I've read a lot of books meant to help with overwhelm, stress, and the unrealistic expectations placed on just about everyone living in American culture. While other books focus more on helping the parent or adult (usually the mother or woman as those are who a lot of those books are written for) deal with their own overwhelm, this book is geared more toward the parent who is struggling to help their children with managing unrealistic expectations that come with growing up. Kay shares some about her own experiences, but mostly she tells stories about her kids' experiences and how she tried to help them see that their own worth is not measured by the metrics that society places on them. There is a Christian theme throughout the book, and given that the overwhelm she talks about is something primarily found in American culture, there is definitely a certain demographic who would relate to it. But it could also be a door to Christianity for someone not yet involved in the faith, but who is looking for what to find their identity in long term.

Life often overwhelms us but the real truth is that life’s stresses and strains aren’t the boss of our lives. Truth triumphs in the sordid situations and difficult circumstances of our lives with all its grace, hope, peace, and love. Kay Wills Wyma shares how to confront life’s overwhelming pressures, unfair expectations and devastating circumstances with the liberating truth that God has made us to be more than conquerors. Through her inspiring stories sprinkled lavishly with lighthearted humor, Kay helps us to find satisfying fulfillment and exuberant freedom in a life lived in the glorious light of eternity.

I love Kay Wills Wyma's books. Most of my books are read and sold, but I keep hers to reread. I thought Not the Boss of Us would be a great help in planning our new schoolyear, but it was a book about much deeper issues than us overwhelming our schedules. Kay has shared wisdom that will help me as I navigate our 9th grade son through high school. I will be more aware of what truly matters, such as acceptance over perfection and the importance of eternity.

Kay discusses in depth the loss of two people in their lives to death to early. We just lost a friend's husband at 44 and there are sections in the book that I plan to share with his widow at the right moment.

This is the best nonfiction book I have read this year, it came at the perfect time in my life.

We live in a world that is so full of busy that we get overwhelmed. What if we decided to fill our lives more with The Truth Of God’s Word instead of the lies of this world? How might our lives be different.
The author helps us see how we have put the wrong things in place and shares how changing some actions or reactions in our lives with not allow it to all be the boss of us. Time for some freedom from the “overwhelming” things in our lives.
Great read
I received an advanced copy of the ebook and this is my honest opinion.

I hadn't read anything by this author before but I enjoyed reading this book and will look for more by her. She shares stories of family and friends lives which often tell how "Overwhelm" with it's many different sides, can convince us to believe lies. To think there is no hope and things can not change. She points us back though to the "Truth"

I have several parts of the book highlighted to read again. One of my favorite parts of the book are the "Water Stations" that are at the end of each chapter. They help encourage a different perspective. If we let the Truth overwhelm us we'll learn that we don't have to be overwhelmed by that ways of the culture we live in. We often let ourselves be defined by what others believe and say about us instead of listening to our creator.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants direction in not letting "Overwhelmed" control them, because it is Not the Boss Of Us.

These are my thoughts on the book which I received an advance readers copy of.

Fantastic, encouraging, uplifting and inspiring. This book shows us how to take the feelings of being overwhelmed and use them for good. Relying on God instead of self will help us. Each of us experience times when life seems too much this or too much that. How we handle those times and feelings can help us or hurt us. Also, we are able to help others or unfortunately, hurt others when we are overwhelmed. Each page is full of amazing wisdom. I received this book from the author and publisher. This is my own personal honest opinion. No review was required.

The book started with the story of a 14-year-old who committed suicide. As I shared it with my son, his words were: “Why are you always reading these dark books?” (I had most recently read Therefore I Have Hope). It wasn’t though. Not the Boss of Us is a story that needed to be told. The sense of being overwhelmed has been around since sin came into the world and it will remain until Jesus returns. That’s why we need to learn to speak truth into our circumstances.

Too often people make permanent choices for a temporary problem. The enemy tells us that things will never get better and that we’re living our “new normal”. But he lies. And the only way to combat a lie is with the truth. For every overwhelm that is shared, Kay gives us a truth that will help us to fight Overwhelm on our own terms.

Through it all, she shares stories of conversations that she’s had with her family and friends. She shares her experiences and the very real way that Overwhelm visits her regularly. She shows us how she is able to fight Overwhelm with Truth. Sometimes Truth is shown to her by someone close to her - emphasizing the reason why we need to have faithful people walk alongside us.

Know God: Truth comes from God. Only when we know Him, truly know Him will we be able to access truth when we need it.

Know yourself: At some point, you need to learn what motivates you because overwhelm is so much more devastating for someone is floundering in their identity.
Run your race: Standing up to Overwhelm sometimes means doing things that are not popular. Your journey through life is unique and will not look exactly like anyone else’s. Own it. Live it. Run your race.

I was privileged to be a member of the Not the Boss of Us launch team and received a free copy from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.

I loved Not the Boss of Us. Kay’s examples were very relatable and perfectly explained her points. There were several parts that I loved and found myself wanting to be Kay’s best friend. Kay’s talks with her kids in the car were awesome. I love the message of getting rid of overwhelmed by taking the focus off ourselves and putting our focus on being others-centered. When she talked about her daughter finishing her runs by laying in the field and looking up into the sky to something so much bigger than her I could feel myself there with her and all of the overwhelm melting away. I highly recommend this book to everyone.