People like to kvetch about the extravagance of weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other life-cycle events in the Jewish community. When it becomes real, though, doing your own thing is harder than it looks. We just celebrated our son's bar mitzvah, our third so far, and I have been thinking about why … [Read more...]
Laundry and Cooking Tips for Large Families
August 6, 2009 by
Emunah/Faith has seven children. And she doesn't know how mothers with 12 manage. She is looking for laundry and cooking tips: Laundry (quantity) Main meals (specifically prep and clean up) They both take up a lot of my time for my family of 9, and my kids do help. I wonder how a family, with say … [Read more...]
Speed All You Want, Just Give a Small Donation First
July 31, 2009 by
We got an advertising brochure for the large charity organization Kupat Hair, the City Fund, operating in haredi communities throughout Israel. Normally they include stories of people who recover funds in the stock market/find the housekey/make the plane after promising to donate to Kupat Hair. … [Read more...]
Are Mature Religious Women Leaving the Fold?
July 24, 2009 by
Elana Sztokman's response to Yael Mishali contains a beautiful description of motherhood. My five year old daughter, Meital, recently began singing “A Pirate King” from The Pirates of Penzance. She learned it from a book – well, actually, she learned it from me. We were doing some bedtime reading … [Read more...]
Staying Sane with a Challenging Child
July 1, 2009 by
In Staying Home and Staying Sane, I gave parents strategies being stay-at-home parents. Readers asked me to expand the post to include tips when a child is especially active, social, or has other needs. It's hard to generalize, so I chose to focus on children who are very active, "oppositional," … [Read more...]
Gifted Education in Israel
June 9, 2009 by
A reader whose child was being tested for giftedness asked me to write about the Education Ministry's programs. Testing Israeli children are tested for giftedness in second or third grade, depending on the municipality. To be accepted into the education ministry's programming for the following … [Read more...]
Empathy, Mother-Guilt, Shabbat, Career Skills, Anger, and Idleness
May 20, 2009 by
RaggedyMom showed me this CNN story about developing children's social maturity. In a fourteen-year study, the preschool children of mothers who described a picture using emotional language showed more empathy and better social skills when they got older. It is important to encourage children to … [Read more...]
More Frugal Strategies, Breastfeeding in the Summer, and Haveil Havalim, and Childcare Choices
May 18, 2009 by
I wrote about keeping babies hydrated in hot weather at Green Prophet. Squawkfox compiled a list of the best frugal advice from 41 bloggers, dividing them into categories and adding eye-catching graphics. You can see them all here. And in the spirit of frugality, Batya at me-ander presents the … [Read more...]
Tips on Staying Home and Staying Sane
May 18, 2009 by
"I don't want to put my baby in daycare, but I'm worried that I will go crazy if I stay home all day. " How is it possible to stay home with your baby and not end up in the loony bin? Below I list the strategies that helped me the most. I believe they can be helpful for employed mothers, and fathers … [Read more...]
Tandem Nursing: Guest Post at Mommy News Blog
May 14, 2009 by
I have a guest post up about tandem nursing at the Mommy News Blog. Although my daughter is wearing a kippah in the accompanying picture, it's not meant as any kind of feminist statement. At five years old she no longer wears one. Anyway, now you all know how "radical" I am/was. … [Read more...]
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