Hey there. Long time, no see. In case you forgot, my name is Whitney and I blog about kosher food, parenting, and life as a school counselor in Los Angeles. I’d be writing this blog for a little over 2 years when I decided to call it quits this past summer.

The decision to call it quits was a hard one but then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t. I was with my oldest kiddo, Siona, at the beach when the decision hit me. It was a Sunday. It was gorgeous outside and we had decided to haul ourselves to Venice beach for our morning activity. I was roughly 7 months pregnant at the time and tired but feeling good. Siona was playing in the sand and I was messing around on Instagram when I realized, after scrolling through picture after picture of glorious new posts from my fellow food bloggers, that I hadn’t posted anything to the blog in weeks and I was fine with it. Actually, I was more than fine. I was relieved. Finding the time to cook something, take the pictures, edit said pictures, and then write a post was just not happening anymore. My husband was in Miami all last year (He’s back! Hallelujah!) and working full-time while caring for our toddler was just a weeeeeee bit of a time suckage. I had managed to squeeze out a few posts last year but it just got too much. So, cut to that sunny day and my decision was made. I thought I would feel like I was missing something when I gave it up. I kept waiting for that feeling of foodie “FOMO” (Fear Of Missing Out) to come up during the ensuing weeks and it just didn’t. Instead, my focus has been on becoming an expert in my job as a Director of Counseling, of caring for my kids (Oh! I had another baby!) and of spending time with my husband. But, to be honest, another reason I stopped with the blogging was because I needed a break from the blogging world.

I’ve been reading blogs for the last 5 years. The majority of the blogs I read are/were food blogs with the occasional dip into the parent blogging world. However, over the last 2 years, my focus shifted from mostly food blogs to parenting blogs. I wanted to connect with other parents who blogged, especially moms, and I liked reading stories that I felt related to my own experiences. However, during the last year I started noticing a shift in how bloggers were writing and being celebrated as parenting experts. We live in a world where society has given expertise-status to some of these bloggers. Well-intentioned friends and friends of friends have posted pieces by bloggers, bloggers who have absolutely no background in mental health or childhood development, and have shared these pieces on their Facebook profiles as gospel on child-rearing. Their advice is not housed in data or evidence-based and yet, they’re getting book deals and being celebrated as experts in a field that isn’t really theirs. That isn’t to say that they aren’t experts in raising their own children, but that certainly doesn’t mean they should be giving seminars on adolescent development. As someone who does have a background in mental health and childhood development, this was driving me crazy and I needed a break. I also needed to be honest with my own participation in this phenomenon and take a step back from my own contributing behaviors so I wouldn’t be a big a** hypocrite. And so, with that time to reflect, I decided I should take several steps back and reevaluate whether or not this is something I want to pursue.

{Gets off soap box}

And so, I’ve taken a break and it’s been a good one. This isn’t the relaunching of Jewhungry. I still really don’t feel like going through all the hard work it takes to run a food blog. I have no desire to make it my full-time job when I have a full-time job I really love and a full-time family that I really love even more. Instead, I hope to be posting here and there on The Nosher, as long as the lovely Shannon will allow me. But for the time being, I will drop this ramen recipe on ya so head on over to The Nosher to get it cause it’s a good one.

OK, gots to go. Billy on the Street is on.

Lately, on the Jewhungry Instagram page (@jewhungry)

and now, back to ramen latkes . . .