Cohousing-L Mailing List: Teens and Chores in Community

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

RE: Scott Bantley's query:

 

I believe that you will get the greatest participation from teens on the same 
basis as from adults: make it voluntary to the extent of self selection of the 
tasks thet they are most interested in undertaking.  Seek to engage their 
participation as members of the community and they may surprise you with their 
creativity and initiative. 

 

I continue to think of cohousing as hopefully a grassroots originated, 
egalitarian community that lives and operates best by agreements, not by rules. 
 Rules are by definition, top down, authoritarian, imposed from above by the 
powerful on the powerless.  If that's how you want to treat your teens, don't 
be too surprised if they react as any other oppressed underclass.

 

Tom Lofft

Liberty Village, MD

 

Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:13:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Bentley <sleeper40 [at] sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [C-L]_ Teens and Chores in Community
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Message-ID: <917312.69691.qm [at] web81204.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
 
Hello Neighbors,
 
We here at La Querencia in Fresno have been living in cohousing for about 6 
months.? So far so good from my perspective!? We recently went from having one 
17 year-old and one 13 year-old (beside five younger children), to having three 
additional teenagers and three additional younger children, and potentially 
more of each soon to move in.?
 
Does anyone have experience with assigning regular chores to teens (beyond just 
cleaning the teen room, and perhaps recycling cans).? Each adult in our 
community has a regular chore (e.g., kitchen, bathrooms, walk-ways, etc.).? 
Anyone have experience with Teens having a regular chore as well?? Actually, 
the more important question,?should the community as a whole be able to make a 
decision that "requires" teens to complete chores on a regular basis?
 
I will play a large role in communicating with the teens however things turn 
out, so any shared experience will be valuable to me. I welcome a phone 
conversation if that is more convenient for anyone.? 
 
Thanks, 
Scott Bentley



Thanks for writing.

Tom



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