The Busy Couple’s Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy by Kathy Peel
Publisher: Tyndale House
Price: Softcover $16.99

Kathy Peel is founder and CEO of Family Manager, a company that trains women in the art of family management. She has written 21 books, selling more than 2 million copies. Her latest works are The Busy Mom’s Guide to a Happy, Organized Home (winner of the 2009 Gold Mom’s Choice Award) and Desperate Households. She is AOL’s Kids & Family Coach, and she contributes to many publications, including FamilyFun, Parents, Woman’s World, Family Circle, and HomeLife. A popular speaker and media personality, Kathy’s Family Manager makeover stories have appeared on programs such as Oprah, The Early Show, The Today Show, and HGTV.

Mel’s Thoughts:

The Busy Couple’s Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy by Kathy Peel is a guidebook for couples to find Smart Solutions to Dozens of Household Dilemmas Couples Face Every Day.  Bill Peel has also shared tidbits of advice for the men in our lives.  I really thought that this book was going to be all about 50-50 relationships and how to make them work, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.  In fact, the author basically implies that 50-50 relationships just aren’t doable in the long run and can, in fact, lead to the demise of a marriage.  As the book runs through duties and tasks that married couples face, it touches on several subjects.  Here are the main topics you will encounter in this book.

• Introduction: Getting from Me to We
  
• The Business of Doing Family
• Managing Your Time and Schedule
• Managing Your Home and Property
• Managing Menus and Meals
• Managing Relationships with Family and Friends
• Managing Your Finances
• Managing Special Events
• Managing Yourself
• Family Team-Building Workshop

Throughout each chapter are boxes of info, inluding questions and answers that one might ask, worksheets that couples can use to work through difficult topics of conversation (ones that usually lead to arguing), planning worksheets, etc.  There are also quotes, cautions, and great facts in the sidebars on each page.

Personally, I love organizing; I love reading books about organizing and household management, especially books written by Christian authors.  So, for me, this book is very useful in my everyday life.  I especially appreciate the chapter on finances, as that is a subject that Dan and I are working on tackling, trying to be more organized and figure out better ways to stay on track of them, as well as get out of debt.  With worksheets and guides to help any couple work through their financial plans, as well as advice on giving and frugality, this chapter is a good read.

For the more experienced couple, this book might be a good read, but if they have things down pat and are already set in their ways and happy with the way things are, then this book might be less exciting.  I do recommend this book, however, for newlyweds especially, and for those who are trying to get a handle on things but just can’t quite figure things out yet.  Even if one thing that Kathy Peel has to say helps you, then it’s worth the read.  You can purchase this book from Tyndale for $16.99.

Melissa J’s Thoughts

The Busy Couple’s Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy delivers what it says it will: smart solutions to dozens of household dilemmas couples face every day. If something is an issue in your household and marriage, chances are, Kathy has addressed it in her book.

Chapters are more than just solid, plain text reading. Kathy has inserted marginal notes like “Good to Know”, “Smart Move”, “Caution”, and “From the Heart”. Also, her husband inserts a man’s thoughts into each chapter with “A Man’s Point of View” which will prove beneficial since my guess is, the majority of readers of this book will be women.

Each chapter is wrapped up with hands on assignments, from checklists to charts that list “his normal”, “her normal”, and then aid in creating a “new normal” blending the two together.

Drawbacks:

As a detailed, scheduled person, this book really didn’t teach me anything new. I’m already doing this stuff. To a personality like mine, this seems like common sense stuff. That said, I realize not everyone is a personality like mine, and on the flip side, there are many who will benefit from a book like this.

My husband also, is not a man who will sit down for all the assignment discussions and I realize many other men won’t want to either. It seems idealistic to buy the book and picture heart to heart conversations for all nine chapters of the book. In many marriages (mine) that just isn’t realistic.  Instead, many wives may find themselves reading it and then forming and adjusting their lifestyle, not via heart-to-heart talks and negotiations, but instead, in their own unique ways that their family will get.

Summed up? If you’re already living an organized life, both personally and family wise, this book won’t give you much else to add to that lifestyle. If your life and family are in total disarray and disorder, however,  then this book will be a great roadmap for pulling it all together.