Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: site location/size and children (was Households to Adults Ratios)

[Berrins (Berrins]

Both Sharn and Racheli have good points..

The local school system makes a big difference, as well as other educational 
options.  The Northampton/Amherst area has a lot of private shools of varying 
persuasions nearby (including two no-additional-cost charter schools), so if 
you don't like the public schools, there are many options.  That ain't so not 
too far from here.

As Sharon said, families with kids, especially those moving in from out of 
the area, are truly tied to the school year calender and to extra-curricular 
activities.  But that didn't affect attracting families to Pathways, because 
those with kids were used to juggling schedules.  We held (and continue to 
hold) general meetings on weekends and committe meetings on different 
non-weekend days to try to accomodate different schedules.

Most families with children participated a lot in developing Pathways.  Only 
a few didn't do as much, and a few had on and off participation; pretty much 
like the non-children households.  Getting to meetings was (and is) just as 
much of a problem for the single professionals who are out-of-town a lot as 
it was for parents and single parents.  Having day care at every meeting and 
at appropriate gatherings makes meetings parent-friendly, especially for the 
single parents.  As Racheli said, you just need to be tolerant of kids coming 
in and out of the meeting.

Having a larger community may be more attractive, as smaller ones are less 
likely to have a number of kids the same age.  

All this helps only if families find out about you in the first place.  I 
don't know how to market to families.  You could try to get a local reporter 
interested in cohousing and press the family-friendly aspect.  Good luck!

Roger Berman
Pathways Cohousing
Northampton, MA
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