Tefillin and kids

[hatam_soferet]

Anyone want to tell me about their experiences with kids and tefillin? In particular:

If they lay tefillin, why you got them started doing it and when you started them
What you told them about why we do it.

If you lay tefillin and they don’t, how/why that works.

Whether they play tefillin.

Who in the family wears them.

If they’re still babies, what you plan to do when they get old enough.

If you have teenagers, whether they do or don’t, whether they’re boy or girl, and what they think about it. (Or if you’re actually a real teen and you’re reading this, hi! and tell me about it yourselves.)

Anything else you think is relevant to parents considering tefillin for their kid?

Mirrored from hasoferet.com.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

My son is the reason I finally bought some tefillin and started working on how to lay them. He's a year old, and I want to have some way of telling him and helping when it's his time. If I don't start putting some family memories into tefillin now, they won't be "our thing". I'm trying to build our family brand: "Our family eats fresh food, cares about feelings, and lays tefillin."

-Chavah

[hatam_soferet]

That's really lovely! Thanks for sharing.

[(Anonymous)]

I like this too. I'm also a single mom with two boys, and I recently started laying tefillin. I asked my older son (age 11) what he thought about it, and he was very supportive. I'm glad to be able to model committed, egal tefillah for them. I hope it's something we can all do together in a few years.