Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Child Custody Cases in Cohousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Aug 2, 2025, at 5:30 PM, Claire Richards <clairerichardsrn [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> I am a witness in a child custody case where one party is trying to take
> the children by arguing that cohousing is unsafe for children because we
> allow them to run around "unsupervised", even though parental practices in
> the community are not at all uniform.

There is no “official” statement on how children should be or not be supervised 
in cohousing. So there is no evidence to support this in any court.

There are accounts of children being able to be more free because more adults 
are watching and because the community is designed for children. No poisonous 
plants or berries, or thorns. Or roads with cars. Etc.

I’ve never seen any mention of a connection between the “free range” movement 
and cohousing.

There are many people in cohousing who have adopted children. Each one had to 
have approval from a human welfare department and was overseen by a caseworker. 
I’ve heard many ecstatic comments from case workers who were not only impressed 
with the child-friendly environment but also with the number of adults aside 
from the parents who were interacting with the children both in play and 
caretaking. You should be able to get supportive statements from caseworkers in 
many locations.

I think this is an easy one. There is too much in writing that would contradict 
“unsupervised.”

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Riderwood Village, Silver Spring MD

Formerly of Takoma Village, Washington DC