Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Age-restricted access to common house?

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

At RoseWind  Cohousing in  Port Townsend WA, parents, of the kids we have now, 
agreed that kids under 11 should have with them a supervising adult to be in 
the common house for more than a brief errand like bathroom or mail. The 
motivating factors were less about irresponsibility or mess than safety and 
liability. 

Safety-- Kids tend to show off among friends, even when they'd make better 
choices when alone. "Hey, look what we get to do!" The Common House has 
matches, knives, an AED, stoves, cleaning products, etc. Furniture has been 
upended and used as a trampoline. 

Liability -- especially in the case of non-resident kids here with their 
friends. We can't guarantee who might show up at the CH and bother kids (though 
it hasn't happened), nor that a kid might not get injured somehow, with no 
adult guidance or witness. 

Another rule is about sleepovers: if it's only RoseWind kids, over 10 yrs old, 
they can do this as long as a responsible parent is at home and reachable, and 
does a post-event check out of the space. If there is even one non-RoseWind 
kid, an adult resident sponsor must remain present throughout. 

Mind you, we don't have dozens of kids. Currently, kids here are 4-7-9- 11 and 
several young teens. With frequent playmates/grandchildren 3-6-9 yrs old. So 
the typical kid group that would be out and about playing, but not alone in the 
common house, might be 3 boys aged 7-9-9. This is working fine for us. (Though 
I found a teen helpfully cleaning up after her girlfriends' use of the 
kitchen-- sweeping the prep counter with the floor broom!)

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
www.rosewind.org