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Absolutely I do. One of the standard things cohousing involves is shared child care. Sometimes this means the cohousing has a formal day care attached. In other cases it's just a matter of you watch my kids, I'll watch yours. It's the way it was done through most societies since the dawn of the human race (although admittedly, in those cases your neighbors were often family). What's so odd about it?
Not this co-housing development in my area. (This is the only one I know of.) There's no child care center, and there's nothing in the website that I skimmed through about sharead child care.
I was in a babysitting co-op when my kids were very small. These were all people in my (gasp!) suburb. We kept track of hours traded back and forth, it wasn't some casual arrangement of "you watch mine, I'll watch yours". People tend to take advantage of those kind of situations, even some of your more "high minded" people. Go over to the parenting board where you will find lots of threads about people taking advantage of other people re: child care. Later on I traded with a few neighbors, and when I worked, I paid a neighbor. Very few people use unpaid child care providers, unless it's their own parents.
Not this co-housing development in my area. (This is the only one I know of.) There's no child care center, and there's nothing in the website that I skimmed through about sharead child care.
I was in a babysitting co-op when my kids were very small. These were all people in my (gasp!) suburb. We kept track of hours traded back and forth, it wasn't some casual arrangement of "you watch mine, I'll watch yours". People tend to take advantage of those kind of situations, even some of your more "high minded" people. Go over to the parenting board where you will find lots of threads about people taking advantage of other people re: child care. Later on I traded with a few neighbors, and when I worked, I paid a neighbor. Very few people use unpaid child care providers, unless it's their own parents.
Cohousing was developed in Denmark, and childcare is far more common in Europe than the U.S. Indeed, the first developed specifically after a Danish essay "children should have 100 parents" was written.
However, it may be that the childcare element has not translated as much, either due to cultural differences (childcare is available free of charge in most European countries anyway), or because the type of people interested in cohousing in the U.S. are less likely to be parents than the type who do so in Europe.
The co-housing project in my neighborhood includes childcare, it's definitely an important aspect for them because most of the adults are two-income families, but they share childcare duties--not on an ad-hoc basis but as a formal part of their living arrangement. The project is mostly new infill construction (row houses) in an older neighborhood close to downtown (gasp!) with a common backyard and community room, and a kitchen where community meals are regularly held. Another responsibility of the cohousing is taking turns being the person who cooks the meals.
Cohousing was developed in Denmark, and childcare is far more common in Europe than the U.S. Indeed, the first developed specifically after a Danish essay "children should have 100 parents" was written.
However, it may be that the childcare element has not translated as much, either due to cultural differences (childcare is available free of charge in most European countries anyway), or because the type of people interested in cohousing in the U.S. are less likely to be parents than the type who do so in Europe.
The co-housing project in my neighborhood includes childcare, it's definitely an important aspect for them because most of the adults are two-income families, but they share childcare duties--not on an ad-hoc basis but as a formal part of their living arrangement. The project is mostly new infill construction (row houses) in an older neighborhood close to downtown (gasp!) with a common backyard and community room, and a kitchen where community meals are regularly held. Another responsibility of the cohousing is taking turns being the person who cooks the meals.
Yes; if you have an hour or so (I'm not kidding, it's pretty long) to puruse that website I posted, you'll see that they have some of that same stuff. However, they only have one communal meal a week, on Sundays, and they charge for them. I'd rather come home from work some night to a home-cooked meal I didn't have to prepare. (DH does do some of the cooking.) Sundays we're both available and like to cook.
I would guess that not everyone who wants to live in co-housing also wants to do childcare. When my kids were little and I was working part-time, the last thing I wanted to do in my so-called spare time was watch someone eles' kids. I wanted to have some time with my own kids, and to do a few things I wanted to do. I can see what you describe working out, it just wouldn't be for me. Who watches these kids, BTW, if all the adults are working? Do they hire someone?
Fertility rate in Denmark is 1.8 children / woman, about 0.25 child lower than the US (2.05 children / woman). If you exclude recent immigrants from both countries likely they would closer. Plus, the US has wide regional differences in fertility rate, with some areas lower than average. Likely New England would be the same or slightly lower than Denmark's average.
The three highest countries in Europe (in order) are France, Sweden and Norway, with France right at 2. The three lowest are Italy, Germany and Spain, all about the same. Another source gives 1.34 for Germany.
Slovenia - 49%
Portugal - 45%
Romania - 45%
Slovakia - 43%
Ireland - 40%
Greece - 39%
Finland - 39%
Poland - 38%
Hungary - 35%
Latvia - 34%
Austria - 34%
Netherlands - 34%
Lithuania - 33%
Italy - 33%
Estonia - 31%
Cyprus - 31%
Bulgaria - 30%
Czech Republic - 26%
Spain - 24%
France - 24%
Sweden - 17%
Denmark - 15%
Germany - 12%
United Kingdom - 11%
Luxembourg - 8%
Malta - 8%
Belgium - 3%
The U.S. is 20% by this measure, FWIW
On one hand, by this measure, there's no way that the majority of Europe's population is in rural areas, since no single nation even approaches 50%. Even if it comes down to slightly different measures of "rural," it's silly to credit "the EU" as the rural land policies were for the large part developed differently (the UK, for example, purposefully depopulated its rural areas).
That said, Katiana shouldn't use her experience in Belgium to determine what's typical. Indeed, all but seven EU countries do have a higher percentage of the population living in rural areas than the United States.
I didn't say my experience determined what was typical. I explicitly said I like to talk about what I know. I noticed cisco never replied to my question about whether he'd ever been in Europe. I got a different figure for the Netherlands as well, and have read that the Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe.
The three highest countries in Europe (in order) are France, Sweden and Norway, with France right at 2. The three lowest are Italy, Germany and Spain, all about the same. Another source gives 1.34 for Germany.
ETA: I mean western Europe, but anyone can make their own comparison with this interactive link.
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