Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re:New communities and children

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

At Sharingwood we started with elder adults. Early on, before we had even
begun to plan for our commomnouse, we invested $400 in a large, colorful
playset in the center of the community that was and continues to be a magnet
for our kids and visiting kids. Then visitors and potential members could
see kids playing, see how kid friendly we were, not just by our intentions,
which are often defined by invisible agreements or words, but by an actual
physical structural commitment. If your goal is to attract kids, you should
design a playset at the very least, and Ideally built it first.

If there is nothing to show that kids live there, people with kids will not
be as attracted. I have visited more than a few cohousing groups that have
very few kids. Its actually a conflict source in a couple of places, because
people with kids moved in wanting this great kid scene and it never
happened. These places also have no physical sign that kids are around. Nor
do they have any kids elements in their plans that I could see. No outside
play ground in particular.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood Cohousing
31 adults, 21 kids resident