OK. I'm admitting it. I'm Jewish. Now don't get me wrong. This is a fact about which I am very proud. But there is no doubt in my mind that it drives much of what I do, much of what I eat and how I parent my four kids. No doubt.
I know there are a lot of parents of different religions and ethnicities that think they have the crazy- parenting market cornered, but I believe that the Jews raise that neurosis to a whole new level. We worry more (especially about things of which we have absolutely no control), we lose sleep, we over-protect, we hover, we feed hungry people and continue to push food towards the sated.
And many of us still hope that our kids will find Jewish partners to love. That's a big one. It's not easily understandable nor is it justified. When questioned about this hope, it's really hard to explain. In the most logical perspective, my greatest wish is for them to find decent, smart, funny, kind-hearted people with great values, who will treat them with respect and love. I just want them to be Jewish, too.
Now don't get me wrong- if they bring home a non-Jewish partner, I will open my house and my heart to them. But I think that their lives will be more complicated and that their future decisions will be more difficult with two different religions with which to deal.
But again, like most of those afore-mentioned "things over which we have absolutely no control", my kids will make their own choices, based on their own needs and desires. I know they respect my opinion and that does count for something. But in the end, their lives really are their lives, their choices their choices, not mine. That's a tough fact to accept sometimes, but a necessary one if I want to keep that respect. And more than anything, I do.
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