One Boy, Boy for sale. He’s going cheap. 4 shekel 99.

A lot of Israelis with young families would like to move to the North, as it’s getting increasingly expensive to live in the centre of the country. I think one of the off-putting factors is the lack of services & activities available to new mums. Living in London there were all sorts of things going on – NCT, jewish groups, helplines etc in fact everywhere you looked someone was trying to help you out with your new baby but Israel has traditionally super keen on kids going to Gan as soon as possible and as a result the “new mums” networks for mums at home are in their infancy here, especially in the North.

Happily a nice english girl named Sarah made aliyah here a while ago and set up an organisation called em la’em – or rather she expanded the current one which started life in the Misgav Region up here and is slowly spreading its way across the country. Their mission is to help new mums. There is a friendly support group that meets weekly for mums and babies up to 1 [which sadly I can’t go to as I have nowhere to put my toddler] and some mums have the option of a weekly “mitnadevet” volunteer, who comes for 2 hours and helps out with whatever you need doing. They’ll even do your laundy if you want them to! As a new olah, even though this is not my first child I qualify as I have no family in the area. They try to match you with someone they feel you will get along with, so it takes someone with a bit of intuitive sense to get this one right.

Anyway we were “given” a nice lady called Chava who came to visit us when Yaron was just a few weeks old [positively gutted I didn’t contact them earlier but I didn’t really understand what they do]. I clocked her as in her fifties, and she herself was soon to become a grandmother so this was a chance for her to practise her new role. Well since then she has pretty much been our adopted savta, knitting clothes for my boys and bringing us fabulous cakes. She seems to know everyone she meets in the street so she is a very useful soure of local knowledge. Jojo comes out with random hebrew phrases which we attribute to her and he seems to expect her on a sunday morning now. A bit gutted as she has had to take a break and we miss her dearly but luckily em laem sent us a temp. Unlike my experience of temps in other industries, this one is actually here to work and knows what she is doing! Has been working in Gans and as a mishpachton [kind of like a childminder] for yonks. I think I might have scared her a bit with my “new fangled” parenting [I think I am actually old-fangled but people just look confsued when I tell them that so I’ve given up] but anyway she seems nice and she offered to come back next week so at least she didn’t scream and run away at the sight of Yaron on his potty.

I just found out that Em Laem have a website so if you like me you are an olah with a new baby and no help get in contact with them and see if they can help you out. A wise woman once told me when I had my first child to ACCEPT ALL OFFERS OF HELP and I have to say its a good mantra to live by. Of course if things get really bad you can always put the kids up for sale, Jojo walked around the supermarket yesterday with a 4 shekel 99 agorot price tag attached to his forehead and a few kindly ladies offered to take him in, including the checkout girl. One lady outside literally checked him out properly and when I threw in that he could help her with her laundry she seemed doubly keen. I must say on days where he refuses to take a nap it is very tempting.