![\"\u05d3"\u05e8](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/r1g1TP00JrGe_0_0_3000_2001_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"Dr.")
<\/a><\/p>\nDr. Shelley Gat <\/p>\n
(Photo: Yariv Katz)<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew there was no chance I would finish such a demanding degree unless I stayed with my study group,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI did what everyone does and left my son with a caregiver, and it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I could not resolve the frustration of having a child while someone else was raising him. I asked myself: Why did I have a child if I only see him at 4:30, when neither of us has any patience, I am not enjoying it and we are not having any fun? I was deeply frustrated. Despite everything I have done since, I feel that I am still grieving over it. Truly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two years later, after the birth of her second son, Eitan, Gat made a decision: She would not return to her job as an engineer specializing in simulator design. That choice opened the door to an unconventional life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI discovered homeschooling and people who did not participate in the rat race most of us live in,\u201d she says. \u201cI saw families who stayed home with their children and realized it was an option. During maternity leave, when I was supposed to look for a preschool for my eldest, I said: I am already home with the younger child, so why should I send the older one to preschool? I will stay with both of them. Gradually, I realized that homeschooling was an accepted option in Israeli society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before that, after struggling to breastfeed her eldest son as she had hoped, Gat turned to La Leche League, an organization that supports breastfeeding mothers. Later, while staying home with her two children, she fell in love with the field. \u201cI trained as a breastfeeding counselor and began working in it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Her career developed as she gave birth to three more children. \u201cMy advanced age was not an obstacle to securing a residency position. Perhaps some people even saw it as an advantage: I do not have young children, I will not take maternity leave and I barely need to take days off because a child is sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
For 13 years, Gat homeschooled all five of her children, now 26, 24, 21, 19 and 16, at the family home in the central Israeli community of Beit Herut. At the same time, she balanced intensive motherhood with a flourishing career as a breastfeeding counselor and founder of breastfeeding clinics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would ask my parents to babysit and go out for an hour or two to provide a consultation,\u201d she says. \u201cFrom there, it developed into a clinic that I opened in the community. Later, I opened additional clinics and taught nursing courses. I always worked during hours that suited me. That allowed me to stay home with the children while also developing professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did homeschooling look like in practice?
\n\u201cThere are two opposing approaches to homeschooling. One involves a clear daily schedule and lessons. At the other extreme is the \u2018unschooling\u2019 approach, in which you do not initiate anything or formally teach, based on the assumption that children are naturally curious and that, as parents, we simply need to avoid getting in their way. If a child is interested in something, we do everything we can to make the information accessible. I was somewhere in the middle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe children surfed, so our day depended on the waves and the wind. It was impossible to plan. If wind or waves were expected, I was not going to make them sit down and complete a mathematics workbook. But they knew they had to meet their obligations. I would say: I will take you to the beach at five in the morning, but when you come back, you will finish the workbook. They had to take responsibility and honor our agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n
It sounds as though they had a wonderful time. What about you?
\n\u201cWhen you have only two hours a day with your children, and during that time you have to make sure they do their homework, eat dinner and take a shower, it is not fun. Where is the enjoyment? When people asked me, \u2018Don\u2019t you get bored being with them all day?\u2019 I would say, how could it possibly be boring?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difficult part is that children are ultimately our mirrors, and it is hard to spend every day, all day, facing five mirrors. So I made a career out of breastfeeding, and it was interesting for me to experience parenthood in my own way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Psychologists might draw a connection between Gat\u2019s childhood and her strong belief in homeschooling. She grew up at Kibbutz Sha\u2019ar HaAmakim under the communal sleeping system once common in Israeli kibbutzim. She says she did not know that children normally slept in the same house as their parents until her family left the kibbutz because of her father\u2019s work as a career military officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe moved around a lot,\u201d Gat says. \u201cEventually, my parents settled in Kfar Saba, and I attended high school there. That is where I met my husband, the great love of my life, my first boyfriend, who later became my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
After completing their military service, the couple embarked on the traditional post-army trip abroad. They later worked together in security for El Al overseas before returning to Israel to study. He studied industrial engineering and management, while she studied mechanical engineering. \u201cWe broke up once before settling down,\u201d she says. \u201cI came back with my tail between my legs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two opposing approaches to homeschooling. One involves a clear daily schedule and lessons. At the other extreme is the \u2018unschooling\u2019 approach, in which you do not initiate anything or formally teach, based on the assumption that children are naturally curious. I was somewhere in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s next major turning point came when they relocated to Argentina for her husband\u2019s work. The children, who had never previously set foot inside a classroom, entered formal education for the first time. The eldest joined 10th grade, while the youngest entered first grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no alternative,\u201d Gat says. \u201cOtherwise, I would have condemned them to terrible loneliness in a language they did not know.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the relocation was not solely about her husband\u2019s career. It also created an opportunity for the most dramatic change of Gat\u2019s life: At 43, she began studying medicine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI became increasingly interested in the clinical side of breastfeeding,\u201d she says. \u201cWhy isn\u2019t the baby nursing? Why isn\u2019t the mother producing milk? I considered studying nursing, but ultimately decided to pursue medicine through Tel Aviv University\u2019s four-year program. I completed two years of supplementary biology courses, and when the opportunity arose to relocate, I told my husband: \u2018Let\u2019s go. I will study wherever we are and in whatever language.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
What language did you ultimately study in?
\n\u201cSpanish. I did not know the language, but I thought it would be fine. I quickly realized I was wrong. It was very, very difficult to study in a language I did not know. Spanish may be easy to learn if you want to go to the supermarket, but not if you need to study medical terminology.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did you manage?
\n\u201cI recorded the lessons on my phone and photographed the lecture slides. After class, I would sit at home for hours transcribing a language I did not know. There were days when I studied for 20 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
You went through an extreme transformation, from a mother who was with her children around the clock to a student studying for long hours, while the children entered school for the first time and in a foreign language.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps if I had thought about it in advance the way you are describing it now, I would not have started. But I trusted my children to cope, and I trusted the education system there. It was a private school, with 13 children in each class and two teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did the family function while you were immersed in your studies?
\n\u201cI was fortunate that the academic calendar in Argentina was not synchronized with the rest of the world. The children attended an American school that began in July, while I started university only in February. I had six months to be with them while they adjusted and began speaking both English and Spanish.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother thing that made life easier was the household help available there, as is common in what might be called a second-world country. It is unpleasant to say, but I did not wash a single glass during all our years there. I was freed from all household chores, and that gave me an enormous amount of time. It is impossible to understand how significant that was.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\u05d3"\u05e8](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/BkyTwdkBze_0_0_2458_1639_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"'Breastfeeding")
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