WWOOFING WITH CHILDREN

Many host farms welcome children by arrangement - please look at a host's listing legend to check.

The most important point to make is that - please - never WWOOF with children except by prior arrangement with the host.

Although you may be keen to WWOOF, your child may not like the idea of a strange place, new faces, different food, and not sleeping in their own bed. It would be sensible to start with a short visit.

WWOOFing is about helping the host, and if you are also looking after a child then the help you can give is limited. Children must be supervised at all times. You cannot just tell older children to ‘go off and play’. Farms can be dangerous places - they are not playgrounds. Younger children may not have the patience needed to allow you to hoe a long line of vegetables, nor should not be near you when you are chopping wood etc.

One solution is to join up with another single parent or WWOOF with a partner and take turns to supervise. In this case remember that the host will be feeding and accommodating several people in exchange for one person’s help, so a contribution to the cost of food might be needed. Many hosts have limited resources, which is why they ask for WWOOF help.

Some host farms are in remote places and those with children welcome the company of others. Being remote means that you need to carry everything your child might need since popping down to the local shop won't necessarily be possible.

At many farms there will be other WWOOFers - some will like children, others may not - and you may well be sharing accommodation and have to consider the fact that everyone, including yourself, needs a good night’s sleep after a hard day.

Occasionally you can exchange child-care with the hosts themselves as part of WWOOFing.

Please do not think in terms of giving the children a nice holiday on a farm. There are specialised farms which offer this soft of holiday. We receive many reports of excellent ‘WWOOFS’ with children but there have also been some disastrous ones. Those that ‘go wrong’ are usually due to poor arrangements prior to the visit - expecting behaviour from the child beyond their capabilities at that time - or expecting unreasonable facilitates from the host.

We welcome hearing about your experiences.