Hello, and welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast for the week of February nineteenth.
I'm Katherine Aleco 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,
and I'll share a story about parenting that I'm going to use. Do
it in a roundabout way so I don't get put in jail. How about
that sounds like a plan. So both of my for both of my kids,
we have five twenty nine college savings accounts, right, and it's they
both have like a not entirely clear picture of what these accounts are, how
they work, what they're for, you know. Like my son called me
a couple of weeks ago to say, like, Okay, I know if
I buy books, we can use that special bank account to pay for it,
right, But do I have to buy them at the campus bookstore in
order for that to work. I'm like, no, you just buy them
anywhere. But you just had to save the receipt. Yes, So it
also have to be books for school and not right, they can't be just
like I want to read this comic book or whatever it's and then my daughter
is I mean, I don't know what this says about her moral character,
but she's she's always like angling, like how could we what if I So
she texts me the other day like can I use five twenty nine money to
buy headphones? And not just any because she knows that you can use it
for a computer, right, you can use it for a laptop, but
you know, not just any headphones. It's like Apple air Max Pro noise
canceling, you know, super fancy, super expensive. I'm like, no,
that's no, you can't just like but but but I need them to
study. I need them to focus because they have noise canceling. And here's
a result on Google that shows that they're good for helping people focus focus on
the music, though not on what you're doing. Yeah, I'm like,
I think you would have to add a third major, which is, you
know, music production or some sort of related Hey, do they have podcast
productions there? She could use it? Really they do? I bet I
bet that's become a major. I mean her her one of her majors is
digital marketing, so that's that's a new thing. Yeah, could be part
of that podcasting. So we'd have a long discussion about tax laws She's like,
who do we ask? It can't hurt to ask. I said,
well, if you want to call up, here's the eight hundred numbers.
I have a good time. Yeah, enjoy that. We'll visit you in
jail. Or enjoy that like two hours you'll get on hold. No,
I ain't gonna make that phone call for nothing, No way close. And
also what exactly, Yeah, I don't know if anybody needs five hundred and
thirty four dollars headphones, but it's certainly not a college student. No,
So you know, regardless of where the money comes from, right, even
if we could get them from that account. No. Right. And also
they they're pink, and she said, oh that's the most essential part.
They're pink. So this is super serious study stuff. Yes, yes,
I mean then all day she's sending me like picture, she sent me a
picture of a computer with a little pouch of apple sauce in front of it
that said, if I had those headphones, I would be doing homework instead
of eating this apple. Show. So the digital marketing training is going well,
she's uh, you know, selling sending point of view through her digital
marketing skills. He's working hard on that. Golly, I just oh my,
I mean my kids. Now they're in their thirties, they're both working,
you know, part time. They don't have a huge amount of money,
but they got enough money to buy a stupid phone that they want.
So, you know, my feeling is you use your phone until it physically
will no longer work, and then you buy the lowest step on the you
know, the lowest acceptable version that you can get, and if they want
to get the you know, eight hundred, nine hundred dollars one excellent,
you have money, go buy it. So my son bought his, and
now my daughter is starting to angle for a phone, and I said,
great, your brother bought here, so you can buy yours. So she's
saving money. Allegedly, she'll see when I ain't buying it, right,
if I buy it, it's going to be you know, the cheapest possible
one, which is not what she's going to want so right, but even
then she could buy it exactly right. Now she's angling for a TV,
which maybe for the new apartment. Right, there's a TV there, but
it's not a streaming TV. It's it's not a smart TV, it's a
dumb old TV, right, and you know, so she'll get that for
her birthday, because that is significantly cheaper than a phone. Yeah, we're
handing those out like candy. I know when did TVs get so cheap?
That used to be an investment? Right? Oh well, well going up
with that, I'm sure is she gonna guilt you for a little while longer
or do you think that she's a I think that she gets it at this
point, and her birthday is coming up. Not that I spent five hundred
dollars not a birthday gift for her, but perhaps if there's some combination of
gifts from several people there you go, if everybody give her Apple cards,
right even so, gosh, then I would be nervous about her having headphones
that expensive, right? Is somebody going to take them? Yeah? Oh
well, well anyway, it's nowhere near the troubles that are all young things
are getting into on reservation dogs. Yeah. Yeah, it didn't seem like
this was gonna be a good idea for Jackie and Laura, and indeed it
is. It quickly goes south or they're trying to go west. But yes,
they do not get very far. Laura's grandmother's crummy car. Yes,
so they have car trouble. Then they get picked up by somebody who starts
to seem very creepy, and so they kick him in the face and stab
him and ditch out of the car and only too late realize that he has
their bags and their money in the trunk. And then they try to steal
a car, almost get hunted down buy some rednecks. Yep. Then they
encounter a woman who seems very nice and who may well be very she may
well feel very nice. I was suspicious when she didn't eat the castro ale.
I thought she's drinking them. They ever went anywhere. So, but
the weirdest thing about that woman is that she's played by Megan Malally. What
I thought that was Megan Malally? Yes, the voice, I couldn't see
it in the face, I could just know. I couldn't see it as
a face either. Who is that? And I looked up and I said,
what did they do to make up? Like? Yeah, yeah,
the big shaggy wig, I guess. But wow, yeah that So that
doesn't get added in extra creepiness to it, because it's like, I know
this zad person, yet it doesn't look like her, right hmmm, Yeah,
Well there were and we're talking about two episodes that once, yeah,
by the way, right to the first two episodes of season two. I
think that was the the getaway story arc those two episodes, because it seemed
like they were maybe heading back home at the end of the second one.
I sure hope, so, yeah, because I don't think they're gonna toe
that car to California, but maybe, yeah, unless they're just towing it
somewhere where they can, I don't know, but they can't get it fixed.
They only have them, you know, like forty bucks that yeah,
Jackie got from her mom partially authorized him partially not yeah. Oh well,
and and uh, meanwhile, back at the reservation, her uh Willie jack
is trying to undo the curse that she put on Jackie right and enlisting the
help of elders who know not what they're doing. Turned out have a history
with each other. And somehow Brownie and Bucky. Yeah, somehow the final
ceremony involved Tom Patt But I don't know what that had to do with it.
But I was singing along, so we started to play free falling.
I'm gonna sing along right. Well, this is completely random, but and
maybe maybe that's what turned them around, we'll see, right. But yeah,
so Brownie and Bucky had some past history which I guess has been healed
over. Now that's right. So maybe that's the good medicine that will reverse
the bad medicine. But that Willie jack was trying to take care of I
hope so. And there was a little bit of a repproch mall with the
other gang that has lost Jackie. So they are trying to perhaps heal their
eyeing each other suspiciously, but maybe they can work together. They're working together,
and and the we had a resolution of the theft of the potato chip
truck from the first episode, was it Yeah, indeed everybody knew they took
it, but didn't want to get them in trouble, right, And which
do we buy that or I mean, it's it's assuming a lot of good
things will from those exactly, from those three men, the two who run
the Catfish restaurant and the other guy. I don't know, I'm inclined to.
I don't know. It seemed like, I mean, they haven't done
anything. It's been a whole season and they haven't like held it over these
kids, so right, I would think that if they were going to they
would have. Possibly, they just want, like you said, too many
kids in jail. They want to, right, but maybe they'll give Bear
a job. Seemed like maybe, Yeah, we shall see in the ensuing
episodes. That's right. What else happened? We got the return of Janish
meeting as Yes, I didn't realize that she was connected to Jackie, that
she's no Jackie's aunt who Jackie had been staying with. Yeah, I didn't
quite realize either. I don't think that was introduced before. M hm,
and the uh, the actress who played Jackie's mom kind of looked like her.
I thought I thought there was some resemblance there that's appropriate, But she
is actually that actress's actually the niece of the actor who plays Bucky. Oh,
okay, things you learn I am IMDb, IMDb, I'm right.
Megan mleley on racking nice, Oh my gosh, that was so weird.
That just left me feel so feeling so unsettled. You know, I don't
know if we would have been it would have been creepy anyway, because you're
expecting something bad to happen. But all right, the whole thing was unsettled.
That just hated a little extra creep factor for sure. Well I hope
the gang's all back together next week. Yeah, plural with maybe life lessons
learned. You gotta plan your trip a little better there, girls, you
know, maybe take the card for a check up before you leave. Also,
though, going back to Megan Malally, she didn't she saw them drive
off with her truck. She didn't call the cops on that didn't Maybe it's
her husband's truck. Yeah, take it, I don't want it. That's
a good point. I was just waiting for them to get pulled over for
being I was too stolen car, right. I thought it would keep going
from bad to worse, But it just maybe they're going to give it back.
Maybe after they toe the other car all the way back to the to
Oklahoma to wherever they I don't know how far they got. They write down
that lady's mailing address and uh, you know, her home address, so
that they right, so they could find her again. If indeed she wasn't
planning to murder them in her sleep, she seemed like a potential friend.
But yeah, well, given that she didn't get them busted, right,
right, maybe she figured they'd just run out against and leave it on the
side of the road. Yeah, yeah, here we go on season two.
Yeah, what fun do we have ahead of us? And will there
be more Tom Petty songs? Shall see? So let's uh, let's get
in our stolen car and drive to the next segment, which is Catherine's Library
find of the Week. What have you got now? I've got two children's
books. Instead of being about, you know, things that can kill you
or things that are extremely scary or whatever, these are a pair of books,
one called Ugly Animals and one called Animals that Make Me say e.
And I just thought last week and something icky this week? Okay, I
thought, do we want to teach kids to call animals ugly? I didn't
think bad for the ugly animals? We don't do that. Yeah, I
mean, you know, they're that's they're just born that way. I mean
kids make us say you too, so that's we're sure. So yeah,
I just you know, in the continuing sort of I continue to be kind
of amazed that all of the topics that kids nonfiction can cover and will cover,
And why didn't I come up with the idea to write an entire book
about every about each letter of the alphabet, Like there you go, twenty
six books right there, or every NFL team or every you know, baseball
player, or it's like, wow, you could just you know, they
probably pay you ten dollars per book, but you know, you get it's
an automatic series. Is that a gorilla pick in his nose on the cover
of that book of probably yeah, animals that make me say you Yeah,
because there's it says in the sales copy that it's about nose picking is covered
in it. So yep, there's all kinds of good good exactly. Kids
will absolutely love it. I was going to say, kids will eat that
up, but I don't not think I will see that, yes, buzzz
off their kids and eating them and mm hmmm mm hmmm. It's the the
the the text on the site for Animals that Make Me Say You says,
prepare to be repulsed by an engaging and unique look at some of the more
discussed and engaging our opposites. Stop that that is true. So I look
at some of the more disgusting survival techniques from the Animal Kingdom, and one
book is for this. One is from Ranger Rick and the other one is
from National Geographic Kids. So these are the the impeccable sources of the material.
Yeah, so you know you can trust National Geographic to come up with
nature stuff. Nature that's fascinating all sorts of ways. That's right, ugly
impulsing. And you know what, that's the sort of thing I might have
tried to read with one of my kids when they were little, right,
just to throw anything at them, right, if anything would be of interest,
any book, any book at all. Right, please look, this
one has look. Nose picking is not cool. On let's read it.
Let's not do it, but let's read it. Oh fine, you can
do it as long as you sit down and read a poak. If you're
reading the book, then it's allowed. Go for it. Oh golly.
Well, we've probably had some you and ugly topics over our many, many
years of podcasting. But today we're going to take a little spin through the
archives and see what we were talking about four years ago, six years ago,
and eight years ago this week. Back in twenty twenty, we talked
about that maybe instead of book clubs, we need to propose like admin club
where you get together with some friends, drink some coffee, eat some cookies,
and do paperwork, pay bills, do your taxes, you know,
all this nonsense that we get piled up on our on our desks and then
have to struggle with a loan. I am as I say this, I
am staring at the pack at my tax accountant game to fill out with all
the details. And I've been happily ignoring it because, oh, don't have
all my forms yet, not don't have all my ten ninety nine. Still
wait and still wait and still wait, and they're all here now. Yeah,
I have no excuse. So it would be so nice to just sort
of, you know, sit around a dining room table with some friends and
fill that out instead of doing it here at my desk by myself, or
you know, all the things that we do college applications or you know,
yeah, with doing the withdrawal from the five twenty nine, yes to pay
the tuition, all these things. I still like that idea. I do
with it. I just it's all still all false to me. Every now
and then I try to let my husband do something, and then of course
I'm like, did you do it? Did you do it yet? Did
you do it right? How did you do it right? Let me see,
you know, And then it's not done to my standards, so I
bring this on myself, but huh, yeah, it's you know, we
ostensibly share the load of some of this stuff, but it doesn't necessarily yeah,
because I pay the bills, so someone else should file all the filing.
Yes, right, yes, well we do have. We did finally
get a big accordion file of that. We just have set up in the
bedroom and all our receipts and stuff goes in there and all the you know,
anytime we do anything that needs to be kept, we put it in
there. And that's my husband will put stuff in there. But other than
that, the problem is is that everything's done online now and he's not a
computer guy. If we still got paper bills and he could sit down and
write checks and put stamps on them and mail them, maybe he would help.
But since everything's online, it falls to me every now and then.
I try to set him up with our daughter who does computer is okay on
the computer and to do something or other. But no. Just the other
day we had a big snowstorm here in the Northeast about a week ago by
the time you're listening to this, and my husband had to go into work
snowing heavily. He drove in in his old car he had. When he
got there, the parking lot was snowed in, so he couldn't go into
park. He found a place on the street. He found a street he
could park on, but he couldn't get up the hill, so he had
to park just down by the corner. And he tells me there's a sign
on it that says no parking when the road is snow covered. But the
road wasn't covered with that much snow. I don't think that's what that means.
I think they want you to not be there for the snowplow. You're
gonna get a ticket. But he's like, no, no, it's fine,
it's fine. It was like, you're gonna get a ticket, a
ticket or two hundred dollars, which he can, you know, go to
court or he can pay it online. So it's like, it's another thing
that I'm gonna have to do. I know I'm gonna have to do it,
right. I suggested he go to work and just kind of mention,
you know, mention around that he got this ticket and maybe his boss would
feel guilty that he had to come in on a snow day and wound up
losing money. Yeah, see, the ticket is for more than he made
for that short day, but he doesn't feel comfortable doing that. So and
this is well, it's not funny. But my my son the other day
called me and said he had gone over to the other college in his in
his college town to visit a friend. And he calls me, he's like,
well, I was calling you to say that I went to visit this
person and their new kitten. And then now I'm calling to say that I
got a parking ticket. Oh no, I was there. But and then
later he texts me, he's like, because we're going to see him coming
up, He said, can you bring a check and a stamp when I
see you? And I was like, what are we doing? What are
we buying? And he's like, to pay the parking ticket. I need
it. And I was like, surely there's a way to pay it,
Yes, that online, Because he's like, I don't have a I don't
have stamps, I don't have a check. What what I said, surely
there's a way to pay it online. He's like, I don't. I
don't see anything on here. So it's only twenty five dollars, it's not
two hundreds. So yeah, well, his ticket says, go to this
website and find out if you can pay it online or you have to come
in. So presumably he can pay it online. Right. He was giving
me all his excuses yesterday, and I was like, well, great,
go make that case in court, honey. Right, it's the fault the
city that they didn't have things dug out. It's a part of the city.
I couldn't get up the hill, so they shouldn't charge me for a
parking tickets. Like, yeah, all right, good luck with that.
That's gonna go. My my daughter actually got her car towed, wow for
parking. He's really lucky he didn't. Yeah, she got it towed because
she she parked in like some apartment complexes parking lot and she thought she was
in the guest spot, I guess, and she wasn't. And and she
said it was there for like an hour and a half and they towed it.
Oh wow, because that's how they make, you know, money,
They just wait for that to happen so that they can grab it. Yeah.
So then it was a whole thing because the car is not in her
name, and you know, she had to go to this like junk yard
to get it. Back and they wouldn't. And her boyfriend was with her,
and they wouldn't let him go with her back to wherever they had it.
She had to go by herself, Like what what do you think he's
gonna do? Like that freaked me out of what I didn't hear about that
until afterwards. Oh that's so traumatic too, because your first thought is your
car has been stolen, right, you have to figure out. I one
time I used to take the bus into New York City and I had this
place where I parked right by the bus stop on the street, and I
did it every day. One day, for some reason, I must have
just been thinking of something else. I blanked out. I parked in front
of somebody's driveway. I don't know why. I don't. I didn't do
it on purpose, I just for some reason. And so of course when
I came back, it was towed away and had to go get it and
stuff. And I felt terrible. Now when people sit in front of our
driveway their kids in high school, I'm like, I can't really growl at
you too much because I once just barked and left right. Oh those poor
people anyway, Oh, so that was that was a toe see, it's
nice to have people to talk about these kind of things with, isn't it.
That's one of the values of our podcast is that once a week you
and I can get together and just have a mom friendship and talk about all
our mom stuff. That's right. And back in twenty eighteen, we talked
about mom friendships and how it changes when your kids leave school because you have
all those people you are sort of as as we paraphrase the Parks and rec
sort of child proximity associates that when you are no longer in school, you
never see them again. Yeah, and it's not because you hate each other
because you broke up. It's just because it was never really it was a
it was a proximity. It wasn't really a friendship. It was just a
fellowship of people stuck in the same place for the same reason. Right.
So although we did just my husband and I did just go out to dinner
the other day with friends that we made. We first met them because our
kids were in daycare together. So when my son was a baby, this
they're one of their kids was in his class, so wow, and then
you know, then they ended up going also to the same elementary school.
And plus they work they worked at the company where my husband used to work,
so there were a lot there were several areas of overlap. But but
yeah, we actually are still friends with them. That's so nice, that's
nice. Yeah we don't. We still have people we are we consider friends,
but never see And I I mean, I have one good friend who's
been a good friend for many, many, many years, and we still
get together and we talk on Zoom every weekend, and you know, we
get together frequently. But other than that, just sort of I don't know,
see people on Facebook sometimes, right, Well, now you're also doing
your some of your church things. Yes, but I like, I haven't
don't feel like i've I feel like I have a lot of friendly acquaintances there.
Yeah, it's not to the level of somebody that I would get together
with outside of that or call and have a long chat with about something other
than specifically there's a meeting on this day. And you know, my husband
hasn't really ever had anything more than that sort of level of friendship. He's
not somebody who goes out with the guys and does stuff. So I've sort
of I've sort of set myself to his level. I guess, which is
why I like staying home, right, But I do sort of miss that
that fellowship of you know, sitting in the bleachers with the other band moms.
Yeah, you know, going to meetings and seeing the same people every
time and chatting about things, or you know, having your kids get together
with other kids and then you all sit together, the moms all sit together
and chat. Right. That still would be the case with my kids,
because the moms all come along whenever we do anything, but we just you
know, everybody's working and there's just not that much opportunity to get together,
right, tiny violin. I know, yeah, you know, for all
those years, my daughter, of course, was on all those skating teams,
and you know, you would be traveling with these people, you'd see
them, you know, most of the parents would come to the practices and
you know, the practice were like two hours long, so there was a
lot of time spent together. And then that all went away. And now
that she's in college, you know, I I'm friendly with some of the
moms that I see, you know, several times a year at the at
the events, but you know, it's definitely not the same. And now
they're all going to graduate so it's that's just gonna go away. Yeah,
it's weird. It's pretty weird, you know, because they not that they
replaced the ones from before, but it was similar. Yeah, so finally
going away. Yeah. Well maybe one day you'll have have mothers in law
to be friends with. Yeah, for your kids, right, we'll see
that weird, weird thought. I'm not counting on with my kids, but
it could happen with yours. You've already got sort of a Yeah, there's
a boyfriend ling the picture. Yeah, so that will be could be,
you know, if they're amenable, an opportunity for a mom friendship, right,
and if not, somebody that you could talk to all your other friends
about. I did meet the boyfriend's mom already. She was very nice.
Okay, so cultivate that. Yes, that's a chance. Well, and
then I'm curious to know why we are going to talk about our speed round
from twenty sixteen. How safe for work is your music collection? Please explain?
I don't know. I feel like mine is getting less and less safe
for work as I get older. It should be the other way around.
Yeah, it's my fist at those Uh, but uh, you know,
I've talked here about hardy and enjoying his music very much, and he's as
he's getting more and more into rock. His music is uh, you know,
full of words that probably shouldn't be blasting out very loud, but it
amuses me. Yes, I'm that old lady. I'm the old lady that's
amused by those words and the fingers and the you know. Yeah, it
makes me feel makes me feel like a rocker in my rocker. That's right.
Well, and also, you know, scandalizes the children, which is
fun. Yeah, so doesn't it scandalize the spouse? Off, it does
scandalize the spouse. He does not care for that, but he's not saying
anything. But it's like, I'm like, hey, kids, come come
listen to the song with me. It has the effort in it a whole
of times. Come on, cool, right. I do like his music,
though I don't know that we necessarily yellows expletives, but you go,
man, even I mean, even Taylor Swift has words in her music that
I don't think she did when she was a youngster, an innocent, young
king, less less safe for work. Yeah, she's got a new one
coming out, Yeah, she's got a new one about the Old Boyfriend while
we're watching The New Boyfriend. That's right on all the heck over Twitter everywhere,
like a zep Ruder like examination of the videos of the post super Wall
party going on. But yeah, I'm looking for that looks like a like
the next album looks like a good one for sitting in the dark after a
breakup and being miserable. And those albums are valuable. Yeah, we need
those. Or Carly Simon's Torch album got Me through a breakup, just dark
room, glass of wine and sad, sad songs. We need those.
That is what we need sometimes. You know, the weeping may not be
safe for work, but yeah, the episode from twenty sixteen was an episode
was a relic of its time because it was about how your dentist used his
iPod on shuffle from room music. We have playlists for that now, we
have Spotify, We have all kind of streaming services. He just had his
little iPod plugged into a speaker, huh, and some of the things,
Yeah, I still wouldn't. I still wouldn't. Probably put my I have
a playlist that's probably pretty good, but you know, you can never tell
there's gonna be one in there. One bad Apple and something sneaks in there,
like what was that one from the Hamilton mixtape? Those yeah, Franklin,
Yes, I love that. And I played for my son and he
was like, no, I still don't like Hamilton take it away, but
there's swears. Come on right, listen to this. Oh my gosh,
are you laughing. I've been trying to get him into Hardy because because he's
he's rocking now and he's cursing a whole bunch, you'll like it. No,
no, mom, no, I don't even know what he listens to.
The other day he said he knew who jelly Roll was after talking about
the commercial, the Uber eats commercial that he was, oh, yeah,
very funny. And I said, oh, you know, I know him,
I know sing his songs. How do you know him? And then
I could not engage him any further in conversation. That the end of that.
So I don't know. I try so hard to connect with the young
people about the music, and the young people could not be less interested.
So you know, not even nsf W will do it for me. All
right, Oh well you tried, I try, you try, we try.
It's fun for me anyway. Just yeah, belting out bad words at
the top of metain belting out curses. Yes, I love it. We
get it where we can. Maybe this is why I have no mom friends
on her. Yeah, don't hang around with her. She's a bad influence.
Listen to Hardy's radio song y'all it's fun. Okay, but well,
well we'll take ourselves. We'll see ourselves, right, we try, yes
so. But that's it for today for the Parenting Roundabout weekly roundup. Next
week Reservation Dogs. It's season two, episodes three and four. They are
called Roofing and Mabel I sound a little safer than the last two. The
cursors and run run Well. Run to Speaker, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
or wherever you get your podcast to find all our episodes, and you
can also find recaps, links and an opportunity to comment on our website at
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our Amazon shop at Amazon dot com, slash shop slash Mamitude, where you
can find links to a lot of the things we've talked about over the years.
We will see you back here next Tuesday, hy Terry bie yathin Hi everyone,