Product Description

In recent years, social and economic pressures have combined to affect the traditional role of the homemaker. With much emphasis being placed on the world of "work" in contrast to "home life," many people struggle today to fulfill several functions at once. This increasingly busy and hectic climate has led many to look down on the work of the home. We are led to ask, Is there a valued place for the homemaker in modern life?

Taking a spiritual perspective inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner, Veronika van Duin shows that the task of homemaking is at the center of our social existence. She tells us that its role is nothing less than a "social art," and that homemaking needs to be formulated consciously if we are to develop happy and contented families and homes.

Without claiming that there is a blueprint for creating the perfect homemaker, the author offers principles and observations based on a study of the seven "life processes" and how they affect us. In this invaluable book, van Duin addresses the significance of rhythm, relationships, an artistic environment, caring, self-development, and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #171582 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Born in Scotland, Veronika van Duin trained as a nursery nurse. For many years, along with her family, she lived in a community with people with special needs and later took in teenage boarders. These experiences led her to her search for ways of creating a home that could contribute toward a more sound and healthy society. She currently lives with young children with special needs and leads seminars and workshops for homemakers. She is married and has three grown children.

Customer Reviews

Greatest guidebook for creating or recreating a family
Veronica Van Duin has done us all a huge favor by drawing on deep and timeless principles to forge a handbook to use in making family life work today. I am a single dad with grown children and have found out, they never really leave the nest (thank God) but they do come back home with some deeply challenging problems for "us" to confront. "Homemaking As A Social Art" helped me come to realize that "family" is not something you learn about, it is an ongoing growth process that you are going to be involved in all of your life and Veronika has distilled her own experiences and the wisdom of Rudolph Steiner down into a really usable book that makes you glow with the opportunity inherent in family living. Before "Homemaking As A Social Art" all I had to draw on was some Christian literature (Family Home Evenings) from the Mormons ( Great stuff) and Stephen Covey's book
The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful Families (A great book by the way)
This book is even better. Get it and you and your family will be happier and for the rest of your life you will be discover new ways to add meaning and deep enjoyment to your lives.

No Practical Advice or instruction...
I had high hopes for this book. I agree with the author that homemaking needs to be "undertaken as a honored and valued task" and that what previous generations of homemakers knew by instinct is no longer instinctual to homemakers today. She goes on to state that we (modern homemakers) have "the right to expect knowledge to become the basis of what we do..."

Unfortunately, she does not go on to offer up any practical advice. Instead she rambles on for pages on her observations and principles. In her chapter concerning the Artistic Environment she informs us that bringing art into the home makes it warmer and more personalized. Are we really so out of touch that we don't know that already? Or the chapter on rhythm, which tells you that you should have a rhythm that is not too routine. How do you establish that rhythm? Oh,,,just wait and it will come to you, like a newborn's breathing pattern.

Bottom line? Check out Amazon .uk where you can preview the 6 pages of the book. Pay attention to the section on spirituality near the end of the preview; that is what the majority of the book is like.

Not helpful
I didn't find this book helpful at all. The author talks of general prinicples and things like always having fresh flowers on the dinner table. Nice, but not everyone can afford to do this. Nowhere does she give any real information about how to implement her principles, which is my pet peeve about these kinds of books. That's nice that these things are generally outlined, but what next? There has to be a happy medium between of "high ideals outline" and "how-to", this book never gets close.