Cleaning House (Review)

 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Cleaning House: A Mom’s 12-month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement, by Kay Wills Wyma.  I even loved the title! I am surrounded by kids, including my own, that seem to think that adults exist merely to make their lives easier. The author, realizing that her own children were unable to clean a bathroom, do laundry, cook, or even keep their rooms clean, embarked on a year-long project to train her children in the skills they would need to grow into responsible adults who could both take care of themselves and would be appreciative and thoughtful of others.

Each month, the family added a new habit or skill to their routine. The first month was making beds and maintaining clean rooms; the second was meal preparation and kitchen clean-up. Further months included home maintenance, outside chores, and hospitality. Despite her children’s grumbling at the new expectations, she found that they learned new skills, developed pride in their abilities, and began to show more consideration for other as the months passed.

I found this book to be inspiring. Although my child does chores and is probably more competent than many her age, there are some tasks that she has never done and I love the idea of using a methodical method to ensure that she learns all the skills she needs before she leaves home. Additionally, while she is pretty good about doing what she’s asked, she fails in the area of self-initiative. I think she’d be perfectly happy to live in total chaos! I will definitely be drawing from some of the the ideas in Cleaning House in the next months!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Waterbrook-Multnomah  for review purposes. All opinions are my own.