Please meet Tamara, a 3-month-old little angel and the newest addition to our family. She is my formal excuse for not writing a post in such a long time. The upshot though is that 5 months is a good perspective on what has changed and how we are doing.
The headline is that we are doing well and mostly trying to make sense of the logistical complications of life with 2 kids and a new baby. Thankfully Tamara (or TamTam as her name quickly became) so far seems to be a relaxed and peaceful soul, which is not a common personality trait in our household. But still we are leading a ‘full life’ as they say, which really means that “we are mostly succeeding in keeping our heads above water”. At this point the better half is still on maternity leave. God only knows (and fears) what will happen when she goes back to work in September. The term ‘organized chaos’ springs to mind…
Before Tamara was born, a few different friends described their experience with a 3rd child as a ‘correction’. I find there is much truth in this description. After 2 previous attempts at being a decent parent, you are statistically bound to do a better job of it (or at least mess it up less). Plus, you cannot afford to dwell on the little one too much because the other two are demanding to get their fare share of attention (sometimes at all costs it seems). Another helpful factor is our 7-year-old, who genuinely tries to help and be a little mommy to her infant sister. So overall the first few months have been manageable and not as crazy as I feared. fingers crossed…
Enough about the baby (although I can go on and on) — let’s move to the other kids. Now that some time has passed here in Israel, we are starting to witness the strong bonds that the children are forming with the extended family. We are truly lucky that our parents on both sides are so helpful and involved in the lives of our children. The amount of sleepovers, activities and energy that is invested in our kids is staggering. Watching my father coaching our strong-willed and temperamental 4-year-old, on matters of character and perseverance during his weekly soccer practice is simply priceless. If there was a single reason to come back — this would be it.
Other than the outrageous cost of living, the Tel Aviv bubble is nice and cozy (and sweaty as hell) most of the time. Day-to-day life is good and fun and if you ignore the news and what goes on outside of the bubble, you can feel pretty good, although deep down you ask yourself when it will all go to hell. At it’s core, we are living through a cultural power struggle between a liberal, secular and somewhat privileged camp (symbolized by Tel-Aviv) and a nationlistic, religious-leaning and historically disenfrenchized side. At the moment, the latter is in power and seems to be setting the tone, which is worrying because they are leading Israel towards darkness and isolation. One still hopes that the pendulum will swing back towards a more centralist and hopeful path. It is not hard to recognize similar dynamics in many other countries around the world — Brexit in England has rocked the London establishment (though using a simple majority referendum for such a critical decision seems crazy) and the Trump phenomenon in the US is also a worrying omen. It will be interesting to see what happens next — the western world is headed towards a correction it seems. Let’s hope it is not too painful.
Lastly, I recently noticed that I am no longer comparing life here in Tel-Aviv to our former life in the U.S on a daily basis. That is a good sign that the adjustment process is well on its way…
