Re: questions about children at common meals?
From: Don Westlight (westlighohsu.edu)
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 10:06:02 -0700 (MST)
Sylvie ― your questions are great, and we've been thinking about a number of 
these, and at present we parents at Cascadia Commons tend to minimize hard 
rules in favor of the principles of participation and respectful behavior.  
Specific answers follow ;-)

-Don


>From: "S. Kashdan" <skashdan [at] scn.org>
>To: "Cohousing-L, Post To" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 20:00:49 -0800
>
...
>Questions regarding children at common meals:
>
>1.  What have communities done about mitigating children's noise during
>meals?

Encourage their participation and respectful behavior, and allow them to go to 
children's room(s) when they've finished their meals.


>
>2.  Are there expectations about children leaving and returning to the
>table?

No ― this varies from parent to parent and has not been a significant problem.  
Children who abandon their places don't necessarily get these places back, and 
often sit on laps or drag in chairs when/if they return to finish up.

>3.  What are your rules and expectations for children's behavior during
>meals?

Participation, respectful behavior, indoor voices,  ask adults to keep it down 
when the adults get to noisy.

>4.  Is there an adult in the kids' room during meals?

We all eat meals together.  After meals kids can go to kids spaces, and 
generally adults don't go along, but we do cycle through to check up and 
participate with them periodically and as needed.


>5.  Is there a special seating arrangement for children?

We've given up on the idea of letting all the kids sit at one table for now 
(customer service issues), but otherwise no formal rules.


>A question not related to children:
>
>When working people and/or parents are working on common meals, do you have
>any special techniques to help them get dinner on the table on time?  Do you
>have any time-saving techniques?

No special arrangements, though parents often make deals with other parents and 
older children regarding childcare.  People with significant time constraints 
generally cook on the weekends.


- Don Westlight
Cascadia Commons, Portland OR
www.cascadiacommons.com

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