Sneaking around...with chometz

TzenaRena

Tue, Mar 28 2006, 2:23 am

Sometimes I think I cook more in these weeks before Pesach than all year. it's my method of control. No-one is allowed to eat in any of the rooms (not that you didn't tell this to your children...) at this time,

to enforce it you have to get rid of all the snacks that normally kids would walk around with. I don't even like them walking around with kitniyos snacks because I can't tell the difference what kind of crumbs they are, but I guess that's my mishugas.

So, for example, wafers and cookies from Purim (STILL!) get rid of - send to school, and hide it until then. I cook pasta for fillers instead of a snack, since this is is commonly eaten at the kitchen table, and doesn't crumble. It's still sticky and pasty, so I do supervise. Fruits, dairy snacks e.g. leben, yogurt, scrambled eggs, and sandwiches- only in the kitchen.

Make sure they are sitting at table, or hi-chair eating these things over a plate to cath the crumbs. Brush them off before they leave kitchen, rinse hands, rinse, or wipe face from crumbs with damp paper towel. I always supervise(d)* all eating sessions, and wiped any crumbs from the table immediately, swept immediately to stop transfer of crumbs by shoe into other rooms.

*(They are older already and should know better by now, but I still can catch some "kriching" through the cabinets in search of some goody......)

When my kids were small, and got food all over themselves, I would sometimes change their shirt after a meal, right there in the kitchen, bag the "chometzdik" shirt, after shaking it out over the garbage, and put in hamper with the bag, so the laundry room didn't get all chometzdik. Especially so that the crumbs don't fall into the bins of freshly washed laundry, about to go into the Pesachdike drawers.

Well, those are some of my control mechanisms (mechagasin?). This way I feel under control too and more calm.

hila

Tue, Mar 28 2006, 11:30 am

LAdies
you can drive yourselves crazy. But remember you will be able to mevatel all your chametz. You also give up ownership of anything left.

Crumbs are not chametz.
Nor is dirt or dust.

Your kids will not remember that the floors were clean, but they will remember that you shouted at them when they ate in the wrong place.

Am I giving myself this mussar talk too ? you bet. I do it every year - I still get pressurised by Pesach. However I dont have toddlers any more (or grandchildren yet) .

Clean, but dont go crazy .

And OK I would not be too happy about bread in my bed either. But my kids learned fairly early that we eat in the kitchen or dining area only the whole year. And drinks only by the computer and only in plastic cups.

Unfortunately teenagers dont do rules so well Wink

so I have found food in other palces. But at this time of year they are pretty good. Anyway they are repsonsible for their own rooms.

ANd for those who like some sources
http://www.israelnationalnews......3.htm

Happy cleaning

TzenaRena

Tue, Mar 28 2006, 12:10 pm

hila wrote:

LAdies
you can drive yourselves crazy. But remember you will be able to mevatel all your chametz. You also give up ownership of anything left.

Your kids will not remember that the floors were clean, but they will remember that you shouted at them when they ate in the wrong place.

Crumbs are not chametz.
Nor is dirt or dust.

Hila, why is a system that works called driving yoursef crazy? and where was there any mention of shouting at children?

Bittul chometz takes place after the Bedikas Chometz, so first you search for and burn the chometz, then you do bittul, for that which you didn't see or find. And if on Pesach chv someone does find chometz, they have to burn it. (or cover it till Chol Hamoed, or after YomTov and then burn it.)

Ladies, you are not "driving yourselves crazy" for nothing.

The heiliger Berditchever Rav, HaRav HaTzaddik, R. Levi Yitzchok Berditchever said that the Tekios (sounds of the Shofar) of Rosh HaShana ascend on high and are accepted, and the Jewish people are inscribed for a good, sweet year, in the zchus of the women who clean for Pesach with the letters of KSHR"K, an acrostic for tekiah, shevarim, teruah, tekiah.

They also stand for:
Kasheren - making kashered
SH- shaieren - scouring
R - Reiben- rubbing
K- kratzen- scratching (or is it keren - sweeping?)

queen

Tue, Mar 28 2006, 3:03 pm

Hila has it right.

Crumbs are ok as long as they are not in your kitchen. Small tiny crumbs upstairs in a bedroom are not a problem as they are m'vatel --- HOWEVER, Even having said the above- we have it in our Jewish blood to clean impecably and rid of ANY crumbs. But one has to know what the criteria is L'halacha: crumbs (under a kziyis size - as long as not a whole 'choshuv' item) are not a problem and are m'vatel with saying "kol Chamira." Much better for kids to have a happy mother than one who is all tense due to erev Pesach cleaning.

The better one cleans- "tovo alecha b'racha" however keep your priorities straight ladies.

TzenaRena

Wed, Mar 29 2006, 1:32 am

Queen and Hila, to each their own. I clean the way my mother did, the way my Bubbes did, the way my Shvigger did, the way my aunts did etc. I find it very satisfying to carry on this tradition, of ehrliche Yiddishe Mammas. (minhag noshim zkeinos b'yisrael - which the Rashba says should not be tampered with)

I am passing on this committment to my children,

(The only time I cleaned minimally was when I had surgery a week before Pesach. And b"h the children were well aware of the importance of it and pitched in beautifully.)

curlyhead

Wed, Mar 29 2006, 1:51 am

My son also walked into the bedroom with bread. But I'll do another vaccume right b4 pesach and as soemone else said crumbs are not horrible. You just cant have a kazyis in the house and any Mashehu (any tiny drop) in the food.

Buy only chometz free snacks such as chips, rice cakes, raisens, dried fruit, egg matza etc. We are already limting the bread and eating lunch everyday outside.
Supper is not such a prob as it is not as crumby and not always real chometz. Next week no more real chometz - only outside.
For breakfast I brought kiniyos cereal - puffed rice and puffed corn.