Community Childrearing
While running through a park the other day I came across a not alarming, but mildly depressing scene. The play structure was empty save for a 4 year old girl and her mother. The child was climbing up and down the poles and ladders and her mother hovered close to her watching her every move. What happened to the saying: “It takes a village to run a family?” While it is not necessary to ramble and complain about the way parents can be over protective of the children, or about the way that kids do not seem to play in large groups together while not in school, it does seem practical to propose a novel solution to the idea.
It would be an interesting experiment to build a community of homes organized with the intention of child rearing. Developers constantly throw up homes of such density that the inhabitants could walk around the entire block on the second floor using only open windows as a means of transport. A little rearrangement of these houses could open up stretches of land between houses that kids could play on. Communal areas could be planned in these areas so that kids have more than black asphalt to run on. In addition, a neighborhood agreement could be made to help facilitate communal child rearing. If kids could be given a safe area to play in they would need little parent supervision. Parents could foster a cultural norm in the area that in their free time children go outside to play with the neighborhood kids. If families with young children moved to these areas with the intention of collective child rearing higher quality playtime might develop to contrast with what I saw that day at the park.
