Parenthood – Excerpted

“Parenting is a universal phenomenon, so it is hard to say that there is a Jewish way to parent”

23 August 201722 August 2017 Drew KaplanFamily

Parenting is a universal phenomenon, so it is hard to say that there is a Jewish way to parent. There is no uniquely Jewish way to conceive or to breast-feed or to discipline a child.[…]

“What does it mean to be a hip-hop parent?”

6 July 20174 July 2017 Drew KaplanHip-Hop

What does it mean to be a hip-hop parent? For me, it means moving heaven and earth to protect my daughter from any hint of the menace that threatened my own teenage years. It means[…]

“Our kids should never be more important than our marriage, and they should never be less important”

18 June 201712 June 2017 Drew KaplanFamily

Our kids should never be more important than our marriage, and they should never be less important. If they’re more important, the little rascals will sense it and use it and drive wedges. If they’re[…]

“…the women are super double tanked — that to be a modern, urbane woman means to be a serious drinker”

23 September 201620 September 2016 Drew KaplanAlcoholic Drinks

That’s the summer I realize that everyone around me is tanked. But it also dawns on me that the women are super double tanked — that to be a modern, urbane woman means to be a serious[…]

“…the more the children of the better-off were cherished, and pampered, the worse the treatment of the children of the poor appeared to be”

22 September 201620 September 2016 Drew KaplanParenthood

If Victorian- and Progressive-era middle-class moralists were newly concerned about the dead and dying babies of the poor, it was partly because their own babies were, for the first time, not dying. And the more[…]

“… we’d do better to acknowledge the fact that women (and men, for that matter, though in a different way) change as a result of having children, and often do care less about work”

11 August 201510 August 2015 Drew KaplanBusiness

As a society, we’d do better to acknowledge the fact that women (and men, for that matter, though in a different way) change as a result of having children, and often do care less about[…]

Kissing scenes in movies are “a great opportunity to talk about values around sex, normative feelings of desire and arousal, as well as how to teach about boundaries”

22 December 2014 Drew KaplanMovies

When you let kids watch violent scenes in a movie, but run to turn off the TV if there is a kissing scene, you send a negative message. Who was kissing and what was the[…]

“Having a child feels like returning some measure of innocence to the world, and this is wonderful in its way”

24 August 20149 August 2014 Drew KaplanParenthood

Having a child feels like returning some measure of innocence to the world, and this is wonderful in its way; but we are talking here about a world with an exceptionally poor track record in[…]

“Two of Parental Love’s major active ingredients are fear and guilt”

17 August 20149 August 2014 Drew KaplanParenthood

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I can provide you with a definition of parental love, but I will tell you this: Two of its major active ingredients are fear and guilt.[…]

“For a person whose suffering has been met with judgment, a sympathetic ear can make all the difference”

22 July 201415 July 2014 Drew KaplanParenthood

Given the ideology of parenting, it’s not surprising that we typically blame biology for the experience of postpartum depression. But the circumstances parents face are often demonstrably miserable. The fact that postpartum depression rates are[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Category: Parenthood

“Parenting is a universal phenomenon, so it is hard to say that there is a Jewish way to parent”

“What does it mean to be a hip-hop parent?”

“Our kids should never be more important than our marriage, and they should never be less important”

“…the women are super double tanked — that to be a modern, urbane woman means to be a serious drinker”

“…the more the children of the better-off were cherished, and pampered, the worse the treatment of the children of the poor appeared to be”

“… we’d do better to acknowledge the fact that women (and men, for that matter, though in a different way) change as a result of having children, and often do care less about work”

Kissing scenes in movies are “a great opportunity to talk about values around sex, normative feelings of desire and arousal, as well as how to teach about boundaries”

“Having a child feels like returning some measure of innocence to the world, and this is wonderful in its way”

“Two of Parental Love’s major active ingredients are fear and guilt”

“For a person whose suffering has been met with judgment, a sympathetic ear can make all the difference”