It’s a funny thing, being Jewish in December. Chanukah came early this year. Not Thanksgivikah early, but early enough that it still caught me off-guard. Whenever there’s more than a week between the last night of Chanukah and winter break, I get cocky. I feel like I’ve been given the gift of time. But that feeling is very short-lived, because in reality, there’s only one thing that happens when ...
Camp Crazy
Every summer, there’s a catch phrase that’s blurted out so frequently during my interactions with parents that I often wonder if they secretly believe it’s the key to unlock the holy grail of childrearing: I’m not THAT parent. It’s never followed by any type of explanation of who THAT parent is. In my line of work, it’s assumed that I know. Spoiler alert: I KNOW. There’s another phrase ...
Have That Removed!
Every time someone in my family trips, we immediately point to whatever it was that was tripped over and say, “Have that removed.” In case you don’t recognize the line (I didn’t until I met my husband; since then, I’ve heard and said it more times than I care to admit. Apparently we trip a lot.), it’s from “Stripes.” I’ve only seen bits and pieces of “Stripes,” my kids haven’t seen any of it… and ...
Learning to Lose
Anyone who’s ever had a child in kindergarten soccer knows the sweetest thing about it (aside from those tiny little uniforms and shin guards and nets you could fold up and put in your purse) is that everybody wins. To ensure that everybody wins, goalies are not a thing. Both of my kids loved kindergarten soccer. They couldn’t wait to get their trophies at the end, which was an inevitability, ...
The Camp Mom Waxes Poetic
I swear I know that Halloween comes every October 31st, but this year it really crept up on me. Maybe it was the fact that Bauercrest at the Bruins happened on the 28th, so I was swept up in a whirlwind of missing tickets, changing jersey sizes, and showing a Garden full of fans that Camp Bauercrest Youth Hockey is a thing (you just have to believe), ultimately proving to loving mothers ...
Camp Mom Lowdown on the High Holidays
The High Holidays always bring me back to when I was a little girl going to temple with my family. I absolutely dreaded having to sit through services. I found them long and frustrating, and I could never understand what any of it had to do with me. I went purely out of obligation. I think the only time I felt like I was really a part of things was at my own Bat Mitzvah. This all ...