Re: Benefits of Cohousing for single parents | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com) | |
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 08:14:01 -0700 (MST) |
On 1/06/2003 9:15 AM, "Maggie" <mdutton [at] shaw.ca> wrote: > Have there been any > problems with having single parents or having too many single parents? The problem may be better phrased as what is the ratio of adults to children that a community can handle comfortably. Is one to one comfortable? Two adults to one child? What? Children need constant care and attention. In some ways the attention gets trickier once they are no longer infants and are running around "on the loose" and then again when they are teens and pre-teens. Teens resent having a 'babysitter" but are not quite ready to be completely unsupervised. How can working parents handle this, much less one working parent? If everyone in the community works outside the community from 8 to 6, this is a lot of childcare to produce. If the ratio of income producing adults is not high enough to hire childcare, it is big problem. As has been previously noted on the list one of the conflicts in cohousing is differences of opinion about child raising -- meat, no meat -- freedom to play with other children unsupervised by an adult -- watching cartoons or not -- watching TV or not -- playing war games -- possessing toy guns -- eating sweets -- sitting at the table until a meal is finished or heading for the kids room. All these things create big conflicts in the community and shared childcare intensifies them. And as wonderful as the commonhouse is, it is also a big unsupervised place for children to think up all sorts of stuff that they would never be allowed to do at home. Today is an unexpected snow day for many parents, following one to two weeks of Christmas vacation during which childcare was hobbled together. Since his bus never arrived today, I have a nine-year old again. I love him but I do have a life that has been on hold for two weeks -- and two adult children of my own who need some attention from time to time. And two babies for whom I provide back up care. The issue of single to two or three or four parents isn't directly the problem. Two parents can be just as busy and preoccupied as one and in some cases more so since we have parents who are "single parents by choice" and devote more of their time to their children than two parents. Sharon -- Sharon Villines Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC http://www.takomavillage.org _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L
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Reply to post on single parents Terri Hupfer, January 5 2003
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Benefits of Cohousing for single parents Maggie, January 6 2003
- Re: Benefits of Cohousing for single parents Sharon Villines, January 6 2003
- Re: Benefits of Cohousing for single parents steve boylan, January 6 2003
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Benefits of Cohousing for single parents Maggie, January 6 2003
- Re: Reply to post on single parents Kay Argyle, January 6 2003
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Call for Support Kim Shute, January 13 2003
- Re: Call for Support S. Kashdan, January 13 2003
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