Storytime Sunday (that also runs into Maybe Monday!!)

Cleaning House

A mom's 12-month experiment to rid her home of youth entitlement

Written by:

Kay Wills Wyma

Mommy in Ga says:    I was looking for a book that would be both interesting and helpful to me (you know the whole 2 birds one stone theory!!)  and i came across this book title.  I read a little about the author and thought, wow we are really going to connect....her 5 kids, my 4 kids.....her kids thinking mom should do everything, my kids thinking mom should do everything!!  Now that you know why i chose this particular book lets get to it!

I started reading the book and the first few pages i wasn't sure i was getting the connection i needed ( i am one of those you really gotta hook me if you want to keep me interested.....4 kids is a whole lot to tune out and read, so i have to choose my time wisely!!!)  But i kept reading, and i did connect.   She started a money jar her kids got to keep on the dresser and if they did not do the current chore they lost a dollar,so i love that aspect of it.  I also love that she introduced only 1 new task to her kids a a time, as to not overwhelm them with the change.

To me in pats of the book i had a really hard time staying in it, but she talks about her younger kids and her older kids as well, and i am a true procrastinator so i do not want ot think about my kids getting older, that may be where we got into trouble!!   I would recommend this book for people who have older children as well as young or, people who are prepared to follow the experiment the whole way through.....organization and planning ahead, the whole 9 yards!!

The author had so many great strategies and ideas and not only did she motivate her children to "clean house" but at the same time she also gave her children more self confidence in showing them the abilities they have within themselves........It is very motivating and makes you look around your own home and wonder why you haven't done this sooner and then like a smack in the forehead she points out she has tried (and so have all of us ) but then to make things easier on you and to have less whining and complaining she does it herself (and so do all of US!!)  She so clearly points it out and you so clearly see it at the same time.

I guess where we did not connect was when she was talking about jobs (although i will have to go back and read that chapter wen my kids hit the double digits in age!!)  and she talks about the expensive car her son thought he would drive at 16 and my kids aren't quite there yet.........But really the cleaning of the bedrooms and bathrooms, the kids pitching in in the kitchen and in the yard....all of that is really great stuff and i will be taking that stuff and putting it under my belt to use for my 4 young children and teaching them what capabilities they have and how proud they can be!!!

All in all i think that it is a well thought out book and that she has a lot of great stuff in there even though,  i personally didn't connect through the whole book I am very glad i stuck in there.........I have learned a lot of valuable lessons for me and my family and i think it will help "clean this house!!!"

Thank you sooo much for listening (reading!!) and i hope it was helpful to you!!

To read an excerpt of the book go here.
You can purchase the book by going here.

This book was provided to me byWaterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group as a review item, the book was free and ALL opinions about it are my own.