jewish mothers Archives

Grandmother tells a fairytales to her granddaughter

My mother loves her grandkids with gusto, and spends time and money on them accordingly. When she comes from Canada to visit us for a few weeks in California, she enlivens our house with her fun,… quirky presence. But when she’s here, I admit to feeling discomfort — OK, resentment — over her refusal to set aside her own agenda. I love my mom. And while she has many good qualities, like a willingness to make messes — and sometimes even clean them up — and her enthusiasm for helping my… >> Read More

kveller q&a

A New Kids’ Book by a Jewish Mom Shows How Everyday Moments Are Special

Joanna C. Valente

April doesn't always have to be the cruelest month. It's also #NationalPoetryMonth. Because despite what you (and especially your kid) might think, poetry is fun. Really! Case in point: a new… illustrated poetry book for kids, H Is For Haiku: A Treasury of Haiku from A to Z, written by the late poet Sydell Rosenberg, is a delight from beginning to end. As the title indicates, it's an A-Z compendium of haiku that brings out the joy and the poetry in ordinary moments we experience everyday. Rosenberg, who… >> Read More

kveller q&a

The New Fantasy YA Holocaust Novel You Should Read

Joanna C. Valente

Jane Yolen author photo_Jason Stemple credit.jpg

Author Jane Yolen may be most famous for How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? — but she's actually written so many books that you can read one each day for a year. She's also a mom of three and a… grandmother of six — so, you know, she's pretty busy. Yolen, 79, began writing children's books more than 30 years ago. But she changed the game completely in 1988 with The Devil's Arithmetic, a young adult Holocaust fantasy-ish novel (with nearly 2 million copies in print in the U.S. alone) that was unlike anything else. The… >> Read More

infertility

This Amazing Jewish Mom Is Donating Her Embryos So Other Couples Can Conceive

Joanna C. Valente

You've probably heard about the recent malfunction at a fertility clinic in Cleveland. Due to a storage tank failure, some 4,000 frozen eggs and embryos have been lost at the University Hospitals… Fertility Center . In a crushing blow, the hospital notified nearly 1,000 patients that it's unlikely that any of the eggs or embryos are viable. But one Jewish mom-of-two, Niki Schaefer, who has been through fertility treatments herself, is trying to help families whose dreams of having a baby may have ended as a result of the malfunction.… >> Read More

jewish mothers

What My Mini-Midlife Crisis Made Me Realize

Danielle Ames Spivak

My recent 34th birthday brought a mini-midlife crisis. A 48-hour period of existential questioning concluded with a watershed moment: I need to have more fun. That’s easier said than done. With… work, three little kids, bills, and trying to run a traditional Jewish home, I realized I’ve completely forgotten about fun. When I was in my early 20s, Saturday nights were spent at nightclubs in the Meatpacking District followed by shawarma runs with friends at 3 a.m. So what happened? After decade’s worth of stresses —… >> Read More

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