I’m reading Sink Reflections, the book by Marla Cilley (aka FlyLady). A friend loaned me her copy. There’s some interesting stuff in there, but for me, getting to it requires pushing past the anti-feminist slant and Christian stuff. I’m annoyed by crap like “your own little hands.” I don’t have little hands. I have relatively large hands (for a woman), and they’re damned strong. I cannot imagine a man getting much out of this, or someone whose primary SO is female. I’m supposed to clean up pee spots while giving thanks to The Lord that I have a man around? (Thankfully, Sam doesn’t miss—but the idea frosts my pumpkin.)
That kind of mindset in general, though, has been in most of the books I’ve read about homemaking. I cannot be the only woman who is bothered by this crap. I believe that my spiritual focus and energy do invest my efforts around the house with something more than mere dirt removal, but I see that very differently than FlyLady or Sandra Felton or Pam & Peggy (the SHE ladies) or any of the other authors I’ve read.
I’ve also encountered more and more people who simply have NO idea of how to even get started “keeping house.” I won’t go into why I think that’s the case here, but it seems to be a growing trend. Many of them would like to live in nicer environs, but they’re overwhelmed and underskilled. I wrote out explicit instructions on how to clean each part of our home for Sam and his kids several years ago—but I’ve shared those lists with quite a few people since then because they asked and needed them. Quite a few of those people are living in nontraditional families, and the lack of adequate role models seems to feed into their disarray.
So, um, I’m thinking about writing a book. I’m a little unclear in some ways right now because my ideas about making a home really go beyond housekeeping and into parenting and relationships and a lot of other things.
What do y’all think?
