Cleaning House - Book Review

Cleaning House by Kay Wills Wyma is a mom's 12 months experiment to rid her home of youth entitlement. Having five kids ages 14, 12, 10, 8, and 3, this mom had to get her household under control. To go from a house where the kids feel like mom should do everything from picking up their clothes off the floor, to making their beds...to turn into a house where the kids help out with housework, following chores and even getting to purchase and make meals. I loved Kay's ideas and experiences she put her kids through, helping them grow into confident and respectful youth. She put them on a year long campaign to introduce each child to some basic but very needed life skills.

This book really made me think about my life as a stay at home mom and growing my son to be a respectful young man. He is only five and at the moment, my only child, but I can see the "entitlement" he feels even as of now. In reading Cleaning House, I related to Kay quite a bit..finding myself picking my sons stuff off the floor..making his bed..basically doing the simplest things, that he should be doing himself. I really took it into perspective to focus on things my son is capable of, things I should be allowing him to do, to build his self confidence and knowledge.

As Kay wrote "When I step in, fix problems, and do those little household chores (or homework!), i send the message that they can't do it themselves. And if they can't do the small things, how will they ever attempt the big things? "

That stood out strong to me. I don't want to enable my son from doing the things I know he will be great at. I want him to feel confident that he can do whatever he puts his mind to. I want him to know how to make his own bed, put his clothes away, and help clean up. These are things he has learned to do over the years and I don't want to take that away, by me feeling like I can get it done faster or better. While reading Cleaning House, I realized a lot of things need to be done and put into our life patterns. I loved Kay's idea of having her kids help with dinner, so I decided I would take that and use it with my son. He loves to help cook so I decided I will let him have one day a week to make any dinner he wants (within reason) and I will take him to get the ingredients needed and let him do the work. I will only help where he needs it. I've learned a lot about myself and my role as a stay at home mom, while reading. I really loved this book and I recommend it to any mom out there!! Especially the mom's of many :)

Kay Wyma has a blog called MOAT you should check out :) You can also find her on Facebook and you can read the first chapter of her book Cleaning House, HERE!

*This review is made possible by the Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group via Blogging for Books,  

by providing me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.