Book Review " Cleaning House" by Kay Wills Wyma

Cleaning House by Kay Wills Wyma (Chapter 1 Excerpt)   The book "Cleaning House" by Kay Wills Wyma was not what I was expecting it to be.  That was not at all a bad thing, however.  I thought it would be a slightly different take on the same basic cleaning principles that are covered in the vast array of  books that are on the market.  Instead I found myself reading a book that is about a mom who has decided to rid her home of youth entitlement.


   Kay Wills Wyma is the mother of five children and one day she had an epiphany.  She realized that her own children were victims to our age of entitlement. In a conversation to her sister in law she said, " I think I'm raising little socialists, the serve-me kind that are numb to the benefits of ingenuity and hard work, the kind that don't just need to be taken care of-they expect it."  She noticed that by doing every thing for her children she wasn't being as helpful as she intended.  She, like a great many parents in today's world, was sending the message of "I'll do it for you because you can't".   Instead of ignoring the problem she decided to start a year long journey.  She made a list of twelve things that she wanted her children to know before leaving home. Over the course of a year she worked on one item from her list each month.  The book covers each stage of her "experiment" with all of its ups and downs.
  I enjoyed reading about how this mom decided to go against the grain of society and teach her children to truly work instead of doing it for them.  As a mother of three this is an issue that I confront daily.  It takes courage to be the mom that steps back and allows her children to learn a task, even if they don't do it as well or as quickly as you can do it yourself.  By the end of the year the author had taught her children many valuable life skills ranging from running errands, to cleaning, to serving others.  The book is full insights and encouragement.  It has enough humor to keep it light and fun to read.  I plan on re-reading this book and implementing many of the ideas in my own life.

I received a free copy of this book to review from WaterBrook Multnomah publishing.