Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cleaning children's room

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jun 9, 2013, at 6:01 PM, Susan Bennett <chezbenn [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> I am curious why the children's room would be singled out as needing a 
> special cleaning procedure.  Why is that not a chore to be distributed like 
> any other community task?  Are other community rooms only cleaned by users?  
> Is the parking lot swept only by those who drive card?  Seems an arbitrary 
> distinction that puts more burden on young families than on other community 
> members.  Is that what's desired? 

Because allowing children to play in the room without cleaning up is like 
allowing people to cook and serve meals in the kitchen without cleaning up. The 
CH would look a mess until someone wanted to cook a meal badly enough to clean 
up first. I doubt if the people who signed up to clean the CH signed up to do 
all those dishes.

We have a doll house with at least 2 dozen pieces of furniture plus people. A 
farm and a city with more. Individual boxes of blocks, Legos, cars, and some 
kind of Happy People (?). 

A bookshelf full of bins with plastic food, dishes, cooking pans, and utensils 
that go with the two kitchens. A box of dress up clothes and a shelf of hats 
and masks.

Two shoe-boxes of crayons. Another of markers. Chalk for the half wall of 
chalkboard. 6-8 push and riding toys. A laundry basket full of large stuffed 
animals and another of small stuffed animals.

Get the picture? 

It only takes 2 hours of unsupervised play by 3-6 year olds for all of that to 
end up on the floor. You can't even walk when that happens.

The CH cleaners will do the floor, toilet, windows, etc., the same way they do 
the rest of the CH, but they don't pick up toys or wash dishes.

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