I just gave a class on the “Ten Commandments of Parenting” for a Jewish Organization.
I didn’t realize how hard it would be to come up with 10 basic principles of parenting. Whenever I have trouble coming up with ideas for my classes I bring it up at dinner time and I ask my family to help out. I love hearing what my husband and kids have to say about parenting. I also get a lot of teasing and ribbing:
“Ma, you need to tell them what you said when I forgot to put away the laundry…” (It was not good, can’t repeat it!)
“You should show them the face you make when you get angry and you are trying to hold it in…”
After a few minutes of that, I got a lot of good ideas. For this class, they all felt strongly that I needed to align my “Ten Commandments of Parenting” with the actual, real “Ten Commandments.” That really helped me out and we all were able to come up with some ideas that worked. Some were a bit far-fetched but still fit in with theme. A little creative license can go a long way..
For example, the commandment of “You shall not take the name of G-d your G-d in vain…” we decided that, parents shouldn’t abuse their privileges as parents. Not only that, they should not take their kids for granted and kids shouldn’t take their parents for granted. People should try to be grateful that they are a part of a family unit.
I really thought it was important to remind people that they are their children’s role models. That kids “Do as we do, not as we say.” I felt it corresponded to the commandment of, “Honor your father and your mother…” We need to act in ways that allow our kids to respect us.
For the commandment of, “You shall not murder”, I put in a plug for abiding by safety rules and making sure your kids sit in car seats and boosters. It’s a pet peeve of mine and I have avoided mentioning the topic in my classes because I feel like I come off sounding sanctimonious. But once I was giving a class on the “Ten Commandments”, what would be the problem of adding sanctimony on top of sanctimony?
All in all, I thought the class went off well. I hope to have the video replay available soon!