You Can Have a Cookie

Note: This story was sent to me

Background: My daughter (just turned 3 yo) frequently has temper tantrums and cries and screams until she works it out or falls asleep.
Several times my wife tried to coax her out of them by saying something like "You can have a cookie if you stop crying."

My wife recently had a miscarriage. We were at the hospital for a D&C as the baby wasn't coming out on its own. Because of the timing of events, I wasn't able to get anyone to watch my daughter, so we had her with us. (I had books, crayons, etc.) Just before she had to leave the waiting area for surgery, everything really hit my wife and she started crying very hard. A passing nurse gave us some water and a popsicle. After checking to make sure the popsicle was kosher, I gave half of it to my daughter while trying to comfort my wife. (she wasn't allowed to eat or drink)

My daughter then stood up, held out the popsicle to my wife and said in a coaxing voice: "Mommy, you can have a popsicle if you stop crying!"

That got my wife and I laughing, and helped to calm her down before she left. (Thank G-d, everything went OK and my wife is doing better, physically and emotionally).

When You Know Your Kids Need More Religious Diversity

My kids are happily Jewish, and while I thought we were doing a good job of teaching awareness and respect for religious diversity (most of their playdate friends are not Jewish), I had to rethink our strategy when this conversation came up:

Oldest Son (7): Are we mammals?

Me: Yes.

Oldest Son: So me and [Youngest Son] and Abba (Hebrew for Dad) and you are all mammals?

Me: Yes. All human beings are mammals.

Oldest Son: Even Christians?