Once upon a time, a café in a trendy Chicago neighborhood posted a sign at child’s-eye level: “Children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven.” Offended local parents (apparently) boycotted. Other grown-ups (certainly) verbally spanked mothers who failed to control their precious little scone-hurling…
This was originally posted online November 18, 2005, updated 20 Nov 2018. The Jewish Women’s Archive recently launched an online exhibit called Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution, which uses a timeline, interviews and scans of historical artifacts to look at the contributions of Jewish feminists to Jewish and American history. (You can see it…
Today’s topic is hate, homophobia and family values as expressed through children’s media. Maybe that’s three topics, not one. I’m not sure. I’ll ask Tinky Winky and SpongeBob SquarePants, just as soon as they’ve gotten back from Key West. In any case, certain people seem to be feeling a certain amount of anxiety about our…
Each fall, I write a column about Josie’s education. But you can trace my own education from autumn to autumn. In 2002, when Josie was almost 1, I wrote mockingly about neurotic, hypercompetitive parents who actually would engage in insider trading to get their kids into the 92nd Street Y’s preschool. In 2003, when Josie…
As a mom, and as a person of faith, I’m struggling to figure out what to tell Josie about Hurricane Katrina. Throughout the year, but especially around the High Holy Days, we ponder life and death, justice and mercy. Katrina — the hurricane and the human response to it — gives those issues special immediacy….
The other day, I yelled at Josie. Really yelled. She has asthma, and so she tends to have a serious, multiday bout of wheezing every couple of months. I hate these times. She gasps for breath, and her eyes get glassy. But I trust our asthma and allergy doc, and I think she’s getting the…
Fortunately, Maxine is still young enough for her favorite toy to be the kitchen spatula. (Chew it! Bang it on the floor! Hurl it like a spinning ninja star in a Hong Kong action movie!) Josie, on the other hand, is becoming more discerning in her toy selection. We’re fortunate that she’s still pretty sheltered…
It’s like one of those logic problems from the SAT: Travel with children is hell. Travel in this age of attractively color-coded terrorism alerts is hell. Therefore, travel with children in the age of attractively color-coded terrorism alerts is a special total-mega googolplex super-hell, much like the process of reading a Bret Easton Ellis novel…
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