Pesach (Passover) is a time for family and larger than usual gatherings. However, the preparations and responsibilities that come with hosting or attending gatherings can often lead to stress and anxiety. From cleaning every nook and cranny of the house to planning and serving elaborate meals, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. But fear not! With some mindfulness and planning, you can navigate through Pesach with ease, enjoying quality time with your loved ones without the stress.
Read MoreMy wife and I got an email late Thursday night that our kids’ schools were closing for Friday and all of this week at the minimum.
So, how will we stay productive with the kids home?
And, of course, we are not alone.
As COVID19 becomes more and more disruptive, many working parents, particularly those with young kids and without regular domestic help, are dealing with the added challenge of managing their workloads while providing proper care for their children.
Here are some strategies that can help working parents get through this trying period while still getting things done.
Read MoreOne morning last week, I made myself my favorite breakfast – fruit-filled pancakes – before heading downstairs to my home office to get my day started.
Shortly before I finished, I used some of the batter to prepare a plain pancake for my teenage daughter (she doesn’t seem to feel that pancakes and fruit go together), and she decided to sit down to eat it. This is a girl that almost never eats breakfast, certainly not in the kitchen.
So, instead of making my way downstairs, I sat down right there in the kitchen and ate with her.
We chatted about breakfast, school, and other stuff.
It was short but pleasant and a great way for both if us to start our days.
Sometimes, in our rush to get to work and (officially) start our days, we jump in, power up and plow ahead, leaving our lives behind for the time being.
At least, that’s what usually happens to me.
Read MoreProbably the hardest morning for me is Monday.
It's the day that my wife drives carpool and I am responsible to get our little one out the door.
As you can imagine, it's not always so simple.
He's got his own agenda, isn't the quickest to get up in the morning, certainly doesn't love to get dressed.
Giving him breakfast is a challenge.
Helping them decide on what he wants for lunch is a challenge. In general, it's a challenge.
Actually, a lot of the key things that we do when we want to negotiate with our kids, we also need to be thinking about what we want to negotiate with adults too.
Read MoreHow did you spend your Father’s Day?
Full disclosure: I’m one of the purists (if I can call my self that) who says that “every day is Father’s Day”. So, in my house, there’s no big celebration, no gifts of ties or toolsets.
Instead, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Putting together my kids’ pool, that is.
Pools, even the inflatable variety, take real work to assemble and properly fill (I did well on the former but not so great on the latter – hard to get it all even and fully balanced, but that’s for a different post).
But the weather was hot, and the kids were pining for the pool, so out went dad in his finest shmatas (Yiddish for upscale yard attire) for hours of fun in the sun (before the real fun began, of course).
Read MoreWe haven’t celebrated Pesach (Passover) at home in 4 Years
For the past 3 Passovers (and for 5 of the past 6), I have served as a scholar-in-residence at different hotel programs. As a result, our family did just a token amount of pre-holiday cleaning at our residence. We did the cars and basic surfaces, but by comparison to the amount of time spent shopping, packing and traveling, our cleaning time was but a pittance.
(For the uninitiated, the Torah demands that a home be leaven-free on Passover. This means that it must be cleaned from all items that contain leaven (foods derived from grains such as wheat and barley), a stringency that is far more involved than standard kosher requirements. The amount of effort needed to achieve this level of cleanliness is significant.)
This year, we decided that we were going to stay home for the holiday. With a son studying in Israel for the past seven months and an upcoming bar mitzvah, we felt that we would do well to enjoy the holiday together at home.
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