Forts: privacy vs supervision

[papercranegirl]

I'm wondering how many of your kids have forts and how much you supervise them while being used. I'm finding it hard to balance letting my preteen have an alone, private place for friends with fear of all the things kids are known to do at this age. They're good kids and I call out to check on their status every 20 minutes or so and occasionally drop in. Is this enough?

[SRHS]

A good way to "gain entrance" is to bring snacks and drinks out...Is the fort in your own backyard? I'd say that is a good place to let them try out a little privacy and independence...where you can still mostly keep your eye on them...vs waiting until they have keys to a car and can be really out of eye sight or ear shot...

I have a 9 year old (oops, almost 10 year old) and we struggle with this too....So they have a fort in our backyard....and i frequent it....

Sus

[PajamaMama]

My dd and her preteen friends have a 'fort' in the woods behind our house...she can hear me if I call (loud...yell) from the back door. I agree with the pp that it's a good way to let them try out a little independence,

I do not bring them snacks but I do go out there with dd once in awhile to help her 'decorate'...I bought some vinyl cushions from the dollar store for them to sit on out there, and I have also bought them some ribbon, a wind chime, etc. and dd has not had a problem letting me come out to help her find a place for these items.

If you don't want to do the snack thing then maybe find some little item to help them decorate their space, and offer to hang it up, like a wind chime or a wind sock, so you can get a peek at what's out there

[lilyka]

we have a policy about door open and everyone welcome to come in or out.regardless of how much I trust my dd I ust can't be sure about her friends.

[earthmama369]

Originally Posted by SRHS

A good way to "gain entrance" is to bring snacks and drinks out...

So THAT'S why my friend's grandma was always bringing us snacks and drinks!!! We always used to joke about how much food she would bring out over the course of an afternoon. That's awesome.

[aisraeltax]

i think its important for them to have some privacy. i dont like doors closed with mixed company but if they are all the same sex (in my case boys) then i dont enforce an open door policy. i would have felt that i didnt have anywhere to go to "escape" and just "chill" when i was a teen if my mom/dad had done that to me, kwim? im not knocking the policy, dont get me wrong..it would have just not worked for me (i would have probably freaked out) and i think my son(s) are the same way. even my 8 yo wants to close his door sometimes.

my 15 experimented with a fort in the woods last year but got upset when i didnt allow him to run electricity out there. so that idea was not so great after he realized there couldnt be TV, XBox, etc. out there. lol!

[mommy68]

Originally Posted by aisraeltax

my 15 experimented with a fort in the woods last year but got upset when i didnt allow him to run electricity out there. so that idea was not so great after he realized there couldnt be TV, XBox, etc. out there. lol!

my 10 yr old did this when camping out in his grandpa's back yard last year. they put a long cord out to a tv. and he had his video game but once it got real dark he still didn't like it much.

I agree with the others on taking lots of snacks out and checking out the window every now and then. If they are all the same sex then I seriously wouldn't worry at all. I never let kids come over that I don't already know from school or church anyway. We live in the country with no visible neighbors so it's not like a kid in the area will just pop over.