Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Adult Supervision of Children in the Common House

[Dahako (Dahako]

Hi all -
 
At Eastern Village, the commonhouse is a major circulation hub, so the kids  
are in it all the time.  At this point, we don't keep any internal doors  
locked except the electrical room, the workshop (padlocked), and a cleaning  
closet, so some kids are generally around in the little kids room or in the 
game  
room (or the laundry, or the great hall, or the library, or the living  room).  
The older kids know they are not allowed on the exercise equipment  in the 
exercise room, and the younger kids are learning.  No kid under 12  is allowed 
on the green roof without an adult, even though the play lot is up  there.  
Kids over 10 can be in the kitchen unsupervised after they take a  knife/safety 
course (with me).
 
We worked up a bunch of kids rules (in consultation with the older kids)  
before we moved in, but never adopted them because we wanted some experience  
with living together before we committed to rules.  The kids are already  
pushing 
to rewrite the draft because we've found that some things matter more  than 
we thought (like unrelated kids alone in an apartment together  unsupervised) 
and some less (like kids using wheeled things in the  hallways).
 
Neatness in the game room and kids room are sometimes issues, but the  
parents and older kids are trying to work together to keep them in some  
semblance 
of order. Most days, things are good. Not a high standard, I  guess.  But a 
pretty happy one.
 
Jessie Handforth Kome
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, Maryland
"Where we've been having a series of themed potluck dinners on Monday  
nights.  This week is "California Cuisine".  Last week was "Martha's  Out", and 
next 
week is an all vegan meal in honor of the Great American  Meat-Out.  A few 
weeks ago, the theme was "orange"."