Too Much of a Good Thing: Communal Childcare and the Cofamily's Small-Group Adaptation to Large-Group Communalism's Bias

While the allure of communal childcare is one of the romantic ideals that draws people to communal society, the experience of centralized, large-group communal childcare often results in the decentralization of the childcare system, the privatization of the communal society as a whole, or the demise of the community itself. In contrast, small-group communal childcare is more successful when involving less than ten adults and children, named the “cofamily,” with such small groups within any larger intentional community called the “nested cofamily.”

Along with the problem of organizing time-based communal labor systems without wages, salaries, or labor exchanges, how to provide for children in communal groups refusing the nuclear family is a challenge. Knowing the history and dynamics of communal childcare may help new groups avoid reinventing the flawed wheel of the communal “children’s house.” While some communal societies have policies for keeping the children born to them, others assume their children will leave and so limit the number of children they will support, and instead rely upon recruiting young adults.    

From experience as a single-parent in Twin Oaks Community’s large-group, 1980s Child Program, and from collecting information about other large communal group’s childcare systems, the case is made that communalism has an inherent bias against large-group communal childcare systems.

Communal societies formerly using communal children’s houses include: Hutterite Colonies, kibbutzim, and the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. A Catholic Worker quote explains why members refuse communal childcare, while Catholic monasticism’s childlessness resulted in family-based communities forming around monasteries.

While the preference for the isolated nuclear family is presented as a primary reason why the dominant culture is based upon the private-property system, and communalism is a minor subculture, the types of “family” (i.e., single-parent, nuclear, extended, and blended) now includes the “cofamily” based upon affinities rather than blood or marriage.