Welcome to Litsy!

There are aspects of this book I learned a lot from, but the main drawback for me was the emphasis on bitterness and anger. I think any woman who struggles with work/life balance and partner participation will get something out of it though. Just go into it with the right mindset and don‘t focus on what‘s unfair as much as how you can make your balance of chores work for your whole family moving forward.

Yes, the target audience is couples w/kids. But couples wo kids (like my partner and me) can gain a lot from this book because groceries still need to be bought, food still needs to be cooked, holiday gifts still need to be bought, etc. I love the conception/planning/execution (CPE) and minimum standard of care concepts because they can relieve me of the mental load for tasks my partner takes. Go to fairplaylife.com for the cards and more info.

I read this for a #bookclub and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! There‘s a lot about managing a family with kids and it‘s definitely geared to neurotypical and traditional husband/ wife families, but I still took lots of tips for my boyfriend and I to live together (as evidenced by some sticky tabs). It was a great conversation starter for he and I about how we manage our joint household. 4⭐️

In my view, it really is about bringing project management best practice into the household (regardless childless or not): Define “work” scope and criteria; Allocate work “fairly” based on skill sets and bandwidth; Be clear about the roles & responsibilities and keep each other accountable; And apply regular check & adjust for iterative improvements. Of course I think we need more conscious emotional management in household project than at work.😉

This book is making me realize both how much I do at home and how lucky I am to have a husband that pulls his weight.

I've been going though the back log of Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club. While I didn't seek Fair Play out with a need for solution in our own home, I found the concepts intriguing. I also have more empathy for marriages and partnerships that aren't evenly split. I am even more grateful for a equal helpmate in my husband, but still found enough useful tips and ideas throughout this book to make it a worthwhile read.

This book is NOT for everyone, it's for couples mostly with children, though childfree couples might look at it as well, and it's for people who are pretty systems oriented, which I am. I think my husband and I have a good division of labor but i actually liked how she suggests to codify it.

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To a great degree, Eve Rodsky's "Fair Play" is definitely geared towards married couples with children; however, couples that are made up of uncles and aunties (like my husband and I are ?) can still benefit from reflecting on the points presented.

It introduces an honest system that encourages parents to look at each partner's time as equally valuable, never leaving one to bear the weight (...)

Continued ⬇️

This #audiobook was read by the author with pleasant enough narration. My major problem with this book is the repetition.
The main concept here is that couples should share household and parenting duties (or "cards" as the author has designed a deck around this idea). Seems to narrowly define the idea of a couple and what normal life would look like. I'm all for men (in a hetero relationship) taking on more duties and I hope this helps families⬇️

Reading while my boys play in the indoor playground at Burger King. Not my idea of a fun vacation day from work, but I let them pick and here we are. At least I can read. 📖

Work lunch from earlier today with this #nonfiction #audiobook that I'm a little less than thrilled about. I've been waiting so long for the #librarybook to come in from #Libby that it seems that I should give it a go. Back on the calorie counting wagon after a weekend of pancakes and lasagna 😏 #readandeat 🥗 🍲

This is in between a pick and a so so for me. I am giving it a pick because If nothing else, it gave me food for thought. I don‘t think I would ever implement such a system in my house, but it did make me consider some reasons for common arguments, and different ways of handling things. But also lots problematic here, only geared toward m/f couples with children. No mention of single parents, or other non traditional families.

Sooo. I decided to read Fair Play by Eve Rodsky.. and then I started googling her, mostly cuz I am semi obsessed with people who are named Eve because it‘s my daughters name and it‘s not so common any more. And found this. It‘s kind of icky that this was a “Reese‘s book club” pick when hello sunshine is her husbands company.. No?

Got a skip the line copy on Libby 😄

Breaks down and categorizes home chores in hopes of a more meaningful life for both partners in a marriage.

This made me so angry. Gamify your relationship by treating your partner like a baby. And written for people with kids and just awful. If this is what American men are like I‘m glad I‘m in the UK. Urgh. Reese. What were you thinking?

There is nothing about my current life in which I‘m the intended audience here, but my self-imposed reading for the RW Bookclub made this an October requirement.
...It was interesting to read in retrospect, and recall times where I was convinced I was the single busiest woman in the world. ...I felt this advice paints family life as a drudgery to endure. I wish I could tell my young-mom self that those moments now are the best I ever had.

#ReeseWitherspoon Book Club October 2019 pick

I listened to about 50% of this self-help audiobook and just couldn‘t take it any more. Too much anger and talk of “unicorn space”! It‘s actually quite sad that modern relationships have become so petty — couples trying to one-up each other.

So far, not representative of my life and marriage, but quite interesting #hellosunshine

Reese's October pick!

Our publishers rep gave us a heads up that this is about to be a pick for Reese Witherspoon‘s book club. It is very narrowly geared toward hetero couples with children, in relationships in which one partner (typically the woman) is carrying a deeply unfair portion of the work required to manage household affairs and family obligations. It offers a practical card game tool for rebalancing a couples household chores.