Nov 27 2012
By Carla Naumburg at 9:20 am
In response to Debbie’s plea for help yesterday in dealing with her daughter’s adjustment to being a big sister, Carla has some sage words of advice.
Oh Debbie.
I was just trying to find the email I sent out a couple of years ago to all of my Mama friends with two kids–it was remarkably similar to yours. I’m certainly no expert, but now that my baby is almost 2 1/2, I’m a bit farther away from the shitshow that was our life for almost a year. (We’re still a mess on a far-too-regular basis, but it is SO much easier now.)
As you read this, keep in mind that my big girl was only 20 months old when the baby was born, and that she fractured her leg the day before I was due to give birth. Little sister was kind enough to show up five days late, which gave us some time to figure out life with a toddler in a hip-to-toe cast. So, if I seem a bit bitter or traumatized, well, I guess I was. But we’re better now. Read the rest of this entry →
Nov 26 2012
By Tamar Fox at 5:01 pm
All the Jewish parenting news you probably didn’t have time to read this week.
- Here’s a round up of some of the worst parenting advice from the last three hundred years. Our favorite is the theory that colic was caused by angry mom’s breast milk. (DoubleX)
- A religious Jew, active in her synagogue and married to a rabbi, is also an agnostic. She writes in the New York Times about answering her childrens’ questions about God. (Motherlode)
- A preschool teacher decided to get rid of all the toys in his classroom and replace it all with cardboard boxes. The new “toys” spurred more creative play, and empowered quieter kids to speak out and be creative. (Huffington Post)
- Two moms in Oregon started a non-profit to combat the staggering levels of malnutrition in orphanages all over the world. (Huffington Post)
- Now that Kevin Clash, the man who voices Elmo, has resigned from Sesame Street amid some torrid allegations, the rest of the puppeteering team has to forge on without him. (NY Times)
May 31 2012
By Carla Naumburg at 3:29 pm
I loved Renee’s post yesterday, not because I agreed with every point she made (although I did agree with most of them), but because her lists tapped into the fundamental worry of our generation of parenting–that we are going to irrevocably fuck up our kids.
When I was growing up in the late 70s and 80s, my parents didn’t worry about this. They worried about kidnapping, and whether or not we were going to get AIDS if we cut ourselves at school. My worried grandparents raised their kids in the shadow of air raids and bomb shelters during the height of the Cold War. I’d venture to guess none of them obsessed over whether giving their children a pacifier or putting them to sleep in a crib would permanently damage them. Read the rest of this entry →
May 1 2012
By Logan Ritchie at 9:49 am
Uncanny resemblance, right?
Six years ago, when I was expecting my first child, my husband and I debated ritual circumcision. We finally concluded that we would do it for the sake of shalom bayit, for the peace of the family. Now our house is overrun with boys: I have a 6-year-old and 1-year-old twins. That’s a lot of brit milah.
A bris usually takes place in the morning because Jewish tradition declares that a mitzvah be performed early in the day. But each bris I planned had a slightly different flavor than the traditional. Both took place in the late afternoon to allow time for out-of-towners to arrive. One was held in Boston with tons of New York family and local Jewish friends. The other was held in Atlanta with a handful of out of town family members and many non-Jewish friends. Each time we chose a Reform, female, mohel with an MD.
Here’s some hands-on advice for the foggy, postpartum days when you’d rather take a nap but find yourself hosting a bris for a cast of thousands. Parents of twins, there is a special section for you. Read the rest of this entry →
Jan 23 2012
By Kveller at 12:22 pm
Over the past couple of weeks, our seriously brave and open-hearted blogger Sarah Tuttle-Singer has written about the fact that she is going through a divorce. Both her pieces, “Whirling Out of the Darkness” and “Loving Your Kids & Loving Motherhood Are Not the Same Thing,” had us all achy and heartbroken, but something else surprising happened, too. Read the rest of this entry →
