Cohousing-L Mailing List: Child safety

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

In the discussion of "personalities within communities" and whether or 
not one could count on cohousers to all be positive, sane, cooperative 
etc people, 
a woman checking out cohousing wrote
>I am a single 
>mother with a 6 year old boy so of course, I am more than cautious.

All parents should be reminded that children need to be prepared for the 
fact --wherever they live-- that most molestation comes, not from shady 
strangers, but from friends and family, babysitters, teachers, clergy, 
and others the child has some reason to expect to be able to trust.  
Every young child, in every environment, needs to be taught what 
behaviors are not ok, and how to cope with stopping stuff, and telling 
till someone believes them. There are a lot of good materials out that 
give parents tools for straight talk with kids from toddlers on up. My 
guess is that a community where people are making conscious choices about 
quality of life is apt to be as safe as any place, but inappropriate 
overtures to children can and do happen in every sort of environment. 

This is borderline off topic, so anyone who wants more info, please 
contact me off list. 
But as an early childhood educator, I had to respond. 


Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com

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