Re: youth inclusion in Community; meal payment; work
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 11:29:30 -0700 (PDT)

On Mar 17, 2007, at 2:17 PM, Ruth Hirsch wrote:


We have several youth/kid related questions on the table.
In my mind, the meta-question is: including kids in Community.
At a  Kids Committee meeting this morning,  a twelve year old asked
why we are discussing these questions now.  We moved in over nine
years ago!

Tell that child you didn't have any 12 year olds 9 years ago!

Kids meal payments.
Our way has been: Adults $3, Kids: $1.50.   So, we have had parents
pay $1.50 for kids of all ages.  Honest.  What do you do?  Would
appreciate knowing.

I would suggest age ranges for "kids" but have them overlapping. We have some 10 year olds who eat a ton of food and others who eat very little, at least in the CH. So I would say 10-12 is the overlap. I think we leave it up to parents whether they pay or not. Our biggest meal is one in which no money is exchanged -- the cook teams rotate and only one or two has kids on it.

Next:  Kids and contribution to Community.  Do your kids have
responsibilities to Community?
What job/s?
At what age/s?
Do kids come to regular meetings?

None of our kids attend meetings except for one two year old who sometimes likes to sit in for the first half hour or so. She is an orderly child and I think she likes to see everyone sitting around tables being orderly. That's all I can figure out about it. She sits on my lap.

It's up to the parents whether kids participate in work or not. Usually they participate with their parents but some parents have encouraged relationships with other adults so they participate with them. A single mother of a 10 year old encourages him to tag along with a single male with no children who is usually doing interesting maintenance jobs. But it is very parent dependent. We have had little success with whole community involvement in the kids arena, partly, in my view, because all the parents have such different ideas about expectations of kids. This makes it rather difficult to either volunteer or include.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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