Customer Reviews

Children Who Do Too Little

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A striaghtforward clear book that discusses why kids should do chores and how it helps them, lays out why they don't, different techniques and practical ideas for helping them to, and is just a really good and useful book. A little religious, but staunch atheist as I am, nothing more than say Fly Lady.

Really really worth buying if you're trying to figure out why you feel guilty over making your kids do chores but angry when they don't.

This book is top notch. It is well written and hard to put down! I own a cleaning business and I train mom's to clean and teach their kids to clean. This is my most highly recommended resources as a starting point for parenting and teaching life skills.

I love the format and I love the fact that it has discussion questions for mom's who want to use this in a small group book study format.

I did like the book a lot as it made me rethink my responcibilites as a parent and wife. I will definitely keep it as a reference book as my children grow.

The problem this book addresses is enormous. When my own children were growing up, I was helpless to train them, as I had been raised by the Perfect Homemaker who did my chores for me. Thinking that marriage would automatically turn me into my mother, I spent decades in a surreal "Surely tomorrow it will magically happen!". Eventually I faced the truth of my own scorn towards the "mindlessness" of cleaning, and my own minute-to-minute laziness. Snobbery and sloth are both sins not easily overcome, and only in my 60s have I learned to de-clutter and to clean. I found I'd lived in a fairyland of "grace" which excused all my (and my children's) personal foibles. Sprinkle exposes the lie of that cheap grace, revealing it (in this one area) for the dangerous doctrine which it is.

However, I have a feeling the editors forced her into a chatty style which softens the impact of the message. (I really hate hearing about "Frank" and "Marion" and "one mother". Please.)

This book's excellent information could be put into an EB White (Elements of Style) format eliminating the extraneous stories and seminar suggestions. Well designed photographs could make the message as stylish and relevant as the HGTV makeovers. The Don Aslett style which utilizes humor and cartoons has perhaps been overused, but it did make best-sellers. Either way might make the subject more accessible to the general public.

The moral fiber and spiritual strength of a family or an individual can be right up there with Mother Teresa, but this particular problem looks like a beautiful white wedding dress with dirt, food, and snot all over it. We all need to wake up to our greed which leads to clutter, and our love for ease and luxury which fosters sloth, and lead our children to fight these sins.

This is an excellent book - but be careful . . .it will definitely step on your toes! (ouch!) As a parent who spent 8 yrs as a single mom - and now married for 12 yrs, I was really off balance with my children about household chores and responsiblities. My husband does a great job at supervising the kids with their chores (even though I was a little reluctant at first). Reading this book help me to put things into perspective of just how important household chores really are for children (of all ages). And the best thing is - ITS NEVER TOO LATE TO START! This book help me to see if you have a 2 yr old or a 32 yr old living at home . . . they should be doing chores!

This book is a must read for all parents! It tells you why your kids need to do chores and how it helps them be the well adjusted adults that we all want our kids to be. It really makes you see chores as more than work, but as necessary tool to raise your children into productive adults and good marriage partners. Your kids might not like what this book says now, but they will when they are grown. They will thank you for giving them life skills and relational skills. It also is so freeing to you as the parents to know that it is good for your kids to participate in chores and work together as a family. Buy it today and get extras-your friends will want a copy!