…”Hosts that allow children to stay”…
(send in 3rd Feb 2009)
I, and I’m sure other wwoofers with children, would really appreciate it if you had a search category/key word search that searched for wwoofing hosts that allow children to stay. This would really make things soooo much easier when searching for a suitable host. Kind regards. Keep up the good work. Leonie
I wonder if there are any other woof hosts out there who have allowed woofers with children and how that has gone has it worked well? I would like a bit of feed back from others as I might try it again sometime. I had one man (who was a carpenter so that was usefull) who came with two small children 3 and 6 year olds for 6 weeks but the children went into a montasouri childcare during the mornings which helped but it was next to impossible to get 4 to 5 hours work a day more like 2 to 3 hours 5 days a week and then in the evenings I was often the one cooking dinner for everyone and entertaining the one of the kids while the other needed attention of the dad. They were cute kids though.
We originally offered families to stay because we have 2 young sons. Our experience has been varied because each family dynamic is different. We would often struggle with getting work completed and there was extra pressure on me as I was looking after my own baby plus often visiting children too. The cruch came when a child visitor started biting our son, she was very frustrated because she couldn’t speak English. Our bottom line is now safety for all, physical and emotional. When we receive enquiries from families we ask that one adult supervises their kids and there is work is offered as an experience to the children rather than the priority to get the work finished, (feeding animals, collecting eggs, veg planting etc). The other adult would be expected to offer the usual 5 hours – in exchange we offer evening meal and accommodation only. Feedback so far has been positive, after initial enquiries we let wwoofers know the deal and we now host less families as a result but the ones who do come have offered positive feedback and it’s more relaxing and enjoyable for all.
Thats a really good idea Jules. Im open to hosting woofers with kids but wondered how it would work in real time so it was a win win.
We have had many wwoof families staying with us and they have all given us something special… but for our family, wwoofing is not just about the 5 hours of work they do… if the other family interacts with our three home-educated children, then that is very valuable to us too! What has worked for us is that we take families with slightly older children; from 6-7 years onwards. Our children are 4, 6 & 10 years old so we’re past the intenser young-kids phase.
We have only positive experiences with wwoof’ers (and we have had at least 30 different ones in the last three years) and I think a lot of it has to do that we are just ‘expecting’ it to work out. Families that couldn’t spend all the time working that they wanted, offered some money for extra food or would just buy groceries for some meals. I really enjoyed reading the suggestion from Jules about being flexible with hours and food for those with younger kids.
Our experience has been similar to Jules. We only accepted 2-parent families and one adult would take care of the wwoof children and do things like housework, a bit of cooking and assorted small jobs that the kids could take part in while the other adult did extra daily hours, eg 6, in exchange for the full wwoof deal. It was great for our kids when they were younger, but after hosting several families with destructive and antisocial kids, our own children grew somewhat reluctant and we haven’t had families for ages. I think it be really useful to have a directory of hosts happy to accept families.
I would really appreciate a directory of hosts that accept families. My husband and I have dreamed of Wwoofing for years (and of living in New Zealand, for that matter). We are both very capable, energetic workers but we do have a 5 year old daughter who obviously needs attention throughout the day. But she is a very happy, well rounded little girl that loves to help and make new friends, especially while traveling. We would love to get involved and easy access to helpful information is a good thing.
Ours was a great experience – Taiwanese family – two parents – 2 girls 6, 8. Previously a couple with one young child stayed one night – they found it all too hard having thought they’d try woofing
We have had twice wwoofers with children and we just loved the experience. Their parents are usually mature and hard working and it is a delight to see how serious the little “sub-wwoofers” are taking the whole thing. I would love to be on a list saying ‘we love having wwoofers with children’.
We currently have only our second family in four years. It is valuable for our girls, 6 and 9, to interact with others even though both times they are not English speakers. We can learn a lot from childrens socialising-they just get on and do it-play! Parents have been helpful and have offered food and work. And I would like to go wwoofing in NZ myself with the girls and would love a keyword search.
I am very sorry, but WWOOFer with children can not WWOOF legally in New Zealand. In order to be a legal WWOOFer you need a work permit which is in 99.9% of the cases a working holiday visa. Working Holiday Visas are not issued to people with children!
Cheers
Peter
come on peter, how many hosts really ever check if wwoofers have working visas, or care? i know there are other issues but…
I am open to families staying as I like the idea of kids to interact with my 8yr old.We haven’t had any take us up on our offer yet.Perhaps a way of highlighting the info would be helpul to visitors.The people who have been thru our place all get interaction from our boy, lots of laughing, heaps of conversation round the table at night and learning basic words in other languages.I have many children staying with my family over the years & my advice to people unsure is if you treat all kids with the same attention as you enjoyed as a child you can’t go wrong.They need clear boundries, constant application of those boundries, a feeling of belonging,even just for a week, praise for doing well and smiling faces to open up to!Kids are easy if you are open.If you get bugged by them, don’t host them. My sons, now in there 20s, are always sending travellors to our place. The comments in our visitors book all say how at home they felt here. We get lots of work done & have time for sharing in the evening. Thanks to all who make this great organisation possible. Sherab