The Business of Bar Mitzvah Planning
Part 1: The Business of Picking a Date
As someone who sees more comfort in a spreadsheet than a bubble bath at times, I tend to be Type-A and then some when it comes to planning just about anything. So, when we got our Bar Mitzvah date (2 ½ years away), my mind starting ticking in the direction of how to attack the planning aspect. Don’t get me wrong – the key to the event is the milestone in our Jewish son’s life, and the religious significance.
But let’s focus on one word in that sentence for the purposes of this article – the event. Part of me wishes we lived in the country, where we’d show up after the service with some cookies and punch, spin some records, and rock the house. We’d watch the sun set while the kids picked flowers in the yard, and, well, I digress. But reality is, many people plan much, much more than punch, and I’m all for celebrating the milestone, but the details can drive even the most organized parent crazy.
So, true to my Business of Motherhood (www.BusinessofMotherhood.com) philosophy, I plan to attack the plans with spreadsheets. And the first, the inaugural spreadsheet was inspired by a baseball team friend, Dan C., Dad Since 1993 and 7th grade Religious School Coordinator at Washington Hebrew Congregation. Dan told me that in planning their daughter’s Bat Mitzvah, the first thing they did was try to avoid date conflicts. He suggested collecting as many friends’ dates as possible, and I thought it was a fantastic idea. So, I spreadsheet’ed it, and created a chart including as many 5th grade Jewish kids as I could think of at our school. Columns included…
After e-mail’ing it a bunch of moms and encouraging them to forward to friends, we identified several conflicts. Realizing that our elementary school feeds into a middle school where there could be tons of new friends with new conflicts we didn’t even realize, I thought that polling our school, where there’s a high likelihood of friendships continuing, that we were doing as much as we could this far in advance.
For lots of free charts to plan details, visit www.BusinessofMotherhood.com. While we leave the Jewish expertise to Meredith, our esteemed “Modern Jewish Mom,” we have lots of ways to chart/compare information that can be readily applied to planning this important event.
So, hopefully by now, you’re convinced that a spreadsheet can add order to a simcha (or at least help you to pick a date)!
Amy Kossoff Smith, Founder of The Business of Motherhood, is a nationally recognized Mompreneur who owns a Web site, www.BusinessofMotherhood.com, and blog, www.MomTiniLounge.com. Available 24/7, just like Moms, the Web sites offer parenting tips, resources, and a host of ways to manage the job of motherhood.
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