Cohousing-L Mailing List: Teen room

[MikeJoTodd (MikeJoTodd]

Here at Monterey Cohousing (Minneapolis) we do have a teen room. Since
our common space is all in the rehabilitated "Main Building" we have
lots of rooms to use for dedicated purposes. The teen room is connected
to the play room for younger kids through an extra door so the two rooms
can be used together for special events. Our teens have often used it
for sleep-overs. This works great, as our individual units are way too
small for even medium-sized parties, it keeps the noise in the lower
level of the common space and parents can stay sane by just popping in
on a frequent basis. Also it's next to the kitchen and dining room,
convenient for midnight snacks and pizza. The room is basically
unfurnished except for a very nice thick carpet and a couple of couches.
(TV's and video games get moved in for special occasions.)  The room
does get used for other purposes also, when the teens don't have it
reserved. But it is understood that it is their space to make decisions
about and to keep clean.
Another unique thing about Monterey Cohousing is that the common space
is accessible to everybody all the time, since it's in the same building
as the co-op units and connected by underground hallway to the condo
units. So the kids are all free to come and go, based only on the rules
established by their parents. There have been very few problems and
it's pretty easy to figure out the source of a problem when it happens.
Our kids were mostly under 10 when we all moved in, so those who are
teens now are very respectful of others in the community -- and used to
being treated respectfully as equal members of the community by the
adults, which I think makes a huge difference.
Joelyn Malone


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