We welcome the holiday season with a review of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This small story makes for a big contrast with the bright, toy-filled Christmas stories we’ve gotten used to of late, and we discuss what resonated with us and what they should have done differently to bring Read More

Our Screen Time in the News article this week broke the news that Netflix is axing almost all of its interactive content, so we spend some time pondering why the technology never took off the way we thought it might. Deborah wonders whether it can be compared to an ill-advised Read More

Find out whether this tearjerker has enough substance for grown-ups and enough laughs for kids in our review of The Wild Robot.Previous episodes we mention:Kung Fu Panda 4 Wish Despicable Me 4 Article in The Cut by Kathryn Jezer-Morton titled “Who is all that obsessively detailed college-dorm decorating really for?” The Wild Robot made Read More

We discuss the lawsuit against TikTok and the internal documents exposed by Kentucky Public Radio about the video platform’s addictiveness to vulnerable teens. Previous Episodes We Mention:Curses! What our kids are watching or what we’re watching with them:Georgie and Mandie’s first marriageWild RobotCurses!Camp CretaceousWhat we’re watching during grown-up screen time:Only Murders in Read More

Can Apple TV+ break this year’s curse on fresh Halloween content for families? Listen to our review of Curses! to find out.Things we mentioned in this episode:Previous episodes we mention:We discussed a Good Housekeeping article about the benefits of exposing kids to scary content in our Haunted Mansion episode last Read More

We discuss The Guardian’s review of Ashley Spencer’s new book Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire and lament being too old to experience the channel’s heyday as tweens but too young to witness it with our own kids. Things We Mention in Read More

We celebrate our 200th episode with a look at where the show has been and where it’s headed. We ring in spooky season 2024 with a quick review of the Netflix special The Bad Guys Haunted Heist.Previous episodes we mention:Spooky Buddies Phantom Pups Interested in some faves from Halloween past? Check out Read More

In our last episode before our fall break, we review Apple TV’s Yo Gabba Gabbaland, a reboot of a 2000s show beloved by hipster parents everywhere. We bemoan being too old to recognize any of the impressive musical guests, and we discuss whether the “variety show” label is a positive Read More

Peter Thiel and the San Diego Zoo gorillas help guide our conversation about our families’ back-to-school screen time policies.Previous Episodes We Mention:Are Dumb Phones a Smart Choice for Kids? Gorillas at San Diego's zoo are getting too much screen time Tech billionaire Peter Thiel says he only allows his children 1.5 hours Read More

Peter Thiel and the San Diego Zoo gorillas help guide our conversation about our families’ back-to-school screen time policies.Previous Episodes We Mention:Are Dumb Phones a Smart Choice for Kids? Gorillas at San Diego's zoo are getting too much screen time Tech billionaire Peter Thiel says he only allows his children 1.5 hours Read More

We have a great time reviewing Apple TV’s nerdy time-traveling adventure series Time Bandits, which manages to make ancient history look realistic while still being fun.Previous episodes we mention:Pretzel and the Puppies Harriet the Spy Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock The Snoopy Show Jane Ghostwriter Better Nate Than Ever As of our taping, the original Time Read More

The box office numbers are in, and parents’ taking their kids to see movies like Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 are saving an otherwise disappointing season in Hollywood. We pat ourselves on the back for rescuing the entertainment industry and discuss what such a multiplex-heavy summer means for Read More

We review the latest installment in Disney’s juggernaut tween Descendants franchise: The Rise of Red. Can Aurodon survive the replacement of its core cast? Does the soundtrack live up to previous installments? Most importantly, how happy are we to see Brandy as Cinderella again? Spoiler alert: very happy.Previous episodes we Read More

We talk about the trend of people dumping their smartphones for so-called dumb phones and whether this could be a smart strategy for our kids. We reminisce about our favorite flip phones and catch up on what we’re watching with our kids and what’s on our grown-up screen time watch Read More

We review the most anticipated release of the summer: Despicable Me 4! Did we need a sixth movie about Gru and his little yellow henchmen? Maybe not, but we did appreciate the opportunity to re-familiarize ourselves with the works of Culture Club and Franz Kafka.Things we mentioned in this episode:The Read More

We discuss two short articles about screen time: one from Time that says it’s totally fine to talk about screen time using the language of diet culture as long as we don’t count minutes like we count calories and one from the Wall Street Journal that refutes our closely held Read More

In our review of Inside Out 2, we pick our faves from Riley’s new emotions and get into the puberty of it all by comparing Inside Out 2 to another similarly themed Pixar title, Turning Red.Previous episodes we mention:Turning Red Elemental Lightyear Soul This series of puberty books by Robie H. Harris:It’s So Amazing It’s Read More

We discuss summer movies--the films we want to watch with our kids and a few we’re planning to watch for date night. We cover our hopes for all the new installments of our favorite franchises including Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Descendants Rise of Red, Twisters, and even Beetlejuice Read More

In our review of The Garfield Movie, Deborah mourns the absence of the fundamental pathos of the Garfield comic strip in this zany animated take on everyone’s favorite lazy tabby. Katie betrays her co-viewing values and dares to suggest this would make a good solo watch for kids. We talk Read More

We discuss lawsuits filed by parents against video game companies for allegedly causing psychiatric disorders in children. Are lawsuits really the way forward in managing our anxieties about screens? We also catch up on what we’re watching during our grown up screen time.Things we mention in this episode:Kids Hooked on Read More