Book Review: Ten things this mama taught her kids about having their own businesses

Ten Things This Mama Taught Her Kids About Having Their Own Businesses was a short, free e-book that I downloaded after reading a really good article by the author, Rhea Perry. Perry is a homeschool mom who writes for homeschool magazines. While this book had some really good ideas and principles, I also had some issues with it.

I’ll talk about the good things first.

I love some of the principles that she talks about. All the principles can be taught to children from the beginning. My favorite is to do your share of the work and to pick up after yourself. In other words, take responsibility for yourself.

Another principle she talked about was to plan ahead and set long term goals.

I love how Perry aptly describes this principle: “If the fish ain’t biting, sell your bait to the sushi bar.” It’s the same thing as “If life hands you lemons, make lemondade.” If things don’t go as you’d like, make it work for you anyway.

She also advises that we teach kids to get help, to build a team when they are starting a business. Don’t think you can figure it all out on your own. Surround yourself with smart, reliable people.

So there were lots of good things. But now I’m going to talk about the things that drove me nuts to read.

The first problem I ran across in the first chapter. I feel like she places moms up there with God. I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean to be quite so offensive, but it irked me to no end. Moms just aren’t perfect and they don’t know everything. And they’re not on the same level as God. And this is a mom saying this!

It also bothers me that she says, “Don’t give no free rides to nobody!” Sometimes we should to help those who can’t give us anything back. If nothing else, we just get one step closer to heaven.

And then her chapter on women. “They want a nice house where they can raise a bunch of great kids, watch Oprah in the afternoons, eat great food (hopefully that they don’t have to cook) and live a peaceful life.” Yes, women want security, but we’re not that lazy! I have no desire to sit around and watch TV and eat food I didn’t cook. I can live without a nice house. I’m not that shallow, and I don’t think most women are, either!

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have been taught that you don’t put marriage off for career or education. So I don’t agree with her view that you should wait to get married until you are financially secure. I believe you should trust God to take care of you instead of thinking you need to be in control of everything.

And finally, Perry writes like she’s from Hickville. It bothers me that she tries to sound uneducated.

I hope this review isn’t too harsh, because she had many good ideas that I hadn’t thought about. It is a wonderful idea to teach your children to be entrepreneurs and to take care of themselves.

Have you made it a point to teach your children to be entrepreneurs? How have you done that?