I peeled off the plastic and started reading about Eli’s haircut

AT two-year-old Mendy’s PTA, I met Shimmy’s mother, who said that My Upsheren Book (Gold Publishers, Hebrew and Yiddish) was a must-read. Her eyes said that the book would make my child healthy and holy and happy. My mind said that it would make me a wonderful, loving, devoted Mommy. So at the end of an exhausting Thursday afternoon, with the two youngest already in pjs, I strapped Suri into the stroller, with Mendy and Chani sharing the buggy board, and we fled the house, bookstore bound.

It didn’t take long for me to develop a curiosity about the brand of insanity that had sent me out of the house at that hour. The dimming streets were full of weary families leaving the parks and the occasional sprightly teen emerging for twilight errands. We dodged our way to the bookstore with a slight sense of going in the wrong direction. The book was easy enough to find. I was hoping we’d have an equally easy time finding our beds.