Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Kids and cohousing "families"

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

Anne asked about are there discussions about parenting and goals and 
philosophies of parenting.

This is very timely for me, as last weekend I mediated a community dispute 
over just this very issue (at another community) and it turned out the real 
problem, once we got under the surface, was that one couples style of 
parenting was very disapproved of by the other parents. Because of the 
defensiveness and unclear boundaries of the members, it was never discussed, 
so it just sort of festered.  The bad news of all this was, being I am not a 
very good mediator yet, the other parents more or less laid fault at this one 
couples door, they took it on the chin, and left the community with a great 
deal of emotional upheaval. Gakkk.

And of course, the next week, I got in the mail, a book that could have 
resolved much of the problem. Its called, Taking charge, a parent and Teacher 
guide to loving discipline  by JoAnne Nordling.  I will confess here and now 
that I have only scanned this book yet, but, the first few things I found were 
ideas that could have resolved some of the problems in the group I mediated.  
(There is a cosmic connection here, getting this book, out of the blue, from a 
group I did a workshop for two days after I blow a mediation about parenting 
issues. I was about to throw in the towel on mediation and now maybe I'll keep 
at it)

Anyway, this book is found in libraries and seems to have a good amount of 
wisdom in it. Check it out if such interest you.

Rob
Sharingwood
And yes David, its a requirement at Sharingwood to be higher evolved. I 
thought you knew :-)