Ynet interviews Dr. Hanna Katan, religious Zionist mother of thirteen and gynecologist with a sub-specialty in fertility. Katan considers a large family to be the ideal and has served on a committe to encourage secular mothers to have more babies. Her own mother raised eight children and served as a role model for her.
Read more on Dr. Hanna Katan: Large Families,Yes. Demanding Careers for Mothers, No….
We received an advertising supplement from a travel agency catering to the haredi public called “Pesach Plus.” According to the supplement, there has been an increase in reservations for Pesach hotels this year despite the economic downturn and the message is that you don’t need to be wealthy to go to a hotel. “Average” haredi families do it too.
I think I know why, after reading Malki Lowinger’s Pesach cleaning schedule in last week’s Mishpacha, a magazine for haredi women. If this is the standard, it’s no surprise that so many decide to go away. My friend Shelley, who sent me the article, reported that Lowinger covered the loft and the garage in a previous issue. Since Shelley lives in an apartment like most Israelis, she figured she could relax. But there’s no relaxing this week except in small increments.
On Orthonomics a guest post about Orthodox homeschooling generated the following comment by “l”:
One problem that parents encounter is that in families where there are both older and very young children, the toddlers and infants often require many hours a day of the parents’ care and leave little time left over to work with the older ones.
I think the comment reflects misconceptions both about homeschooling and large families.
Read more on How Do Parents of Large Families Manage? Meet Tal and Talia…
I once heard a taped lecture where the speaker imagined an event in the fictional homemaking “olympics,” where a mother takes her two small children to the park. They must reach their goal without the tricycle and bicycle getting run over or full of dog doody. The speaker called it the olympics to emphasize the many intricate skills that mothers and homemakers must master.
What if there were a Jewish homemaking olympics? Readers who objected to the term superwoman might also feel intimidated by “olympics;” I don’t mean to focus on the competitive aspect. I want homemakers and their partners to appreciate the tremendous range of skills they develop to keep the house running smoothly. Or to keep it running at all.
An entire group of events would involve Pesach.
Here are some other possibilities for “Jewish Homemaking Olympics” categories:
Mommy’s Going Meshugganah doesn’t have a large family (yet?) but you can still hear her roar.
Frumhouse talks about labels, maintaining friendships, and personality development of both parents.
Babylox tells how she thinks of herself as a juggler, trying not to drop too many balls but forgiving herself if she does.
Carolyn of Juggling Frogs shares a moving story she calls The Adventures of Supermom.
Original post: The Truth about the Jewish Superwoman.
Comparing ourselves with others is a theme running through all the posts. We always seem to think that everyone else manages better than we do.
What can we do to prevent those kinds of feelings? Simply reminding myself of positives doesn’t work for me.
Are you a superwoman? The Orthodox Jewish superwoman has multiple children yet still manages to (pick several): always look great, sew the family’s clothes, take on major community projects, have a spotless house, host frequent guests, work full-time or run a home business, live in a tiny apartment, have a husband who is never home, blog (just kidding), care for elderly parents or special-needs children . . . well you get the idea.
A lot has been written about whether these women are as successful as they seem. Maybe they have lots of help, or their marriage and/or children are seriously neglected.
I’d like to focus on the truly successful ones, whoever they are (keeping in mind that success is changeable and subjective and that every woman has different resources and skills).
Emuna Rosenfelder, a member of an email group I frequent, wrote that she has noticed several qualities common to many “superwomen.”
Here is Emuna’s list. I added my comments in blue, and how having or not having that trait affects me, mother of six, at this point in my life.
I think those rabbinical articles about how dirt isn’t chametz and how you can prepare your house for Pesach in just a few hours so you should really be spending the weeks before on outings with your children misunderstand the reality of most households. Because the difficulty of Pesach doesn’t lie in scrubbing the stove or cleaning the refrigerator (usually the two hardest jobs). What makes Pesach so crazy is that you are planning for the most important and elaborate meal of the year (even if your seder meal consists of soup and meat/vegetables as mine does) while making your house kosher for Pesach. You can’t just do a regular grocery shopping; you need to fight crowds and shlep home enough to restock your entire kitchen. Everyone needs new clothes and shoes at the same time (I don’t buy new outfits and shoes for all of my children every yomtov, but this is the time that I take inventory). You have to plan where guests will sleep (no out-of-town guests yet), supervise the kids’ cleaning or do it yourself, and make sure you have enough Pesach pots (I’m convinced that mine shrink every year). If we’re lucky we have a chance to make plans for chol hamoed too.
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