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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To
many, if not most, American Jewish parents, participating in Halloween
revelries is considered harmless fun. Increasingly, however, rabbis and
educators have challenged Jewish participation in Halloween activities.
To be fair, the holiday does have pagan origins and it was later adopted
by the Catholic Church. So it is understandable why some Jews would be
tepid about celebrating a religious holiday that was never their own.
I
have a 5-year-old little boy, a living room filled with boxes of
soldiers, swords and Matchbox cars, and a complicated relationship with
fairy tales and the princes and princesses who live in them.
A musical journey through Simchat Torah and Sukkot featuring hassidic music, metal, hip-hop, mizrachi, sephardic and more from 
The Creator entrusted me with this precious soul.