Shevy Interviews Chavelamomela

This is not an original idea for a post, but I thought it was a cool idea. This is the latest trend in blogs - to be interviewed by another blogger. Shevy has given me some pretty thought provoking questions. Here they are...




Question #1: Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way.

Most recently, I was able to convince our pediatrician to agree to something she generally doesn't do:

As I am very interested in breastfeeding Elish, and part of that interest is making sure that Elish gets the best nutrition possible. I also want to avoid giving him unnecessary things.

At our first visit to the pediatrician, she prescribed a vitimin supplement for Elish called 'trivisol.' The Dr. said they do this with all babies, to make sure they don't have a vitimin D defficiency. When I bought the vitamins, I looked at the ingredients on the box, and it listed 'caramel color' and sugar, and other seemingly unnecessary things. Why does a baby need caramel color? I gave Elish one dose, felt very bad about giving him the supplement, and then never gave hom another dose.

At the next dr's appointment, I asked the pediatrician if I really needed to give Elish the supplement. After all, isn't my breastmilk enough? I eat healthy and the baby gets some sun every day.

After some discussion, the Doctor agreed that in my circumstance, Elish is not in an at-risk population, and she agreed that I didn't have to give him the vitamins. I was glad that I was able to convince her that Elish had no need for this supplement, especially since I am so careful that he gets 'only the best'


Question #2: What is your typical way of dealing in conflict with your spouse?

There are typically two types of responses that I use when we have a conflict:

For Major Conflicts:

My first response is to act like b*tch to him, complain about how unfair he's being, etc. Daniel will usually not respond well to this tecnique (you'd think I'd have figured that out by now!), and I will reapproach the issue and try to rationalize with him why my way is better than his. Sometimes I can persuedue him to see my way, but other times I cannot. Sometimes, when I feel Daniel is being irrational, I will tell him that he's acting like a b*tch (and that cheap shot sometimes works!)

For Minor Conflicts:

We will 'shoot it out' - by playing '3 takes it' - I am always odds. We solve most minor issues in our marriage this way (like who takes the dog out, who changes the baby's diaper, etc). People think it's funny to watch us do this, but it avoids a lot of arguments. We try to out psyche each other and try to guess what the other person is going to put out (one finger or two).

Question #3: If you were on a desert island, which 3 books would you want to have?

1."The klutz book of solitaire" (hey, it even comes with a deck of cards!)
2. A Harry Potter book (they're long and entertaining)
3. "How to build a raft" - I will want to get off the island, after all!


Question #4: What would you say is your parenting policy on disciplining children?

Last week, Daniel and I practiced an interesting exercise. We took turns with 'role playing' being the parent and a child of various ages. We would each play out the scenario. My approach was not so good, and everything became a confrontation. Daniel was able to difuse the situation and minimize the conflict. I am practiciing and trying to change my instinctual approach to discipline. A book I love on this subject is:
"How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk" by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. They have a wonderful approach to effective communication with kids and over the years, whenever I have used their techniques with children (and adults!), the results have been marvelous. It just requires effort and much thinking, so I am trying to encorporate these tools into my behavior to become more natural.

and now, the final question: What are your ambitions regarding your career?

Hmm, good question. This is an answer that is constantly changing for me, as I am never 100% sure what direction I want to take. Before I had kids, I would have said that i want to be a stay at home mom, and nothing else. When the baby was born, I loved being a mom and enjoyed my maternity leave immenseley. However, now that I am back to work, I have to say that I enjoy having a dual career of mommy and career woman. There's something wonderful about being able to balance the two world succesfully. I know that not every woman can do this, and frankly, not every woman wants to do this. Right now, I think I want to, but ideally, I would modify my work responsibilites so that I could be home a little more and have a flexible schedule.

So what are my career ambitions? I always want to work at a job that serves the Jewish people and the world. I don't know what I want to do in 15 years. I just know that my next job I would like to have would be something in Israel that can utilize my skills and talents to serve the Jewish people, and at the same time, come home to my kids and spend quality time with them.

Ask me this again tomorrow, and I may have a different response!



Now here are the rules which you need to include in your post:
1) Leave me a comment saying "interview me please."
2)I will respond by asking you five questions ( not the same as above)
3)You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.
4) You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5) When others comment asking to be interviewed you will ask them five questions.