Well, guess what? I do the exact same thing. The only difference is that after that whole morning routine I’m off to work. I have a junior high-schooler to put on the bus at 7 a.m., an elementary-schooler at 8 a.m. and a preschooler at 9 a.m. In between I am trying my hardest to make myself presentable so that I can walk into my office looking professional and polished.
Ms. Greenwald, don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining. But I do need to point out that while you yearn for some camaraderie, I don’t even have time for camaraderie! Be happy and content knowing you can go to the park at ten in the morning with your child and not have to report to a boss. Relish the fact that you have this precious time to spend at home with your children.
You mentioned that being there to care for your children around the clock is of utmost importance to you and your husband and that your decision to be a “full-time mother” has been a good one.
My husband and I never really made a decision that I would work. When we got married I had already started working in my field and it just made sense to continue. But though I work outside the home, my responsibilities as a mother are 24/7. I am the one the school calls if there is a problem, not the babysitter. I am the one who runs to school to bring my son the assignment he left at home (albeit during my lunch break), not the babysitter. I am the one who picks up my sick child from school, not the babysitter. After all is said and done, I am still Mommy.
While my husband and I have both pursued professional careers, we have always held steadfast to the belief that he is first a ben Torah and that I am first a bas Yisrael. We are both equally committed to our children and to the job of raising them as true b’nei Torah and b’nos Yisrael.
I am sorry you feel ostracized for making the home your workplace. I do not support the negative insinuations at all. Let’s work together and support each other no matter which derech each of us has chosen and hopefully, with Hashem’s help, we will see the coming of Mashiach bimheirah b’yameinu.
Miriam Goldstein
(Via E-Mail)
Obama’s Failed Ideology
We are a group of American citizens from the former Soviet Union who are deeply concerned with the speeches and ideas of President Obama in which he downplays the role of private initiative and ownership as the foundation of the well-being of our country.
For some Americans, socialist ideas may seem interesting, new and attractive. For us, however, there is nothing new and attractive in them at all. We heard these Marxist theories in the totalitarian countries of our previous residence. In fact, the entire Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was orchestrated under these dangerous and utopian slogans. We fled from there to America with its freedom and private initiative.
America’s greatness was built under capitalism; it is a source of its wellbeing and strength. As any economic system, capitalism requires development but not replacement by the socialism that failed in Europe and around the world and is not needed in America.
It is clear to us that Obama’s misguided ideas about the direction of the development of America are damaging the future of our beloved country, as well as that of Europe and Israel. We are confident that America does not need President Obama’s socialist experiments that history has shown to be a failure.
Former Refugees for Freedom and Capitalism in America
Nelly Braginsky, activist, mother of 9/11 victim (NY); Ihil Brodsky, activist (IL); Dr. Daniel Golubev, writer (NY); Anatoly Gershgorin, political columnist (NY); Ella Zarider, activist (NY); Pyotr Yefimov, writer (MA); Semyon Itskovich, scientist and columnist (IL); Vladimir Kigel, teacher, publisher and writer (NJ); Iosif Lakhman, activist (MA); Ilya Levkov, publisher, writer (NY); Mikhail Margolin, writer (NJ); Polina and Lev Mendelevich, community activists (NY); Yuri Okunev, Ph.D., scientist and writer (NY); Vladimir Opendik, writer (NY); Vitaly Raevsky, Ph.D., scientist and writer (MD); Julian Rapaport, engineer, activist and writer (NJ); Viktor Snitkovski, writer (MA); Leonid Stonov, activist (IL).
