By COLlive reporter
It was at the International Kinus Hashluchim in New York two years ago that the seed was planted. Just a few months before, Tehila Posner of Chicago had created Schmooze Cards, a pack of conversation starters for Jewish families.
Her husband Rabbi Menachem Posner was showing her creation to some friends.
Nearby stood a fellow shliach from South America whom Posner had never met before. The man heard the conversation and shyly asked if he could make a suggestion.
“My wife and I have not had the bracha of children yet,” he confided. “Would your wife consider making a set of cards just like these but for couples?”
Posner went home, and his wife got to work.
As she researched and toyed with the idea, she realized that this product would need to be different from the children’s pack.
For one thing, not every couple is always up to deep sharing, and what’s easy for one person to open up about may be triggering for another.
The result is a double-sided card pack. One side of each card has a prompt for a deeper conversation, while the other side has a whimsical, almost silly prompt.
“This way,” she explains, “if you want to go deep and share, that path is before you, and if you just want to relax, laugh, and just share anecdotally, you can do that as well with no pressure.”
Even after the creative process had ended there was still work to be done. She sent the cards to several shadchanim and frum mental health professionals, each time refining the prompts, removing questionable ones and adding new ones.
She also worded each card so that it would be appropriate for dating couples, couples who had been married for decades, and everyone in between.
The realization that the cards would be for everyone, from newbie daters to veteran couples, is reflected in the name she finally chose for the product as well: “Schmooze Cards: Date Night Edition.”
More than two years after the initial request, the cards have arrived from China and have been spreading by word of mouth.
Posner says she has already received very positive reviews, including from a mother whose son took the cards with him on what he feared would be an awkward second date. The result, the two had a great time and are now engaged.
Schmooze Cards: Date Night Edition is available in select book stores and at SchmoozeCards.com
Don’t say “childless couple!”
Say a couple that hasn’t been blessed with children YET!
Can we get their full names so we can daven for them by the Ohel, surely the Rebbe hasn’t forgotten any of his children Especially shluchim!
I’m surprised to read them described as a “child’s pack” when they’re definitely for teenagers and adults! We use them regularly at our Shabbos table and our guests really enjoy participating in conversations engendered by the questions.
So there are 2 versions ?
One for married couples and knew for dating?
And one for families?