I'm not looking to knock Mishpacha's Family First magazine. I think it's a cute little paper with an occasional cute little article. And I will admit that I am totally hooked on the little soap opera they have going on in the back of it (aka Green Fences).
This week's paper kind of shocked me though.
They didn't have one article about cleaning for pesach. They didn't have two or three articles. They didn't even have four. I counted five articles, and shabbos ended before I got to finish the paper.
Do they really think that all Jewish housewives can think about at this time of year is pesach cleaning? Why that would be as preposterous as thinking that a kallah can't think about anything other than her chosson and her upcoming wedding! Oh, wait, she can't think of anything else. Well, perhaps the Jewish housewife can't think of much else either, but...
Just because a Kallah can't think about anything that 'normal' people think about, does that mean we are supposed to feed into it by asking her about her gown and what type of cookies she thinks her chosson would like the best? Of course not. They talk about all that stuff without you initiating it. Your job is to try to remind her that there is a world going on outside of her engagement bubble.
Let's use this analogy for the Jewish housewife. (Why did my fingers start to type 'desperate' just now?) They think about pesach coming up more than they think about how badly they need a good night's sleep. (Though they may foolishly fail to notice the link between the two.) Their actions and discussions revolve around pesach and it's various preparations. So why do the editors of the Family First feel this need to feed into all of this? All their talk about "de-stressers", (no I didn't really read the article. Just one of the sidebars.) is it really supposed to de-stress you to read some ridiculously organized woman's idea of where you are SUPPOSED to be up to in your cleaning now? Gosh. Don't you think a better de-stresser would be to have an article about the amount of pesach cleaning that has been done thus far in MY house? Or better yet about some OTHER topic? Yes, those topics exist. You just need to look for 'em!
12 comments:
Oh man- this article, when I saw it on Mom In Israel- it re-stressed me terribly. I would prefer to hear about anything rather than the P word.
re-stresser
Saw an article, as said by nmf#7, on a mother in israel. The article was all about how quickly it had to be done, she did the whole house within a week, and about how no one else besides the wife does the cleaning. Yes I think they are over reacting, because if you were a normal person you wouldve started months before hand. ;)
Oh, I'm not at all stressed out about Pesach. AAMOF, I've already finished cooking all my Pesach food, and my kitchen is back in Chometz mode!
NMF- Please call it pesach. As Professor Dumbledore would say, fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself. ;)
TB- I agree. Wholeheartedly.
MIM- link please?
Anon- AAMOF? C'mon you're embarrassing me!
BOSD- yes, well, that word can't be mentioned in front of me without re-stressing, so I'd prefer to think of it as a letter. If you'd like, here we go: "Pesach, Pesach, Pesach." There. Now excuse me while I go clean my closets, which according to her, were supposed to be done last week ;)
no comment
NMF- C'mon! Say it ten more times and you'll feel yourself getting completely de-stressed. Take it from an expert. (Well, ok, I am not paid to write articles about it in the Mishpacha but at least I am a realist.) I sincerely hope you don't think you are supposed to follow that stuff. I think the lasy is a secret comedy writer. :-p
BC-Coming from anyone else, that might be a weird thing to write....from you- well, I dunno. ;)
I love your kallah analogy. I hate being around people who are always talking about Pesach. Especially when they are ahead of me in their cleaning.
I see you found it but here is the link for your readers. http://www.amotherinisrael.com/2009/03/15/why-average-haredi-families-go-to-hotels-for-pesach/
MII- You should hang around my mom. We are thinking about getting ready to start.... ;)
I cleaned one closet last week.. does that count? And I found the remains of 4 or 5 chametzdik lunches (bagels, cheerios, pretzels...) on the floor of that closet that apparently my kids had been stashing there, sigh.
Good point. :)
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