Thinking About A Kibbutz

We are living in a new world. We are still living in a pandemic, and it is pretty unclear when it will indeed end. That would mean we could all go maskless, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon, at least in the urban areas that I hang my hat.

What we all dealt with over Covid is being separated from so many. The person that got hit the hardest is the mother. Juggling kids’ needs and desires are not easy. Unless you can afford a full-time person, it is so tricky before kids enter full-time school. Covid has shifted education, so some days kids are in school, and some days if there is a break-out, they have to stay home.

California just passed a law that a homeowner can build other housing on their property. It reminds me of the properties in Brooklyn and Queens where the family lives in the house, and there is a side entrance where other family members might live separately. Having a group makes life easier raising kids.

I’m seeing it first hand, watching someone raise her and her wife’s child, and both have jobs. The flexibility needed is vast, and most companies are not ok with that. Should we be rethinking how communities are built in urban and suburban areas? Do we need to think like a kibbutz?

Maybe in this new world, we will begin to think more about the concept of it takes a village to raise a child. When I was 13, my father wanted to buy land with other families. Responsibilities would be spread amongst all of us, from making dinner to babysitting. Of course, at 13, I thought hard about what that would be like. My father loved the radical idea, although never able to execute anything, but maybe he had something there.

We are moving into co-housing in CA because there isn’t enough housing. We will see what that looks like, and if it brings down the stress of parenthood, giving children access to other adults who care about their upbringing could be interesting. It could cut down costs as well. Perhaps help with mental health too. As always, only the future will tell.