Book Review: The Busy Couple’s Guide
America’s Family Manager guru, Kathy Peel, has just published a brand new book titled “The Busy Couple’s Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy.”
If you saw the Rachael Ray Segment with my husband and I, you saw that I do most of the home chores. So I decided to review this book for Tyndale Publishing because it’d give me a better understanding of what women go through who are sharing chores with their husbands.
The Bible clearly states that it is the woman’s role to be the manager of her home. Titus 2 says women are to be “busy at home.” I Timothy 5:14 says “So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.” And the Proverbs 31 woman is clearly the picture of a woman who has accepted her assignment to manage her home with joy!
So as I opened this book, I wasn’t sure if I would agree with the premise. I gladly accept help from my husband, but never expect or demand it. I thought wow – it takes 220 pages to figure out who’s managing the chores? If I wrote a book with this title, it’d be one page – the wife does it! I know that some of my thinking is faulty when applied to a working woman though. I think that it is necessary for the husband to help a working mom and to my great pleasure this book had excellent information that was less about who does what and more about communication in marriage.
Peel gives excellent insight on the many many tasks that must be accomplished in order for a family to run smoothly including: deciding priorities, time management, housekeeping, managing clutter, meals, finances, family relationships, intimacy (this lady scheduled intimate moments into her week! I like a scheduled gal!) celebrations and holidays.
Peel’s main goal of the book is to see marriages communicating openly about each task rather than arguing. Though nearly everything on the list is in my domain and not “shared”, I realized that my husband and I have talked about every single item in the book and have decided our priorities in each area together. We work together to have a smooth running household. And it confirmed to me that our communication is strong even if we are not “sharing” all the duties. I found this book encouraging and filled with rich tidbits that I can apply as the manager of my household. So in the end, I give it a thumbs up! If you are struggling with communication over household tasks, I think this book is a beneficial read!
Walk with the King!
*Thank you Tyndale Publishing for providing this complimentary book for me to review!
I am a stay at home mom and I want with all of my power to be the best wife and mom possible, but things sometimes get away from me and I'm very hard on myself. My husband is the best! He tells me to do the best I can do!(He knows how busy our almost two year old is!) He does help me. He wants to help. So i agree that communication and love is the key! Not everyone has the same circumstances and things aren't the same for everyone. Thanks for the post. I might get that book!!!
One thing my husband tells me is that he loves to help with the dishes, because he knows it makes the cooking load lighter. He says that if the cook is encouraged, that makes for the greatest meals around the table. 🙂 Love that philosophy!
I'd like to see the book too just to read the different things mentioned. Even though the home/children are my primary responsibility and his is working outside the home, we both pitch in when needed. My friend summed it up on facebook last week awesome–it's not 50/50 in their household…it's 100/100!!
This sounds like an interesting read.
Communication is the key. It is the lifeblood of any relationship. When wives show their husbands the respect they deserve and husbands show their wives the love they need – things just seem to fall into place much better.
No matter how long a couple has been married they must keep talking.
Thank you for reviewing this book.
Communication is key in so many areas of marriage. 2 days ago I learned that my husband was irritated when I let trash pile up until he would come home. I had always thought trash was just "his job". To him, he couldn't understand why in the world I didn't just take it out to the garage cans.
Now that I know his feelings on it, I won't be leaving things for him to throw away. We both also know to communicate with each other better in the future regarding our expectations with housework.
Thanks for sharing your review of the book!