Attendees will hear three prospectives of growing up in community. Jasper is a 17 year old who has lived in cohousing since he was 1; he believes community can meet you where you need it when growing up. Adam is a parent of two teen daughters and plays the non-nonsense ‘uncle’ to many of the community kids. Claudia is raising two younger kids (ages 5 & 8) who were lucky to have an in community Oma (German ‘grandma’).

What supports the connection that we value for our cohousing children? What discourages it? After an exploration of these questions, I will share some systems I’ve developed for optimizing the connections between kid to kid, kid to families and kid to neighbors.

Presentation Slides

What can Co-housers do to avoid the kids and adults being at odds, with an “us vs. them” sentiment? Learn how we have become more skilled at incorporating our children and young people into decision making, into community building, and generally managing our adult anxieties about the life and well-being of what we call “our children”, in order to improve the lives of all our members.

This session will feature a moderated panel of parents currently living in, or seeking, a cohousing community. Together, we will explore the strategies and roadblocks to attracting and retaining families with children. We hope to create an enlightening and authentic space for both forming communities and parents exploring the possibility of raising children in community.