Having Five Kids in a Two-Kid World

By Jordana Horn for Raising Kvell

I am a freak.

Arguably, this was true anyway. But by having a fifth kid (on purpose!) I have pushed myself into the realm of the unfathomable…at least, in the environment where I live.

 Continue reading.

Why I Never Force My Kids to Kiss Their Grandparents (Or Anyone Else)

By Mayim Bialik for Kveller.com

Now that awards season is over, I am pretty sure it’s OK and authentic to say that I am tired of writing about dresses, SPANX, and expectations of wins and losses. I feel like writing about parenting again. So here we go.

Continue reading.

Talking with Randi Zuckerberg About Parenting, Technology & Kids Who Use iPads

By Deborah Kolben for Raising Kvell

We recently had the total pleasure of Skyping with mom of one, Randi Zuckerberg. If the last name looks familiar, yes–she’s the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the former Director of Market Development and Spokeswoman for Facebook. Now, she’s the founder and CEO of Zuckerberg Media and the author of two new books: Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives and Dot, a picture book for kids about a young girl who’s both tech-savvy and interactive with the actual world around her (imagine that!). We talked to her about the various ways technology influences modern day parenting.

In what ways have you found technology makes parenting easier or harder?

Continue reading.

The New Jewish Family

Adjusting communal structures to match the new realities of the Jewish family will require letting go of a romanticized version of familial reality.

By Gary A. Tobin for MyJewishLearning

The family has always been central to Jewish life and culture.

Recent demographic changes in the Jewish community and changing social realities and norms have challenged traditional ideas of what a family is, and in the following opinion piece, the author argues that the Jewish community needs to address the new realities of the Jewish family frankly. Reprinted with permission from Sh'ma magazine.

Our understanding of the Jewish family is furthered more by the text of the Torah than by the myths of the 1950s. We are far closer to our biblical roots in terms of family structure than we are to "Leave It to Beaver" or "The Cosby Show." Thinking about the Jewish family and adjusting our organizational and institutional network will require letting go of a romanticized view of the Jewish family that never existed.

When most people close their eyes and conjure up an image of a Jewish family, they are most likely to see a man and a woman married to each other for the first time with biological children that belong to both of them, where both spouses are Jewish and at least somewhat involved, if not actively involved, in Jewish life. They tend not to see divorce and remarriage, gay or lesbian families, singles, non-Jewish spouses, or partners living together without marriage. That is just for starters. They certainly do not imagine all of the pathologies and dysfunction that plague American families in general, and have troubled families since the institution of "family" was created biological eons ago.

Continue reading.