Cohousing-L Mailing List: Children: Letting them work it out or micromanaging

[Shelly (shelldemeo]

Hi:

Here at Rocky Hill Cohousing, 24 of the 28 households have moved in.  Along 
with those houses came many active children.....heavy on the boy side and no 
playscape in sight as of yet.  Common house under construction..  

It seems that many issues have been popping up from incidents with children 
that vary from day to day.  One day, one child feels excluded....another day 
someone got hit with a lightsaber too hard, one...a snowball, etc.  

The ages of  the kids paying ranges from around 5 to 11 and the attitudes about 
how much supervision the children need outside vary from "let them work it out" 
to "somebody needs to be supervising at all times."

As one who has a ten-year-old boy who runs out to play and a one-year-old 
daughter who needs my attention inside the home, I really don't have the energy 
or desire to pack her into a backpack carrier in a snowsuit and stand outside 
on the path monitoring the children every moment.

How have other communities handled this?  The child care committee wants to 
have monthly parenting meetings where we discuss how each child is feeling and 
what issues have happened etc. While that sounds like a good idea, I guess, I 
feel a little exhausted just thinking about yet another meeting.  I thought 
this was going to SIMPLIFY my life!

Shelly DeMeo
Rocky Hill Cohousing
Northampton, MA  



Ne thing I am enjoying about cohousing is that there always seems to be 
somebody outside wanting to play and my boy runs out to join the action.