Even God Had Bad Parenting Days: ancient Jewish wisdom for new parents

Posted: April 25, 2022

Categories: New Products , Contemporary Jewish Life

Tags: upcoming books

Coming September 2022

Even God Had Bad Parenting Days cover

By Alicia Jo Rabins

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New parents get overwhelmed, regularly pushed to their limits and confused by contradictory feelings of elation and near-despair.

To soothe the frazzled and lift their spirits, writer and Bible scholar Alicia Jo Rabins has created “Even God Had Bad Parenting Days: ancient Jewish wisdom for new parents.” Humorous, self-reflective, and comforting, Rabins' musings on both heartening and cringe-worthy biblical examples of parenting can help any caregiver see beyond the detritus of day-to-day living with young children and recapture a sense of wonder at the process of raising small humans.

Parents do worry about their failed attempts to be perfect, and these short, personal essays can lead them to new perspectives and even to embrace a vital concept that English psychologist and pediatrician D.W. Winnicott called "the good enough parent." The supportive and inspirational writings of this gentle parenting book can help any soul embarked upon this wild, sacred work recognize the wisdom of poet Norman Fischer’s advice that “the only transcendence is fully embracing the ups and downs.”

This collection draws on Alicia Jo Rabins’ years of experience as a writer, Bible scholar, and feminist Jewish educator, and is based on her popular series of articles on parenting for Kveller.

ADVANCE PRAISE for Even God Had Bad Parenting Days

“Warm, witty, and wise, Alicia Jo Rabins offers essential advice to parents. Her interpretation of ancient stories suffuses family struggles—both mundane and profound—with beauty and wonder.” –Vanessa Hua, author of Forbidden City.

“Alicia Jo Rabins has given parents a gift of insight, solace, solidarity, and care in this exquisite volume of spiritual nourishment. This book is a blessing for anyone in the trenches of life with littles.”

--Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, author of Nurture the Wow and On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alicia Jo Rabins is an award-winning performer, musician, poet, and Jewish scholar whose recent film, A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, is being exhibited at film festivals throughout the US, most recently at the New York Jewish Film Festival. Her writing appears in Kveller, Ecotone Magazine, Tablet Magazine, and American Poetry Review, among others.

She is a 2020 Literary Arts Fellow in Poetry and has fellowships from RACC, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. Winner of the 2015 American Poetry Review/Honickman Book Prize, and finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, she is also the author of Divinity School and Fruit Geode, and creator of Girls in Trouble, an indie rock song cycle abut biblical women.

Rabins graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College (creative writing), holds an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson and an MA in Jewish Women’s and Gender Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and tours internationally as a musician, lecturer, and feminist Jewish educator. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Find her at aliciajo.com

EXCERPT

I so appreciate the fact that in the Torah, the main characters--including God--all have moments of acting like overwhelmed parents. Despite the best intentions of remaining patient and compassionate, they, like us, lose their cool.

For example, the Exodus from Egypt. We love to celebrate this story of miraculous liberation. Less often do we mention that the recently liberated Israelites are extremely whiny. (Sound familiar?)

They're tired of wandering in the desert, and they sit around complaining about how they miss the delicious meat they used to eat in Egypt. Moses, like a stressed-out parent, finally hits a wall. He can't take any more whining and complains to God that he'd rather die than lead these people.

And how does God handle this? By making quail rain down from the sky, then sending a plague to kill the Israelites who choose to eat it.

This is not a pretty story. In fact, it is exactly this kind of thing that makes people think of God as a vengeful guy in the sky with a white beard.

But reading this as a mother, I think . . . who am I to judge? I get it. I've had crappy parenting days too . . .