2011 has been a big year for Kveller. We’ve celebrated our first anniversary, and won an award from the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund. We’ve debated issues from sleep training to cell phones, we’ve breast fed at the UN, sent our sons to school in dresses, welcomed babies, and mourned their loss. Our community is as strong as ever, and to commemorate this amazing year, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite blog posts from 2011. Here they are, in chronological order.
10. Friday Night: Helping Your Kids Be Themselves
by Amy Deutsch. Amy’s recounting of her wish for her daughter (and for all children) is short, sweet, and resonated deeply with my philosophy of parenting.
9. Mayim Bialik on Being Jewish, and Why She Digs It
by Mayim Bialik. This excerpt from a speech Mayim gave at Tribefest in Las Vegas gave me the shivers, and made me want to go hug a Jew. Or ten.
8 .Mama’s Got a Brand New Bike
by Sarah Emily Tuttle-Singer. Like all of Sarah’s writing, this post was beautiful and touching, and gave me insight into a world so different from my own. Yet, at the end, I felt completely connected to her.
7. Hey Roiphe, It’s Hard Enough Just Raising These F’ing Kids
by Deborah Kolben. Debbie’s piece calling out Katie Roiphe is a perfect example of why she is an amazing editor, and why Kveller has become such a strong community. Debbie looks for real voices, and she wants people to tell it like it is. We don’t do that enough in parenting, and not nearly as eloquently as Debbie does here.
6. Postpartum Anxiety—This is What Mine Looked Like
by Tamara Reese. As a social worker, I strongly believe that pain is lessened when we share it with a supportive person or community. I am so grateful to Tamara for writing about her experience of postpartum anxiety (something I have also struggled with). Hopefully, other mothers felt less alone as a result of Tamara’s post.
5. A Parent’s Confession
by Jordana Horn. Jordana’s take on the Vidui (the Confessional Prayer we say on Yom Kippur) acknowledges the many, many ways we parents err on a regular basis. Apologizing and accepting responsibility can be incredibly powerful, but they’re not easy to do. I’ve printed this one out, and put it in my siddur.
4. Hello Kitty Doesn’t Have a Mouth
by Carla Naumburg. What can I say? I crack myself up.
3. Running: The Closest I Come to Prayer
by Shannon Rubin. Shannon’s post about why she runs, and how she keeps going, even when it’s hard, is a beautiful model of a Mama taking care of herself. I was totally inspired by it.
2. Hanukkah Twitter Party… Bring Your Own Latkes
by Kveller. In this case, it wasn’t so much the blog post that I loved, but the actual Twitter party itself. I’ve never “attended” a Twitter party before, and after my head stopped spinning, I learned a lot, and “met” a lot of hilarious and knowledgeable Kveller readers. (By the way, if you’re looking for a new Tweep, you can find me at SWMama.)
1. Christmas Made Me a Better Jew
by Adina Kay-Gross. As a fellow Jew with a Catholic grandmother, I loved Adina’s perspective on celebrating Christmas with her grandmother.
Those are some of my favorite posts from this year. Which pieces touched you?
