The Jewish Costs of Jewish Education (Elizabeth Mandel)

"So, I went back to work when my baby was four and a half month old. Now, six months later, I am stepping back to see what we have given up in order to give our children a Jewish education. Here is my shortlist: an extended maternity leave with my new baby, significant time at home with my older kids, my deep involvement with their schools, my almost-guaranteed presence at every play, trip and pre-Shabbat sing-along, Fridays home to prepare Shabbat meals and to prepare to host company, modeling a creative professional life devoted to social justice, money for college, for retirement, the ability to give the kind of tzedakah we would like to give. . . .

I am left confronting a great irony – has organizing our lives around affording day school tuition so our children can learn Jewish values turned out to be antithetical to propagating and modeling Jewish values?"

I recommend that you read the rest of this Lilith Blog post.

That post reminds me of an old one of my own, discussing motherhood from a different angle.