Weekly Roundup: College Saving and Spending, “Reservation Dogs” S2, Ugly Animals, and Admin Club - podcast episode cover

Weekly Roundup: College Saving and Spending, “Reservation Dogs” S2, Ugly Animals, and Admin Club

Feb 20, 202439 min
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Episode description

On our latest weekly roundup, we discover that Catherine's children need a refresher on what a 529 college savings plan is, and possibly the number of a good attorney.

What we're watching: We started season 2 of Reservation Dogs with episodes 1 and 2: "The Curse" and "Run." As we predicted and feared, Jackie and Elora's journey does not go well. Meanwhile, back home, Willie Jack tries to reverse their bad luck with the (questionable) help of Bucky and Brownie.

Catherine's library find this week presents two books that kids might really enjoy, but that may teach some unsavory lessons: Ugly Animals by Laura Marsh and Animals That Make Me Say Ewww! by Dawn Cusick.

In the archives, we revisit episodes in which we discussed admin club (February 19, 2020); mom friendships (February 19, 2018); and NSFW music (February 22, 2016). Mentioned: HARDY's "Radio Song" and "Ben Franklin's Song" from the Hamilton Mixtape.

Next week, we'll watch the next two episodes of Reservation Dogs, season 2: E3 "Roofing" and E4 "Mabel." Until then (and anytime you're in need), the archives are available.

Transcript

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 parentingroundabout dot com. You can talk to us on Facebook, on Instagram,

or on Twitter, or you'll 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 the things we've talked about over the years. We will see you back here next Tuesday, hy Terry bie yathin Hi everyone,

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