Fair Play: Reese's Book Club
Books | Social Science / Sociology / Marriage & Family
5
(209)
Eve Rodsky
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK "A hands-on, real talk guide for navigating the hot-button issues that so many families struggle with."--Reese Witherspoon Tired, stressed, and in need of more help from your partner? Imagine running your household (and life!) in a new way...It started with the Sh*t I Do List. Tired of being the "shefault" parent responsible for all aspects of her busy household, Eve Rodsky counted up all the unpaid, invisible work she was doing for her family -- and then sent that list to her husband, asking for things to change. His response was... underwhelming. Rodsky realized that simply identifying the issue of unequal labor on the home front wasn't enough: She needed a solution to this universal problem. Her sanity, identity, career, and marriage depended on it. The result is Fair Play: a time- and anxiety-saving system that offers couples a completely new way to divvy up chores and responsibilities. Rodsky interviewed more than five hundred men and women from all walks of life to figure out what the invisible work in a family actually entails and how to get it all done efficiently. With four easy-to-follow rules, 100 household tasks, and a series of conversation starters for you and your partner, Fair Play helps you prioritize what's important to your family and who should take the lead on every chore from laundry to homework to dinner. "Winning" this game means rebalancing your home life, reigniting your relationship with your significant other, and reclaiming your Unicorn Space -- as in, the time to develop the skills and passions that keep you interested and interesting. Stop drowning in to-dos and lose some of that invisible workload that's pulling you down. Are you ready to try Fair Play? Let's deal you in.
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Author
Eve Rodsky
Pages
352
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2019-10-01
ISBN
0525541950 9780525541950
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"I will say this book is geared towards women with children and a partner. While I think it’s admirable to try to find a way to better communicate needs to a spouse, I found the tone and attitude to be somewhat unfair towards husbands at certain times. Communication is key, before and after children. "
Olivia Huie
"I wanted this book to be life-changing but it wasn’t written with me in mind. While it did have eye-opening and sentiment-affirming passages, the slightly male-bashing approach made it hard for me to totally buy in. It didn’t have much research or direction for the secondary audience; only insights for the so-called “she-fault” partner. I wish it was more two-sided, or even that the author had a companion book written for the opposite perspective that was a better motivation and more uplifting rather than telling us over and over how much we suck. Some of us already know we need to be doing more; this book isn’t really for you but can give you some tools to make a start. You’ll just have to find the motivation and encouragement somewhere else. "
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Mike Byers
"This book was both for me and completely not for me. While my first marriage was a lot like the marriages described in the book, my current marriage isn’t. I decided to read this book because it promised a more efficient way to manage a household. We are a household full of neurodivergent individuals (children included) so that sounded really appealing to me.<br/><br/>The only thing I found helpful about this book was the topic of “Unicorn Space”. Everything else came from a place that was so out of touch with my reality as a poor, queer, disowned, geographically isolated person. I pretty much stopped putting any stock in this book when she said not to rope your partner into the “execution phase” of a task and instead to ask an outside helper. My family disowned me for getting pregnant with my first. My in laws are states away. Getting a babysitter, house keeper, personal organizer, etc. costs money we do not have. My partner and I *have* to rely on each other. We don’t have the privilege at this time not to.<br/><br/>I also found the system confusing. She mentions that cards can be redealt even hour to hour. I still feel like I don’t understand how that’s supposed to happen and for the system to remain sustainable and not confusing.<br/><br/>I wish I liked this book more than I did and would have gotten more from it than I did."
Bran Brandt
"A bit wordy and redundant. Could’ve been much shorter. Also, didn’t love the gendered/hetero language. Lots of “his and her” and “husband and wife”. I understand the author was trying to discuss misogynistic practices that are common in these situations, but it would’ve been nice to have an equal amount of gender neutral language, mentioning of non-hetero couples, etc."
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Morgan Lasater
"Never read"
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Kay Humphreys
"If you’re married with kids, or you’re a couples counselor, this book should be required reading. It’s excellent, well-researched, with specific ideas for problem solving. It labels frustrations I’ve had for years that I wasn’t able to describe, both for me and in seeing other moms get trapped into serving their families 100% of their time. I read this as I started to plan to go back to grad school and I knew I’d have less time to do all the domestic things I do. We’re committing to it and I think it will help.<br/>The first part of the book will enrage you if you’re a woman—I would have loved to read this in a book club and discuss over cocktails. But solutions and insight follow (my husband initially said “Why are you reading that if it’s just making you mad?” And I replied, “This is stuff I was already mad about, I just feel seen.”)."
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Emily Schleiger
