but still right, Yeah, so that's exciting. I
mean, it won't it'll just be three out of four of us because my
daughter won't be coming on that trip, but you know, we'll get time
with her before and but yeah, we t I'm with your son. I
sure I'll enjoy that. Well, but yeah, we we were sort of
like last weekend, you know, the weekend after Thanksgiving when my son was
we were all home. My son was home, my daughter was not here,
but my son wasn't. My husband was kind of like, dude,
should we get a tree? Like, is now the time we get a
tree? And I'm like, well, it's kind of early to get a
tree, like cause we get a live tree. Oh, it's a little
early in my opinion to get it now. But then the two of them
won't be home until basically a week before, so I guess we kind of
need to get it before they get here. But it's depressing to me to
decorate a Christmas street by myself. That's true. Even if you have like
proper musical accompaniment you can play. I mean that that's maybe it's you and
vibe on that. I don't but I will. Yeah, the music helps
for sure. Yes. So do you decorate the front of your house a
little bit? Do your neighbors? Yes? So on my street, it's
definitely like lights because you have the big street by the park that everybody goes
down, right, So yeah, we do do some lights, and we
have most of that up already, which is very early for us. I
mean typically we would always be gone for Thanksgiving and we'd come home and the
whole block would be done and we'd be like, oh God, we're so
behind, so we have most of it. We have. There's like this
organization kind of a youth group Scouting similar to Scouting organization that sells wreaths,
and we always buy from them, and those got delivered before before Thanksgiving.
Wow, And so we always get these they call them porch pots, you
know, like a little potted arrangement for the porch. Because one year a
kid came to our door selling these wreaths and we were like, oh,
yeah, we'll take it. We always get like a big giant wreath and
hang it on the screen porch and put lights in it and stuff. And
we said and she said, you know what would look really good is a
couple of porch pots. And we were like so impressed by her sellowship that
we just bought the porch pots. Now by the porch. Ah, So
yeah, we have two porch pots and then we have no no inflatables.
They're huge here, huge physically and also huge popularly. Yeah. I mean
it's like a movie on the front of your house. Yes, yes,
yes, I saw one of those. There's one pretty close to me,
and it is the it's a countdown to Christmas. It's like how many more
days until Christmas? And it's been up there since there were like fifty days.
I was like, slow down, like you're stressing me out. Some
people are very into it. Yes, we have a few streets here by
us where there's like house after house after house has the inflatables and the lights
and the movie and all this stuff right after the other. And they're not
like your street, you know, in plain View. There's sort of side
streets, and I'm thinking they're just doing this for each other. These people
just dig it and they want to see who can have the coolest display.
Yeah, it's it's sort of fun walking taking our walks now because it's dark
by the time we get out, and all these lights and things and stuff,
and it makes us feel, you know, a little overwhelmed by it
all and also extremely glad that we don't do that nonsense. Right. Still,
Wow, some people are super into this. Yes, you know,
good for them, whatever gives you joy. I have a friend who came
into a whole ton of inflatables, like for every holiday. It was like
a dentist's office that was going out of business or some some business that had
all these and was like basically giving them away. And somehow she ended up
with them. So she y has this ridiculous collection of inflatable things. Oh
my responsibility, she put them all out. Oh, speaking of inflatables,
I want to mention last week we talked about Walker Hayes getting his kids Christmas
inflatables when he made it big with Fancy Like. I just want to mention
that he has made a Christmas version of Fancy Like called Fancy Like Christmas,
a video for it, featuring all his adorable kids and his wife and a
bunch of inflatables and a whole lot of other silliness, right and in general
like sort of object to really, man, you're gonna make a Christmas version
of your big hit, Okay, but the video is very fun and his
family is very cute, so I will allow it, okay. I mean
you can search for it on YouTube, get a little Christmas spirit without actually
having to do anything yourself, right, and we'll go link it up.
So yes, and then we'll say that's it for the Parenting Roundabout Weekly Roundup.
You can find all our episodes on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
or wherever you get your podcasts. You can find recaps, links and
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you find us at roundabout chat and please visit our Amazon shop at amazon dot
com slash shop slash Mamitude, where you can find links to a lot of
things we've talked about over the years. We'll see you back here next Tuesday.
Bye Terry, Bye Catherine, Goodbye everyone. M