Last night, after my eldest daughter (read “major Pesach cleaning helper”) and I spent the entire day in bed with a stomach bug, I sat down with my two eldest children and made our Pesach cleaning schedule. We needed to know where we stood and that we would actually be able to accomplish our goals. We wrote down everything left to do and scheduled in a time to do it. And then we went to sleep.
This morning, despite our list and our best efforts, my children woke up feeling overwhelmed. I could feel it bubbling out of them. They couldn’t focus, and they were jumpy from all the nervous activity in their cores. Luckily, I was feeling in control and ready to go. I stayed calm and started working alongside them.
As we began to work and their hands were busy, the humour and comeraderie that marks their relationship slowly began to return. At the end of the day, we had completed 3/4 of the tasks we had set for ourselves. Not bad.
Most importantly, everyone went to bed calm and happy, feeling encouraged that we were going to be ready in time for the Seder.
WOTT Parenting, WOTT an Education 