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Kibbutz children go home to parents

THE last hardcore bastion of communal ideology in the Israeli kibbutz movement fell last week when members of Baram voted to let children sleep in their parents' homes.

Traditionally, youngsters growing up in a kibbutz, or communal settlement, slept in dormitory-like 'children's houses' from infancy.

The idea was to ensure an equal upbringing for everyone.

Children would visit their parents every afternoon for an hour and would be tucked in by them at night. At weekends parents would sit with their children in the dining room for the Sabbath meal, but their raising was essentially the responsibility of the commune.

About two decades ago, members of a few of Israel's 230 kibbutzim voted to do away with children's houses.

After a hesitant start, the 'reactionary' movement picked up speed.

In recent years, only a single kibbutz, Baram, held out. Its remote location on the Lebanon border might have accounted for it clinging to the old ways.

But pressure, particularly from young mothers, mounted during the past two years.

At last week's communal meeting, the issue was finally put to a vote.

'I want to see my child smile in the morning when he gets up,' said one young mother. 'I want to be at his bedside when he cries at night.' The surprisingly one-sided vote favouring the abandonment of children's houses, 134-27, indicated that even the most diehard kibbutz had reconciled itself to the change.

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