Blog Posts

Another Reason Why Bozeman Cohousing Offers a Great Neighborhood to Raise Kids

Before the pandemic, one thing that most Americans did not have enough of was unstructured time. In the culture of “more is better,” we tend to over-schedule our children and ourselves. For children, there are so many amazing opportunities in Bozeman. Cross country ski lessons on weeknights and downhill lessons on the weekends. There are rock climbing classes, gymnastics, dance and swimming. There is pressure for music lessons and also for something “fun” like circus camp or pottery.

Of course our children love hanging out with their friends and the energetic teachers at these activities. The result, though, is that there aren’t many kids hanging out at the park after school. The sidewalks are mostly empty of bikes, scooters and tricycles. If you walk outside on a Saturday afternoon, most neighborhoods are quiet. Even parents who resist organized activities end up with a handful of classes for their children because where else are they going to find other children to play with?

Since the pandemic, many of us have more unstructured time than we know what to do with. The organized activities are cancelled. Kids are playing in their backyards and riding bikes. Sadly, many of them are doing it alone in order to maintain social distancing.

It need not always be this way, however. What if we don’t sign our kids up for so many activities? What if we send them outside to romp in the neighborhood like we did as children? As a kid, I knew where every other kid in my neighborhood lived. My siblings and I would do the rounds, ringing doorbells to find enough participants for capture the flag. Today, most of us aren’t comfortable with youngsters roaming even a few blocks from home. There are roads to cross and we don’t know many of our neighbors.

Post-pandemic, I look forward to a neighborhood where we regularly hear children playing, a neighborhood in which we know our neighbors’ kids, and the adults alike. 

Bozeman Cohousing is building an old-fashioned type of neighborhood where kids can roam, and with the added twist of a car-free interior so that parents can relax. In such a neighborhood, it won’t be long before kids are wanting to skip soccer practice so they can play soccer with their friends on the green. And instead of loading everyone up to drive to karate class and return to pick them up an hour later, parents can spend quality time with other adults in the neighborhood and playing with their kids.

Read more about Kids & Cohousing.

“To borrow a cup of sugar” reminds us of our parents’ or grandparents’ days.  If they needed a cup of sugar, an egg, or an onion, they would just pop over to a neighbor’s house and ask.  There are some neighborhoods where this still happens, but too often nowadays we run to the store and buy whatever we need, without stopping to think that it’s not really the cup of sugar that we need.  It is that spontaneous social interaction with our neighbors that really matters. 

Although we don’t live next to each other yet, members of Bozeman Cohousing have been loaning, gifting, and sharing all sorts of items.  Not only has this saved us each money and saved many things from the landfill, but it’s brought us closer together.  Here’s our modern version of the cup of sugar: sampling of what Bozeman Cohousing members have given or loaned to each other over the last year.

It may take a village to raise a child, but we forget that adults also need a village and strong social network. Americans aren’t the only ones who have lost sight of this, but we certainly have become one of the leading cultures dealing with what is now commonly known as the “loneliness epidemic.” More people live alone than ever, and more couples and families have become insular instead of regularly folding their lives in with neighbors, relatives and friends. We are busy, we live further from extended family than we did a generation ago, and we can drive directly into a garage with little interaction outside of work and home. 

For many couples today, their sole support system is each other.  Without brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and mothers and fathers living nearby, partners become everything to each other.  There is so much riding on this one relationship that any added stress can send it spiraling towards separation or divorce. When couples and families turn inwards those without a domestic partner feel more alone than ever.

Imagine not hesitating to borrow an egg from a neighbor. Or having regular and meaningful interactions, taking a quick walk, or even harvesting food together with the many people you call neighbors. One of the hallmarks of cohousing—whether in Europe or the States—is the village of strong relationships and support. Bozeman Cohousing is gearing up to be multigenerational with 20-somethings through retirees, and single people, couples and families. We’re looking forward to creating the old-fashioned style neighborhood and village that not only knows how to raise a child, but also gives adults what they need to thrive!

Have you heard we’re planning to have an atrium in our community building? What an amazing, warm, sunny space to enjoy during our long winters. Many members are excited about growing tropical plants: lemon and pomegranate trees anyone? These photos are from the Farm Bureau building in Bozeman. Can you find the kids hiding? Go for a visit to get a sense of the atrium idea. During the design workshop last weekend, we brainstormed some other creative and unconventional ideas many of which probably won’t make it in but are still fun to dream about. Some of our ideas included a slide from the 2nd floor down into the first floor, a rock climbing wall, a decorative fountain that doubles as a children’s water play area, a circular coat room, a roof-top deck, a craft nook with a sewing machine that slides out of the cabinet ready-to-go, secret hiding places, a stage in the dining room for music performances, a giant ball pit, and a sunny window seat for reading. What crazy ideas do you have?

Guest architect Bryan Bowen from Caddis Collaborative in Boulder, CO led us through a two-day workshop to design the shared amenities we would like in our community building. One of the most important activities in a community building is regular shared meals. Typically, how this works is that each adult in the neighborhood cooks a community meal with the help of two co-chefs once a month. This provides meals about 5 days a week, but not every family attends every meal. When it’s your turn to cook on the chef team, you choose what you’re cooking and put it on the calendar. Each family signs up for whichever meals they would like to attend; this allows them to skip meals that don’t meet their dietary requirements or those when they have other plans or just want to eat in their private home. The chefs purchase enough ingredients for the number of people that signed up and the cost of the ingredients is divided by the number of people signed up. This service can be an invaluable help to families with young children, single parents, single adults, seniors, or anyone who doesn’t want to cook their own meal every single night. Since you’re only paying for the ingredients and only paying for meals you sign up for, the cost is equivalent or even cheaper than what you would cook as ingredients can often be purchased in bulk. If a community only holds a shared meal a couple of times a year, everyone shows up, but when community meals are held frequently, there are fewer and different people attending each meal, this means the chefs are only cooking for around 20 people and the community meals are smaller more intimate affairs. When you only have to cook a big meal once a month, you can put a little extra effort in or try something special which makes for higher quality than the standard weeknight dinner. This weekend members had the pleasure of sharing multiple meals throughout the workshop.