If I knew then what I know now

Thoughts on past parenting choices.

The Birthdaythanksgivingholiday season is underway over here, more a block on the calendar than a set of traditions. I love that low-key flexibility (no holiday stress), but I also wonder if I dropped a ball on holiday traditions when the kids were little.

The older they (and I) get, the smaller the worry, but it still creeps in at this time of year.

Part of empty nesting for me is letting go of past parenting choices (and non-choices), along with any lingering guilt about them.

For example, had I known then what I know now, I would have been more committed to annual holiday traditions. No Norman Rockwell Thanksgivings or extravagant holiday decor; just the little quirky things that marked the season for us.

Mirabai made these out of Shrinky Dinks. Don’t ask me how she did it.

We celebrate Hanukkah. We light the menorah, and sometimes we eat noodle kugel and latkes with applesauce and sour cream. Every now and then we get a tree, but it’s rare.

I also have a collection of snowflake orna…