Review of 2009: Ten Best Comment Threads at A Mother in Israel

This is part of Daniel Scocco’s Group Writing Project: 2009 in Review.

I’ve compiled the most interesting comment threads since the beginning 2009. I left out many excellent posts where everyone agreed with me—below are the posts that inspired debate and discussion.

1. A psychologist wrote about his experience in the nursery after his wife gave birth to their first child. The comments touched on hospital and home births, nursing care, breastfeeding support, and more. Ynet: Babies Ignored in Hospital Nursery (42).
2. Comments on Soldier Gives Birth, No One Detects Pregnancy (Including Her) (27) talked about military medicine, obesity, and pregnancy.
3. Why Average Haredi Families Go to Hotels for Pesach (36). Everyone agreed that Mishpacha Magazine’s Pesach cleaning advice was ludicrous, but I included it because the comments are funny too. My most popular post since I switched from Blogger in February.
4. Here, my strategy of avoiding daycare costs touched off a discussion on the advantages of dual-career families. Frugal Strategies to Save Money as Your Family Grows (50).
5. A terrific comment thread on parenting and over-parenting: Overparenting and Daycare Dilemmas (33).
6. Integration of Ethiopian Children in Petach Tikva Schools (25) sparked a discussion on exclusivity in private and public religious schools.
7. Rabbinic support (or lack thereof) for genetic testing and therapeutic abortions is a touchy subject. Many personal stories were shared at Abortion in the Religious Zionist Community (49).
8. Are Mature Religious Women Leaving the Fold? (49). At a conference for Orthodox women, a speaker maintained that pressure to have a lot of children may lead religious women to leave Judaism.
9. A question from a journalist led to insightful answers to the question: What Defines Israeli Parenting (42).
10. Reactions to a  comment about Israeli children being rude become part of a follow-up post: In Defense of Israeli Rudeness (57). While cultural differences mean that Israelis and westerners have different perspectives on personal space, arguing, and loud conversations, I believe we can take this too far. After all, suicide bombers and honor killings have a cultural basis and we  don’t tolerate those.

Many thanks to my wonderful readers who have contributed comments.  Looking forward to another year of discussion and learning.