I boycotted the State of the Union address last night (because I certainly wouldn’t describe this country as a “union” these days………) and finished my first self-help book of 2005 - The Blessings of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel.

mogel

This is a hit book amongst the young, Jewish, family set across America these days. Anyone who has their kid in a JCC nursery program has certainly had a discussion group around this book. The premise of the book is to provide parenting guidance from the perspective of beit din (the ancient court of Jewish law). While I clearly don’t want to bring religion into our blogger site, I am posting this book because it is relevant regardless of your faith or lack thereof.

The book basically covers topics such as: Discovering your unique and Ordinary Child, Teaching your child an attitude of gratitude, the blessing of self-control, bringing moderation and sanctification to your table, etc. etc. I found this book extremely helpful with real tactics to improve the interaction with your children and to modify those behaviors that are driving you crazy. It ain’t so easy bringing up a kid these days and I’m at the point that I will take any advice that I find.

I highly recommend this book for anyone with kids ages 2-8 years old. It reminded me that the way I was brought up (discipline, some fear of the wrath of my parents, etc is okay) and that I’m not always going to make my kids happy.

Anyway - I leave you with a couple quotes that I loved……….

“If your child has a talent to be a baker, do not ask him to be a doctor.” (Hasidic)
“When a person honors the parents, God says, “I consider it as though I lived with them and they honored me.” (Talmud)

I hope I didn’t offend anyone with the religious overtones of the post………..