It stinks for us moms when kids are discouraged and all the Band-aids and hugs in the world don't make things better. And since their discouragements are our discouragements, we experience contact trauma.

We've found that just like adulting, parenting isn't always everything we thought it would be. (But we're never disappointed by these kids of ours.) Mentioned: The FUBAR podcast.

On Dancing with the Stars, remember last season, when Bobby Bones won and everyone freaked the heck out? This season, the semi-final prompted the freaking out when the judges, having scored themselves into a corner, eliminated James Van Der Beek. Next week: The finale, which we'll watch but won't be happy about.

On The Good Place, "The Funeral to End All Funerals" was actually three funerals and a courtroom drama. Mentioned: The Good Place podcast (please don't try Terri's drinking-game idea). Next week: "The Answer."

On The West Wing's "Welcome to Wherever You Are," we got sympathetic indigestion just watching the Santos team criss-cross the country in the last days of the campaign, even if they did take Jon Bon Jovi along for the ride. Next week: "Election Day, Part 1."

We're so overwhelmed by all the streaming services, cable channels, and other ways to procure and watch TV that we might just stick to podcasts.

Welcome to Speed-Round Sunday on the Parenting Roundabout podcast, where we share a mini episode from our past for your weekend listening pleasure. We’ll be back tomorrow with a brand-new episode.
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TV commercials for Alexa have got us thinking about our personal degree of home automation and whether we wish we were more hooked up. Are you living it up in a smart home? Tell us about it in the comments here or on our Facebook page.

Welcome to Second-Listen Saturday on the Parenting Roundabout podcast, where we share some fun moments from past episodes for your weekend listening pleasure.

A story about Nicole’s son’s internship in Japan leads into a discussion (started on a recent Speed Round) about young adults who don’t quite get that you can’t max out your credit cards, use up all your savings, run up an emergency-room bill, and not expect your Mom to freak the heck out. For younger kids, the dilemma is differentiating between needs, like underwear; wants, like underwear from Pink; and impossibilities, like buying an alpaca to live in your backyard. Though we don’t have all the answers, Catherine recommends the iAllowance app, Terri recommends iTunes allowances, and Nicole advocates for pay-as-you-go. (And back to young adults and budgeting, our faithful listener Mike has some good advice in his comment on this Facebook post.)

Want more? Listen to the rest of this summer 2016 ep.

On this week’s Roundabout Roundup, we each shout out a TV show we’re enjoying (see our Tuesday Round 2s for more). Catherine’s pick is Queer Eye on Netflix, Nicole’s is Modern Love on Amazon Prime, and Terri’s is Mom (currently airing on CBS, plus streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime).   

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for our fun in-and-out music, which you hear on every episode.

We’re still trying to understand what VSCO girls are, while helping kids navigate (or ignore) what’s trendy and what’s not.

This article about addressing kids’ annoying habits (through positive reinforcement only, please!) got us complaining about just how hard it is to break our kids’ habits—and really, our own too.

On Dancing with the Stars, the dances were short, the evening was long, and Sean Spicer finally reached the end of his run. Next week, the five remaining dancers (Lauren Alaina, Ally Brooke, Hannah Brown, Kel Mitchell, and James Van Der Beek) face off in the semi-finals.

On The Good Place, this season's grand experiment came to an abrupt end, and we have no idea what to expect next week in "The Funeral to End All Funerals." Mentioned: Through the Looking Glass: A LOST Retrospective (Mo Ryan's Lost podcast).

We returned to The West Wing with the campaign episode "Two Weeks Out," aka The One With the Missing Briefcase. Next up: "Welcome to Wherever You Are."