{"id":1868,"date":"2025-09-16T13:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:09:08","slug":"group-life-how-to-include-kids-without-centering-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/?p=1868","title":{"rendered":"Group Life: How to include kids without centering them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Because including kids shouldn’t mean losing everyone else.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last summer, a friend invited my husband, our two kids, and our nephew \u2014 ages 6, 8, and 9 at the time \u2014 to the opening of Upstate Art Weekend, a sprawling outdoor art festival. The air was buzzing: artists welcoming strangers into their studios, dancers warming up under trees, friends reuniting in pop\u2011up galleries. It was the kind of setting that usually screams \u201cno kids\u201d: unspoken adult rules, fragile pieces on pedestals, long conversations. And yet, there we were with three kids in tow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been told that Americans don\u2019t party anymore<\/a>. And in the rare cases we do, it\u2019s often siloed into micro-generations: parents with parents, singles with singles, kids with kids. Intergenerational gatherings feel increasingly rare and with good reason: parenting is more intensive<\/a>, childcare networks are thinner and privatized, families live farther apart, and, post-COVID, home can feel safer than venturing out. Then comes the practical side: Will the kids eat what\u2019s served? Will they vanish into screens? Will they be a royal pain in the butt? \ud83d\ude2c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve noticed that when the kids are present at our gatherings, we tend to oscillate between two extremes \u2014 designing the event entirely around them or ignoring them altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been holding a question live in our own family: Can you meaningfully involve kids without centering them at an intergenerational gathering?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[more<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because including kids shouldn’t mean losing everyone else. Last summer, a friend invited my husband, our two kids, and our nephew \u2014 ages 6, 8, and 9 at the time \u2014 to the opening of Upstate Art Weekend, a sprawling … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe6P8V-u8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arboretumcohousing.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}