Cedar CoHousing
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Us
    • Our Vision
    • Our Values
    • Steps to Joining Our Community
  • Why Cohousing?
    • What Our Community Could Look Like
  • Resources
    • Cohousing Resources
    • Professional Partners
    • Housing Density References
  • Blog
  • Contact US
    • Contact Page
    • Newsletter sign up
  • Events
    • 2023 Upcoming Events
    • Calendar

Cohousing Path to Happiness for Modern Parents

11/1/2021

 
by Ellen Thomas

​A recent New York Times article, Does Co-Housing Provide a Path to Happiness for Modern Parents?, really resonated with me as 
a pediatrician and Cedar Cohousing member, Generations of nuclear families in single-family housing, car-oriented neighborhoods, or in apartment complexes that don’t lend themselves to interactions between neighbors, have led us to a place where American parents feel isolated, overworked and under supported. The article argues, and I agree, that the solution may be “living together, separately,” among people who place a high value on community interactions. 

Judith Shulevitz looks deeply into the isolating impacts of the American model of single-family, detached housing. She calls it “the lonesome cowboy model of domestic architecture." And, she includes some fascinating discussion of the political and cultural forces that got us here. 
 
Shulevitz points out that the pandemic revealed some of the inherent problems with that model.  While some of the interactions she describes weren’t possible during the pandemic, for a lot of lonely parents, they still aren’t really possible. “Parenting was the leading answer to my question about why they’d chosen co-housing,” she writes, “Kids aren’t stuck in their  apartments; they can run downstairs. Neighbors’ kids or older members were almost always around to babysit, and for a while, there was a somewhat more formal day care arrangement. 

Adults benefit from the ad hoc interaction, too. Instead of planning dinner or drinks weeks in advance, on any Wednesday or Saturday, a sociable soul can find a neighbor to share a snack or a beer with.”  The adage, “It takes a village to raise a child,” remains wise and true and Cohousing is a  modern effort to find the balance between community support and maintaining reasonable privacy for the individual or family. Shulevitz concludes “If I had to single out one feature of cooperative living I find particularly attractive, it would be regular, spontaneous contact with people of all ages. I had my children later in life, and my parents weren’t healthy enough to spend as much time with their grandchildren as all of us wanted, and then, as happens, they died. I’m nostalgic for an intergenerational experience I never had.” I believe she describes the feeling of many parents, and we at Cedar Cohousing imagine a community that provides just that experience.

Having trouble with the above link?   Here's an alternate.

Comments are closed.

    Archive

    June 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    July 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    October 2016

    Categories

    All
    Energy
    Spokane
    Twin Cities Cohousing

    RSS Feed

Cedar Cohousing
Who we are

Our Vision
Our Values
Meet Us
Steps to Joining

What's cohousing?

Find out more

Cohousing Resources
Professional Partners


Contact Us
Come to a social event
Sign up for our Newsletter
Our Blog

See Cedar on
Facebook

Copyright © 2020 Cedar Cohousing LLC, Minneapolis, MN
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Us
    • Our Vision
    • Our Values
    • Steps to Joining Our Community
  • Why Cohousing?
    • What Our Community Could Look Like
  • Resources
    • Cohousing Resources
    • Professional Partners
    • Housing Density References
  • Blog
  • Contact US
    • Contact Page
    • Newsletter sign up
  • Events
    • 2023 Upcoming Events
    • Calendar