Raw Deal

Orthomom has been focusing on a number of challenging children-realted issues of late such as underage drinking and bullying.

While these issues are surely important and worthy of focus, let me bring up an issue that has threatened to cause a major rift within the MoC family.

Raw or well-done.

For the past couple of years our family has been forced to confront this issue head on. Nary a Shabbos goes by without the problem raising its ugly head.

As with most issues, it arises because, in life, no good deed goes unpunished. In our case, the good deed is that MHW bakes both chocolate chip cookies and challah virtually every Shabbos. The problem: I like the cookies and challah well done and everyone else in the family likes them raw (of course, MHW has never eaten an entire cookie in our 25 years of marriage so it is of less importance to her).

I have repeatedly written in this blog and in comments to others' that it doesn't matter what a parent says, kids learn from what a parents does. Nevertheless, my children rebelled. So, you can imagine my heartache at seeing each of our kids prefering raw dough over well-baked despite my consistent actions (not just talk).

How did this happen?

I have thought long and hard about this but I just can't figure it out.

Nevertheless, as Drs. Pelcowitz and Blumenthal would surely say, a parent must continue to show his or her kids unconditional love, despite their preference for raw cookies and challah. And so I do.

Thankfully, we have also found a practical solution, owing to the quick thinking of MHW. MHW now makes two batches of chocolate chip cookies; one barely baked, for the kids, and one very well done, for me. On the challah front, MHW started baking well done challah rolls for me and raw challahs for the rest of the family.

Consequently, everyone is happy and shalom bayis reigns once again at the MoC household.