Being a Mom on Tisha B’Av

Tisha B’av is a long day no matter what day of the week it falls out on.

I knew that the day would be a long one. I had a schedule set up and we followed it pretty closely. I even surprised myself!

This is what we ended up doing:

We played and stayed in our pajamas until 9:30/10am and davened.  Then we hopped in the car for a little shopping at a local craft store. I meant to do this beforehand, but honestly did not have time. I knew that if we wanted to get through the day we would need some extra activities to help us. Not the best pre-Tisha B’Av planning on my end.

When we got back home, I made the kids noodles for lunch and we did the painting activity we bought at the craft store.

At 2pm we were scheduled to have movie time, but my kids were not behaving- even after lengthy talks about Sinas Chinam and the fact that we no longer have the Bais HaMikdash.  Boys will be boys…

At 2:30 I let them earn back movie time if they cleaned up their toys. They did and at 3pm we started a movie. Now obviously movie time was more for me than it was for them. I needed some resting time and this worked for all of us.

By the time the movie was over I realized there were still 4+ hours to the fast and I wasn’t sure I’d last.

We did some more arts and crafts, then it was time to prepare dinner. I put some fish sticks in the oven and noticed that it looked so breezy outside. We went to play in the backyard and by 6:30 I was begging my kids to come inside for dinner. They really needed that time outside!

By the time we finished dinner and got into pajamas the day was almost over. We played, read some books and got into bed. That left me with a little time to rest before the fast was over.

Luckily, DH took care of all the break fast details. We had a yummy meal, I showered, had some much needed chocolate for dessert, made lunch for the kids and hopped into bed.

It was a long day, but we survived!

There were so many challenges:

1. Seeing endless piles of laundry that I couldn’t do anything about
2. Not being able to take my kids to the park or turn on the sprinkler for them in the hot weather
3. Having a headache towards the end of the day
4. Keeping my kids occuoied for an entire day inside the house

Even with all the hardships there were still some things I was able to accomplish:

1. I made a pot of tomato barley soup, so I can bring lunch from home this week
2. I spent a TON of quality time with my kids

At the end of the day, I was exhausted but was amazed that I was able to keep my kids occupied for so long. It wasn’t the right day for loads of fun, but my kids are young, so we had to keep it light.

I know that when the grow up I’ll be able to hear Eicha, read Kinnos and attend a shiur, but for now I will be happy with how I spent my time.  It was definitely meaningful, just in a different kind of way.

Until next time,
Shaindy