Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Unsupervised Kids in the commonhouse

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 12/11/2002 12:02 PM, "Rob Sandelin" <floriferous [at] msn.com> wrote:

> For those of you on this list that have a working commonhouse, do you allow
> unsupervised kids in the commonhouse? Do you lock your commonhouse?

We don¹t allow unsupervised kids in the commonhouse for a variety of
reasons. 

1. There was concern initially that the commonhouse is too good a place for
someone to "hide out" and molest an unsuspecting child. I'm not sure people
still feel this way but it is an issue to be aware of.

2. Parents don't want their kids in the commonhouse where other adults
sometimes give them permission to do what the parents don¹t want them doing
-- watching television, eating candy (by the handfuls), drinking soda from
the refrigerator, playing computer games, etc.

3. Things were being blamed on kids that the kids didn't do.

Children do run ahead to the commonhouse when the parents will be there in a
minute.

We do lock our commonhouse. As an urban community it is rather necessary and
we have several members who have been victims of violent crimes who are not
comfortable in unlocked spaces when there are not a lot of people around.
Locking the commonhouse also  allows many of us to not lock our unit doors
(all the time) since they are protected by the locks on the commonhouse.

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


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