Speaker 1: Welcome to the Parenting Roundabout podcast. I'm Terry Morrow and
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine hileco. Every Thursday we're bringing you a library find,
Speaker 1: a pick from our archives, and a parenting or pop
Speaker 1: culture tidbit or two. Let's start with Catherine's library find
Speaker 1: of the week.
Speaker 2: So I am once again bringing you a update or
Speaker 2: a new title in an ongoing category, which is scatological
Speaker 2: titles to draw kids interests. We've had, We've had butt
Speaker 2: or face I believe was a previous entry in this category,
Speaker 2: and now we have fish farts, oh my goodness, and
Speaker 2: other amazing ways animals adapt. So once again, you know,
Speaker 2: non fiction for kids about animals, and Simon and Schuster
Speaker 2: tells us that from popping off a tail to rolling
Speaker 2: around and dung to farting to send a message, this
Speaker 2: funny and informative nonfiction picture book shows the many unusual
Speaker 2: ways animals adapt to their surroundings. So wow, I mean,
Speaker 2: wouldn't you rather read about fish farts than deadly bites?
Speaker 1: I would? I entirely would.
Speaker 2: That's what you're getting here.
Speaker 1: Yes, and you know if you bring the fish Farts
Speaker 1: Book to school, the teacher will be mildly annoyed. If
Speaker 1: you bring the fish Bytes book to school, the teacher
Speaker 1: is going to send you the counselor. So it's it's
Speaker 1: all so much better, right. Oh, and I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the I'm looking at the more books from this author,
Speaker 1: Your amazing digestion from mouth through intestine.
Speaker 2: Exploding ants. There's enough one. There's another one she wrote.
Speaker 1: When Okay, well she's got a pH d.
Speaker 2: That's right on the cover.
Speaker 1: I gotta think fish Farts is the best seller. Though.
Speaker 2: Yes she's got a PhD. Because that's what impresses eight
Speaker 2: year olds like I.
Speaker 1: Want this book. She has a PhD. Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: this is a This is a book purchased by uncles everywhere.
Speaker 1: This is the one your funkl brings to the birthday
Speaker 1: party and everybody laughs and mom shoots him a look great, great.
Speaker 1: What do they do?
Speaker 2: They they said, they fart to send a message.
Speaker 1: And this is all all weird things that animals do,
Speaker 1: and popping off a tail to rolling around and dunk
Speaker 1: to farty to send a message. Well that's something that
Speaker 1: kids do, for sure. It's funny and infortive fiction picture books,
Speaker 1: the many unusual ways animals adapt to their surroundings feel. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be popular with a certain subset of
Speaker 1: the juvenile reader. Yep, for whom it will be endless giggles.
Speaker 2: Because it has surprising, exciting, and sometimes hilarious ways that
Speaker 2: animals adapt.
Speaker 1: But only sometimes. Yeah that looks like fun.
Speaker 2: Sure does.
Speaker 1: And it farted his way its way across the library
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: It's it sure did. Yeah, yeah, it's been. It's just
Speaker 2: came out too. I might have seen it because it
Speaker 2: was brand new.
Speaker 1: Oh, just being processed in m hm. Well, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it will have a lively uh circulation history.
Speaker 2: I think so too.
Speaker 1: Absolutely all good for them. It's it's you know, I've
Speaker 1: had a reluctant reader. He probably would have been that
Speaker 1: probably would have appealed to him. Yeah, so, or I
Speaker 1: would have spent a lot of my time look farts,
Speaker 1: dung and he would be going, really, I would like
Speaker 1: to go over there and do something else, right, But
Speaker 1: you know, we try, we do what we can. Sometime
Speaker 1: our kid in the future, our kid is gonna be
Speaker 1: on an island going. I remember my mom kept trying
Speaker 1: to get me interested in farts. Now I am tortured
Speaker 1: exactly well for my random my random recommendation this week,
Speaker 1: I am going to recommend something that I have seen
Speaker 1: mention of. I have not done anything with it, but
Speaker 1: I wish it well and I find it kind of fascinating,
Speaker 1: and we'll be keeping an eye on it. Julia Whalen,
Speaker 1: who is an author and audiobook reader who I think
Speaker 1: you and I have both enjoyed her work, both her
Speaker 1: written work and her spoken work. She was also, when
Speaker 1: she was younger, an actress on a show I loved
Speaker 1: very much called Once and Again, so I have a
Speaker 1: residual affection for her from that, and she has just
Speaker 1: started what looks like is maybe intended to eventually someday
Speaker 1: be a rival of Audible. It's called Julia Whalen's Audiobrairi,
Speaker 1: and right now it has her books that she has
Speaker 1: written and narrated and some offshoots of those books, plus
Speaker 1: an additional historical nonfiction book, so not too much then.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure there's an app you can use to
Speaker 1: listen to the books that you purchase, and I guess
Speaker 1: you take out a membership to either get the books
Speaker 1: or then are able to buy them. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how it works, but she's been published a lot on
Speaker 1: social media. I've seen a lot about it, and I
Speaker 1: wish her so well in anything she tries to do.
Speaker 1: And if she feels like there's a need for something
Speaker 1: like this, then I don't know whether maybe to get
Speaker 1: a better deal for readers or just to have some
Speaker 1: more control over her work. I want her to have
Speaker 1: those things. So if you are an audiobook listener, and
Speaker 1: especially if you have not already listened to her books
Speaker 1: My Oxford Year, and thank you for listening, and wish
Speaker 1: to check this out, see if this is something you
Speaker 1: might be able to use, and then message me and
Speaker 1: tell me how.
Speaker 2: I mean, I wish her well. I wish her well.
Speaker 2: Taken on Amazon good.
Speaker 1: Yead for Yeah. I mean, I don't know exactly if
Speaker 1: that's what she's doing, but it certainly seems to be
Speaker 1: and I think that they have interviews on it also,
Speaker 1: and a community, you know, probably a like a an
Speaker 1: online community to talk about books, write a newsletter. So
Speaker 1: there's lots of extra stuff. It's not just audiobooks audiobook listening.
Speaker 1: It's sort of being interested in audiobooks and sharing that
Speaker 1: with other people, which certainly we could all use. And
Speaker 1: so check it out and see if it's something that
Speaker 1: you might be interested, and I will be looking into
Speaker 1: it more as well and seeing if there's something that
Speaker 1: I can do with it right now. But one thing
Speaker 1: I can do is publicize it a little bit. So
Speaker 1: go see what she's up to. Yeah, Whi's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure it's something good.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's so ambitious and it's impressive when someone
Speaker 2: tries to do something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I wish here well, and what do we
Speaker 1: have this week from our deep and ridiculous archives.
Speaker 2: Yes, if we wanted to turn ourselves into an app,
Speaker 2: we would have a lot of content to fill it
Speaker 2: up with. So back in twenty twenty one, we were
Speaker 2: talking about free time activities for adults, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to see if we had any additional come up with
Speaker 2: any hobbies or leisure activities in the past three years.
Speaker 2: I really haven't because I got another job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think we were remembering back then. I
Speaker 1: remember the social life my parents had and I don't
Speaker 1: have anything like that, right, And they belonged to a
Speaker 1: square dancing club. They had another square dancing club from
Speaker 1: the past that they had belonged to, and they still
Speaker 1: got together with the people from it from time to time.
Speaker 1: They had bridge groups that they would participate in together
Speaker 1: or individually, and they just they had this whole adult life, right,
Speaker 1: which the children sort of looked on. And my mom
Speaker 1: had tea parties for her church at the house. Do
Speaker 1: you do anything? You have a book club that you
Speaker 1: go to? Yah?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 1: But it's like there was this whole structure that I
Speaker 1: feel like does not exist anymore, right, or if it does,
Speaker 1: they don't want me or I don't want it. I'm
Speaker 1: really quite happy sitting in my house doing falling asleep
Speaker 1: on the couch or doing work until late at night.
Speaker 2: Well, you do go to church, and you.
Speaker 1: Do go to go to Rosary Society. I've started bringing
Speaker 1: my daughter with me one so she can drive me there,
Speaker 1: but also just because she's interested in going out and
Speaker 1: doing things too. She's a young adult who doesn't really
Speaker 1: have anything to do, so and she's like like probably
Speaker 1: the next two youngest person there, if not the youngest,
Speaker 1: and so all the all the ladies are thrilled to
Speaker 1: have her, right, So they've been very sweet to her.
Speaker 1: And see that's once a month, get out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, book club is only once a month.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I don't know, I mean, I see,
Speaker 1: I kind of forced my husband and son to join
Speaker 1: the Nights of Columbus, So they go out now once
Speaker 1: a month, well twice if they meet twice a month.
Speaker 1: We have desserts at the Rosary Society. They have like
Speaker 1: actual real food at the Nights, so usually they dinner
Speaker 1: first and then they have another dinner while they're there.
Speaker 1: But which is you know what interests my son? I
Speaker 1: think most about it. Right, we sit through a boring
Speaker 1: meeting and then we get d.
Speaker 2: Eat stuff if that's what it takes.
Speaker 1: Great gets him out of the house, right, And you know,
Speaker 1: my kids have all their little sports things, different practices
Speaker 1: over the course of the special Olympics practices, and they
Speaker 1: have an actual social life. They go to a social
Speaker 1: group every Friday, and Rick and I go along with that,
Speaker 1: so that's sort of our social We talk to the
Speaker 1: parents while the kids are doing stuff. So that's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a social life. That's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a free time activity is going and watching my
Speaker 1: kids do things.
Speaker 2: Right, But it's not like.
Speaker 1: My parents used to had. I mean, they would watch
Speaker 1: me doing things, but I would also stay home with
Speaker 1: the babysitter while they went and did stuff, So where
Speaker 1: did that? Goyah? Does anybody have that?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think part of what we were talking
Speaker 2: about with this the first time around was the way
Speaker 2: that it's been for parents in recent times that your
Speaker 2: whole social world is your kids' activities, and when that
Speaker 2: goes away, then what happens?
Speaker 1: Yes, that's true. I'm still a part of my kids
Speaker 1: social activities, which is not normal, I guess, but is
Speaker 1: the way it is for their particular group of young
Speaker 1: adults with disabilities. So they could I mean, my daughter drives,
Speaker 1: so they could just go by themselves to these things.
Speaker 1: But everybody's parents bring them, so we might as well
Speaker 1: bring them, and we might as well go and and
Speaker 1: interact with the parents and have some sort of life,
Speaker 1: you know exactly. But if they if it wasn't for that,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess we would still go to the
Speaker 1: church stuff. But hmmm, I would like to square dance?
Speaker 1: Does anybody square dance?
Speaker 2: Any I just I saw like a tweeter meme or
Speaker 2: something like why is it that we were all taught
Speaker 2: out of square dance in like fourth grade?
Speaker 1: And then I'll tell you that was the that was
Speaker 1: my time to shine with the folk dance and the
Speaker 1: square dance units in high school gym, those were my
Speaker 1: A quarters and then we would go back to something
Speaker 1: that I was miserable that and I go back to
Speaker 1: a D. But boy, I lived for those quarters.
Speaker 2: It's really not fair to grade you. It's really not
Speaker 2: your skill at you know, basketball or.
Speaker 1: Whatever, and they totally do That's not fair. The story
Speaker 1: of my life showing up. Yeah, I was threatened with
Speaker 1: failure a couple of times. Goods, permanent record and all that.
Speaker 1: The only time I've ever gone across ladder bars is
Speaker 1: when the teacher told me I was going to fail
Speaker 1: middle school gym unless I went across them. And so
Speaker 1: that I did, and she felt like, see, I knew
Speaker 1: you could do it. And I was like, so that
Speaker 1: thing about adrenaline making you able to do that, I
Speaker 1: get it now. I see that I could have picked
Speaker 1: up a car. I see how that happens.
Speaker 2: I am not failing.
Speaker 1: Never been able to do it again, never was able
Speaker 1: to do it before. I did it exactly one time
Speaker 1: and got my d so anyway, but square dancing square
Speaker 1: dancing was fun. It was My mom had special dresses
Speaker 1: with petticoats and stuff. I go square dancing. We got
Speaker 1: to bring square dancing back. Yeah.
Speaker 2: One of my and one of my brothers does folk dancing. Okay,
Speaker 2: so he has like groups that he dances with and
Speaker 2: performs at you know, community events.
Speaker 1: So right, so that's fun. Yeah. My parents I think
Speaker 1: their their group was called the pyr Squares. They I
Speaker 1: don't know if they did competitions, but they got together
Speaker 1: at least once a week and had their matching dresses. Right, Golly,
Speaker 1: And you looked at that and you'd say, so that's
Speaker 1: what being a grown up is like.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm gonna have these fun dresses.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh man, I did play bridge a little. I
Speaker 1: did I square dance. There was a there was a
Speaker 1: teen square dance group that I was in for a
Speaker 1: little bit. I was affiliated with my parents group, and
Speaker 1: then I did play bridge a little bit. And it's
Speaker 1: like not for me, but.
Speaker 2: They were trying to get the next generation going anywhere
Speaker 2: they were.
Speaker 1: They set me up with one of their uh very
Speaker 1: awkward bridge night with the son of one of my
Speaker 1: parents' friends that I think was supposed to be the
Speaker 1: start of something big and.
Speaker 2: Did not You were not interested.
Speaker 1: I was, actually I would I was not disinterested, but
Speaker 1: I think he was not interested, so whatever. But do
Speaker 1: people do that anymore? Do they try this awkwardly set
Speaker 1: up friends using social gatherings?
Speaker 2: I think so? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's more they invite one of my kids
Speaker 1: over and do it.
Speaker 2: It's more the apps, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1: See, we've all we're all just sitting in front of computers.
Speaker 1: Now there are no active My fun activity is scrolling
Speaker 1: Twitter and substack at getting mad well.
Speaker 2: One of my fun activities for today was supposed to
Speaker 2: be a concert, an outdoor lunchtime concert that our city
Speaker 2: puts on in the summer. But it just started pouring.
Speaker 2: Maybe you can hear it, So I guess maybe that's
Speaker 2: not happening. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I did this community band for a while. That got
Speaker 1: me out of the house, but then I stopped And
Speaker 1: now when I think about going, and it's like all
Speaker 1: the stuff I have to do? What it is? Also?
Speaker 2: Would it be hard for you to read them? Would
Speaker 2: it be hard for you to read the music without magnification?
Speaker 1: It was barely barely functional on the flute before and
Speaker 1: now I haven't played it again for another X number
Speaker 1: of years. I don't think. I don't think they're missing me.
Speaker 1: I think the flute section probably sounds we did better
Speaker 1: in my absence, And I mean really that was I
Speaker 1: was in that band because I got in it so
Speaker 1: my daughter would go in it, and so it was
Speaker 1: still piggybacking off my kid. It wasn't like an independent Hey,
Speaker 1: I would like to play a flute, right, didn't I
Speaker 1: go join the community band? I'm pathetic. I do a podcast.
Speaker 1: That's my fun activity.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: That is our our hobby, and listening to it is
Speaker 3: fun for you guys, right right right, Listening to my
Speaker 3: podcast is also my fun activity, right you and me.
Speaker 1: And a bunch of bots, and it's fine. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. You can find all our episodes on spreaker,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: You can find recaps, links and an opportunity to comment
Speaker 1: on our website at parentingroundabout dot com.
Speaker 2: You can also talk to us on our Facebook page,
Speaker 2: on Instagram or on Twitter, where you'll find us at
Speaker 2: roundabout chat. And please visit our Amazon shop at Amazon
Speaker 2: dot com, slash shop slash mamitude. But you can find
Speaker 2: links to a lot of the things we've talked about
Speaker 2: over the years