Bethany Mandel

Bethany Mandel is a graduate of Rutgers University with a BA in History and Jewish Studies. She’s previously worked as a teacher in rural Cambodia, an online fundraiser at The Heritage Foundation and most recently as a social media associate at Commentary Magazine. She’s currently a stay-at-home mother of two and a freelance writer.

Bethany’s contributions to our newly-launched PJ Parenting section will reflect her focus on her children — a daughter in the toddler stage and an infant son that are separated by seventeen months.

She has a preview of the unique content you can expect from her: “You’ll never see me discussing my kids or their behavior, but I think that parenting should be an undertaking that involves thought — and as a writer and a thinker, that's where I think I come in.”

Every generation is confronted with a unique set of challenges. On whether it’s more difficult to be a parent today than in the previous generation, Bethany says: “My country isn't at war, and we have access to modern medicines and vaccines against diseases like polio and the measles, so, no.”

She lists “the relaxed attitudes we take towards sex, violence and government overreach into our daily lives” as the cultural issues that worry her about raising kids today. On her style of parenting, she adds: “I'm free-range all the way and love writing about the how and the why.”

And here’s the best advice that she’s received as a new mom: “Babywearing has been life-saving with a small baby both times around. Each of my kids as newborns had reflux and being vertical has made it a lot easier. It's easier to juggle working, cooking and cleaning with two hands.”

Bethany has appeared on CNBC's The Kudlow Report, Huffington Post Live, BBC World's World Have Your Say, and was a regular guest on Powers to the People on Talk Radio 1380am WNRR. She was chosen by The Jewish Week as one of its "36 Under 36" in 2013 — an annual list of individuals reinventing Jewish life. She lives with her husband Seth Mandel, op-ed editor at the New York Post, in central New Jersey.