The end of the NBC series Parenthood — and with it perhaps the end of all emotional family dramas until the pendulum swings back from its current spot in dark and violent and edgy fare — got us talking about why we never took to the Braverman family saga the way we should have; an article by Linda Holmes on NPR's Monkey See blog on why such shows may have fallen out of favor; the family dramas we fell for in the past (and Terri apologizes here for talking and talking and talking about those shows — seriously, don't get her started — but if you want to join her in swooning over that Once and Again plotline with Eric Stoltz as Mr. Dimitri, start right here); and the shows we're paying attention to now. Amanda expressed appreciation for Jane the Virgin, Catherine digs a little British family drama called Downton Abbey, Nicole confessed to going to the dark side with violent programming after OD'ing on sunny '80s comedies in her youth, and we all hoped that The Secret Life of the American Teenager is not as realistic as we fear.
Next, we turned our attention to a couple of recent news stories: one about parents suing a kid who hurt their kid on the lacrosse field, and another about parents sending an invoice for a birthday-party no-show. While it was fun to think of all the things we could sue over and invoice for if that became a thing — read this post from the blog Scary Mommy for some ideas — we decided that perhaps there are better coping skills to model for your kid than "You're gonna pay!"
Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine shared an article on the benefits of being a sports parent; Amanda suggested a book called The Resilience Formula; Nicole added an endorsement of the work of Gordon Neufeld; and Terri mentioned an interview with the parent-owner of KidCompanions Chewelry, which gives kids who need to chew on something a better option than collars and cuffs.
Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)