Q:
My not frum relative is inviting my child for Shabbos. What’s the best way to decline that invitation?
A:
The answer is that you can say that you have a principle that on Shabbos your children have to be with you. That’s all; tell them that you keep your children home on Shabbos.
I think that it’s a good idea in general to keep your children home because you don’t know – even in a frum house you don’t know what’s going to happen to your child. It looks good to you from a distance, but do you really know who those boys are? He may sleep in one bed with a boy; you can’t tell what’s going to happen, he might learn something. Or he might play Shabbos in the street and who knows what will be. If you’re around, so you’ll scold him and tell him not to go into the gutter, but people are afraid to scold somebody else’s child and now your child is running off into the street. It doesn’t pay to let your child to go away for Shabbos. It’s a practice today among the Orthodox, but I certainly don’t approve of it. Keep your children home.
TAPE # 163 (March 1977)
