This week’s most popular posts from Raising Kvell, in case you missed them.

- I Married an Atheist. Even though they met on JDate, Melissa knew right from the start that her husband was a non-believer. It still proves to a problem when deciding how Jewish to raise their kids.

- The Other Kids Don’t Want to Play with My Daughter. When Dana’s daughter, who has autism, excitedly joins the other kids at the playground, they go running for the hills. And it’s brutal for Dana to watch.

- For My Family, Formula is a Blessing. Amy is part of the 5% of women who deal with primary lactation failure, so formula was the sole way of feeding her baby. And only until recently did she stop feeling guilty about it.

- Reflections on My Twins Second Birthday. They’re only 2, but Adina can already see how quickly her girls are growing up and becoming their own independent beings.

I just returned from a trip to Denver. I spoke for the Hillel there at a funky art gallery. Awesome venue. I always like to speak for college students, and especially to Hillel donors. I share what a huge influence Hillel had on me during my 12 years of undergraduate and graduate school at UCLA, and how Hillel shaped my Jewish adulthood and life in ways no other organization ever has. It was a very nice trip.

Here are three things I am grateful for from the trip:

1. Breastfeeding mama on my airplane. When I see babies boarding planes I am also boarding, I get nervous. I am very jittery on planes as it is, and a screaming small person on planes makes me even more jittery. Kids and babies are like a fuse about to burst at any minute; they make me anxious even though I know it’s normal and natural blah blah blah. Read more →

Today is Earth Day. I asked my 7 1/2 year old son what the main ways are that we make the planet a better place. He dictated the following:

1. Pick up trash. When you see trash on the ground or at the beach or anywhere, pick it up. And put it in the trash.

2. Recycle. Put bottles in the recycle bin and then they get crushed up to use for other things. You also can recycle newspapers and cans and paper.  Read more →

This week’s most popular posts from Raising Kvell in case you missed them.

- Boston: Goodness & Love are Marathons. A powerful reflection on the Boston Marathon bombing and how we can bounce back from this.

- If You Give a Kid a Leopard Broom. Sarah is raising her kids to do chores, clean up after themselves, and help out around the house. Because as a divorced working mom, she needs them to.

- After Boston, All I Have Left to do is Pray. Carla, who lives in the neighboring town of Newton (which is currently on lockdown) turns to prayer when nothing else seems to make sense.

- So This is 40. The morning of her 40th birthday, Jessica realized she had just another boring, predictable day planned. And she couldn’t have been more grateful.

The National Guard at the Boston Marathon.

It’s not possible to imagine writing a blog post about anything right now in light of the horrific bombing in Boston yesterday.

I do want to share one observation, however. When I watched the footage of the explosions, I saw everyone (of course) running away, to safety. And then I saw the Boston police officers. They didn’t run away. They took a pause and then they started to run–towards the blast. Towards the smoke, and towards the wounded and the blood and the shrapnel. Towards someone’s son and daughter lying on the ground.  Read more →

This week’s most popular posts from Raising Kvell, in case you missed them.

- The Slide: A Cautionary Tale. Alexis had heard that it can be dangerous to ride down a slide with your toddler in your lap, but it wasn’t until her own daughter fractured her tibia that she realized the experts were right.

- Hebrew School is Awesome, Really. Many parents feel traumatized from their own Hebrew School experiences and don’t bother sending their own kids now. But this Hebrew School teacher would like to remind you that it can really be a great thing.

- Why I Wouldn’t Let My Son be Labeled Special Needs. Alina’s son was diagnosed with an Auditory Processing Disorder and was encouraged to sign him up for special benefits at school, like extra time for taking standardized tests. She refused, and explains why.

- You Can’t Shame a Woman into Breastfeeding. When a woman is truly struggling with breastfeeding, rattling off facts, statistics, and common tropes like “breast is best” won’t help. We need to look women in the eyes and tell them that they are good mothers.

Shabbat is great. Shabbat is lovely. Shabbat is 25 hours of no phone, no radio, no piano, no driving, no cooking, no TV (which I don’t watch anyway), no pressures of the outside world. You hang out with friends, eat lavish meals, nap, let your kids frolic as you get a “break,” and enjoy the synagogue of your choosing which both enlightens your soul and tantalizes your children. Unless…

Unless you live an hour’s walk from the nearest synagogue and have no friends within walking distance, in which case it’s a 25 hour test of wills: can I keep my kids happy? Entertained? Happy to be Jewish when the day seems like one long list of restrictions?  Read more →

Ever have a meal like this with your kids?

I went with my boys to their favorite Japanese place for dinner last night. There was some debating in the car with my older son about why I order them brown rice sushi when he prefers white rice sushi. I explained that brown rice has more “muscle power” than white, but that we can order one order of brown rice avocado sushi and one order of white rice sushi and that’s a good compromise. He seemed okay with it.

Cut to dinner…  Read more →

This week’s most popular posts from Raising Kvell, in case you missed them.

- 21 Parenting Tips I Learned from Genesis. Was Genesis the original parenting book? With gems like, “You might sometimes want to kill your offspring, but keep your eyes open and look for the ram,” maybe so.

- Interview with Interesting Jews: Rachel Zaslow of Mother Health International. Rachel went from a rabbi’s daughter in Brooklyn to delivering babies in Uganda, as a midwife and Executive Director of Mother Health International.

- Hello, My Name is Janel & I Hate Co-Sleeping. After months of her flailing, kicking 4-year-old disrupting her and her husband’s sleep every night, Janel has come to terms with the fact that co-sleeping just doesn’t work for her family.

- My Nana & Papa: Survivors and More. In honor of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, here’s a touching tribute to one mother’s grandparents, who are Holocaust Survivors.

A good friend of mine recently asked me when she should tell her son about the Holocaust. She is not Jewish, she homeschools her son, and he is 11 years old. She was asking me because she knows I grew up with a strong consciousness of the Holocaust (and family members who died during the Holocaust) and as a homeschooler, she wanted to present as accurately as possible the historical relevance and significance of the Holocaust in a way that a school might not.

I had to think back to when I learned about the Holocaust. I can’t remember a time I didn’t know about it, in all honesty. From the time I was very young, maybe 6 or 7 years old, I knew that my mom’s mom (my beloved bubbie Sura Perl z”l) had lost her parents and half of her dozen or so siblings during the War. I knew she was orphaned on the shores of Ellis Island and had to grow up with her siblings and my grandfather as her only life guides.  Read more →