Esther is a mother of five in Côte-des-Neiges (Montreal). She agreed to share her testimony on the condition that only her initial be published — a choice we respect. Her story is part of our "Testimonies" series, which gives a voice to families who have adopted Shomerli.
All articles by Esther M. →Esther M., 38, mother of five in Côte-des-Neiges (Montreal), tells us about the night her family tipped over.
Before Shomerli, I would say we were a moderately vigilant family. Not negligent — but not structured either. We said "watch what you look at", we cut the wifi at 9 pm, we trusted.
Trust is not a strategy. I understood it one winter evening, when my 14-year-old son showed me, almost in tears, what an injected ad on a hockey site had made him see. He had not searched for anything. The content had come to him.
Esther M., testimony collected March 2026When my son told me "Mom, I didn't want to see that", I understood that the question was not trust. The question was infrastructure.
My husband and I took three weeks to decide. Three weeks of comparing, asking advice from Rav Hassine, talking with other mothers. The concern was not the filter — it was the children. Would they live it as a punishment? A suspicion?
Our rav told us one sentence that settled everything: "Your children will not live the filter as a suspicion if they see that you install it for yourselves too."
We did. The same evening. On every device in the house — ours included.
The first Friday night after installation, something strange happened.
Usually, Shabbat begins with a certain digital nervousness. My husband finishes one last work message. My eldest checks one last link. The little ones put down their tablets grumbling. It takes ten minutes — and those ten minutes are noisy.
That Friday, at 5:32 pm, everything turned off at the same time. Shomerli's Shabbat mode had switched every device. No notification, no last message. Silence.
My 14-year-old son — the one who had nearly cried three months earlier — looked at me and said: "Mom, this is different." He was right. Something had let go.
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When I meet a mother who hesitates, I tell her three things:
1. Don't underestimate the effect on Shabbat. The filter is not just protection against inappropriate content. It is also a frame that restores Shabbat's quality of break.
2. Install it on your own devices first. Children observe everything.
3. Don't present it as protection — present it as a halacha. My children have never asked why we put up a mezuzah. The filter, in our home, has the same self-evidence.
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We are now three months into installation. None of my children has asked to disable the filter. My 14-year-old son has even spoken to me about it twice — to say thank you. The first time he said: "I'm glad I don't have to be careful anymore." The second, more simply: "the house is quieter."
I don't know if Shomerli changed my family. But I know Shomerli allowed my family to be what it already wanted to be.
Esther agreed to share her testimony on the condition that only her initial be published.