My personal view is that if you want your children, or any children, to grow up with the view that making music (or baskets, or telling stories) are worthwhile and fun things to do, more fun then passively absorbing other people's products,they need to be around people of all ages who are doing these things, and enjoying themselves. It has been my observation, with my own son and many other families, that those kids running around seemly paying no attention are the ones who are making music and art as adults. The kids who stayed home with babysitters grew up to be fine people, I'm sure, but the folk world was that strange thing their parents did. The Getaway has a long history of having children around (ask Dan Schatz) but we have had a gap of a few years of few or no children coming. We would like to offer families the opportunity to come to the Getaway; as every parent knows, it has to be a different experience if you are responsible for kids ( and we do not offer formal babysitting.) But if we do have families coming, we can help them organize kid watching, or whatever works for them . The Getaway has always tried to be flexible to the needs of its participants. We are confident, based on experience, that parents know they must be responsible for their children not disturbing workshops. Hence Dan's legitimate concern about rain space for the little ones.
Carly Gewirz