This week's Torah portion, told by G-dcast.com

This week's parasha, Vayetze, tells the famous story of Jacob wrestling with an angel, meeting Rachel and marrying Leah, then Rachel, and returning to encounter his brother, Esau, who had vowed to kill Jacob years before when stole his birthright.

Sometimes you have to leave home to find home.


 


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Everybody Else’s Perfect Kids

By Zimra Vigoda for Raising Kvell

After nearly two and a half years of living in the San Francisco Bay area (a temporary break from our lives in Israel), I am trying to keep my head above water. It seems that in today’s middle class America, everybody else’s kids are no less than perfect.

Until 2012, my kids grew up in an Israeli suburb. I had an enormous social network comprised of mothers and children. Our house and yard were always filled with running, jumping, screeching, laughing, and the crying of not-perfect kids. With the exception of a couple of “hysterics,” my mommy friends had no illusions about their little angels. We freely exchanged accounts of parenting challenges including school struggles as well as developmental and behavioral setbacks. By and large, we were honest and supported one another.

Today, I also have a large social network of mothers. However, with the exception of a few “eccentrics,” my mommy friends are incredibly busy convincing each other and themselves about how wonderful their offspring are. It seems that everyone is a sports star, a rock star, and a genius.

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How I Taught My Son to Fail

By Lisa Manheim for Raising Kvell

This past summer, I taught my child to fail.

This must defy some canon of parenthood, which compels us to equip our children with all the things they need to succeed.

But by summer’s end, my husband and I had exhausted our bag of tricks (and our patience) trying to teach almost-6-year old Emmet to ride his two-wheel bike: the same bike from which he had begged us to remove the training wheels, after watching a younger neighbor zipping around on two wheels.

At first, we tried balancing him on the bike without pedaling, so that he could feel the sensation of instability.

“Wooooo!” he exclaimed, as he tilted over and planted his feet on the ground.

“That’s good!” Jeff affirmed. “When you ‘feel the woo,’ you know to balance yourself!”

Emmet wasn’t interested in the “woo.” In fact, the woo scared him off his bike for days. Turns out, Emmet was absolutely terrified of falling.

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Five Great Kids’ Books That Will Actually Help You Parent Your Preschooler

By Tamara Reese  for Raising Kvell

Parenting a preschooler can sometimes feel immense and impossible. The sheer fact that my kid might have lifelong memories of something I did or said haunts me at night. I’ve already trudged through the muddy waters of newborn and toddler stuff and came out (barely) on the other side with some sense of confidence and strategy. But with my firstborn, I wake up each day to unknowns and I’m often up at night Googling how to best connect with him.

I have found that if I’ve talked with my son about something, it helps tremendously if the concept is reinforced by some sort of media. For example, we’ve been talking a lot about wasting water. Money and worth, in general, are very hard concepts for small children to wrap their brains around. I initially tried with “water costs money” and that approach was a giant intangible fail. So now, when the water is running while he is watching his tongue dance in the mirror, I tell him that we don’t want to waste water because it is a precious resource and it might go away someday. Just like the trees in “The Lorax.” He seemed to get that.

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