The Jewish Daughter Diaries by Rachel Ament

Author:Rachel Ament
Language: ara
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

THE BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY YENTA

Lauren Yapalater

Somehow, the stars have aligned and either by accident (this book fell off the table and landed open on this page) or by another accident (this book fell off the couch and landed open on this page), you are now reading about my Jewish mother. The thing about having a Jewish mom is that one day I will turn into a Jewish mom. Like a little Jewish caterpillar, I too will blossom into a beautiful butterfly yenta, and it couldn’t be done without learning and subconsciously absorbing from my own mother, which any Jew will tell you includes having multiple neuroses and being a “worry wart.” Being a Jewish mother also includes knowing exactly when someone is hungry and what to feed them; determining a diagnosis based off one symptom; and bagels. Because always bagels, right?

My mom does all those things and more. I moved out of my parent’s house about two weeks ago. Which means that up until then, I was being fed and nurtured by my mom as if I was a helpless teenager. My mom packed me lunch every day, left vitamins and a glass of orange juice on the counter for me every morning, and bought all my lunch supplies. I would literally go into work, and say, “My mom made me lunch,” to no one in particular. I just thought it was exciting that my amazing mom was still making my lunch—and I work at a company full of adults whose moms probably haven’t made them lunch in ten years!

A fun thing about being a twenty-four-year-old who lives with her parents is that you get to see firsthand their struggles and triumphs with social media. My mom has been able to navigate the cold, dark waters of the interweb, and I saw her evolution from flip-phone user to master of the iPhone. (In this case, “master” meaning “holder of basic knowledge.”) She is faster to upload pictures of my dog sitting with his legs crossed on the couch than I am (and I’m fast at taking pictures of my dog, okay?).

Now that I’ve moved out, she sends me selfies of her and our dog. I know I will never miss a cute couch moment because I receive texts throughout the night of his many positions. She’s not the typical social-media mom who posts inspirational memes on Facebook. She’s a cool social-media mom. She follows several people who I work with on Twitter and Instagram, and favs and likes everything they post. Everyone loves having their tweets faved and their photos liked!

I remember the first time that I noticed my mom had been having a Twitter conversation with one of my coworkers. After panicking for three seconds and having that same feeling you might have if your mom dropped by your fifth-grade classroom to announce that you had forgotten your antidiarrheal medication, a calmness fell over me and I felt proud.

I imagine it’s how she felt when I took my first steps. Yes, probably exactly like that.

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