hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced
informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

In terms of practical, save-the-day advice, this was more limited than I had hoped. In terms of its central premise of kindness vs moral obligation (and how that overlaps with family of origin messages) it’s gold and well worth reading.

"Laundry is morally neutral."


It took me a while to actually write this, and to get all my thoughts in line. I think the main concept of this book for me is really shame, maybe even the shame about the fact that I need a book like this to help me. But I'm glad I did, and there should be no shame in finding that improvement in a book. If a book about cleaning your home almost makes you cry, you might need that book.

This does not mean that suddenly my room is clean and everything is as "it should be", that's not the point. The point is at least trying to change the mindset, from a mindset of shame to one of functionality. I think the best way to summarize this book for myself, are some of the quotes I saved in sequence. "Laundry is morally neutral.", "Absolutely no one is going to be lying on their death bed with regrets about not cleaning their bathroom enough.", "Shame is a horrible long-term motivator.". Although it feels stupid to admit, this is something I needed to hear. Care tasks are never ending, and there is no perfect state of a home. So rather than feeling shame about that, look at it from a functional perspective. Doing a care task has no moral value, but it has a function, and you should focus on that.

Anyway, I'm not an American suburban mom with post-partum depression (yet), so not everything in this book resonated with me. But the parts that did really helped.
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at first i was like Hm Mehhhh excuses n all. then i am awe with how accurate it is, dealing with productivity. productivity bites me in the back i fear
informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced
informative fast-paced

Such a comforting read. Manages to advocate for a gentle, compassionate approach to care tasks without being overly emotional or sappy. I listened to the audio book but want to get a hard copy to mark up for reference.
informative fast-paced