I know I'm probably asking for trouble, here...but:

I'm an under 55 wannabe (and an empty-nester). I understand that TV is a +55 lifestyle community, but it would seem that there should be a "hardship exemption" for situations such as these? Forcing the residents to sell their home because their grandchildren were orphaned in a tragic twist of fate and had no other surviving family seems a little harsh...after all, this was neither a conscious choice (but something that no one could have possibly foreseen), nor a situation any of us would ever want to find ourselves facing. I agree that rules are rules, but as my elementary school language arts teacher always told us, "For every rule, there is an exception." (IMHO) :undecided:

I wonder what this couple decided to do...situations like this can happen where grandparents end up raising grandchildren...it happened in my own family. My paternal grandparents got custody of 3 of my cousins who were orphans, and my cousins lived with my grandparents for several years. Not a pleasant situation to think about, but people with kids should have a plan on who would raise their kids if something would happen to both parents at the same time. Now I will stop being Debbie Downer.

One way to look at it, thousands of buyers in The Villages paid the extra cost of living here just because of the Kids rule. It would be a slap in the face to every one of those folks if one exception was granted. To change any rule so controversial after the fact is a very very slippery slope. Keep it just like it is and enforce it. I would rather see my fees go toward compensating the loss of money for someone that had exceptional circumstances rather than bend a firm rule.

Furry ones are often sometimes very "human".

Now, I'm just curious. Would you or anyone else say that the large majority of folks who buy in TV only buy in for the lack of children allowed?

Or would you say, that it's just one of the nice things about being in any 55+ community for those who loved their own kids, their grandkids but prefer a quieter lifestyle.......or neighborhood in their mature years....which I can relate to.

How do TV residents truly feel about the visiting grandchildren of neighbors?
School vacations come around every few months it seems and I would think April would be a prime time to visit the old folks.......plus summer vacation.

But that would be when everyone returns to the north, correct?

I did read Leisureville awhile back........our adult kids seemed shocked by it as did the author who couldn't understand why his neighbor across the way, who by the way, had no children......was so happy to leave a neighborhood up north with children.

The author felt that children enriched the neighborhood and that the older population certainly enriched his child's life.

We can vouch for that as when we were raising our family, we had neighbors who were like additional grandparents to all of us. We would entertain them in our homes and they would have all of us over for dinner and parties.

We miss them all now that they are gone.

Would anyone care to answer this question? How many child lovers do exist in TV? Besides Gracie.

(versus say how many truly would prefer never to see a youngster on their street).......thanks in advance.

Well, that is interesting. So, it's all in the interpretation....not so much the enforcement. Thanks......

My wife and I were denied purchasing a condo in an over 55 community in MA a couple of years ago as we were under 53 at the time. I spoke with the grand poobah of the community (I forget his title), explaining we had no children living with us, how close we were to 55 and that we already owned a home in The Villages. Unlike TV, their community had no exceptions, you must have one person 55 or older.

In this economy, it was actually a good break for us ;)

Let me start off by saying that I love children. We live in a neighborhood in VA close to all the military bases. So every two to four years (usually four) we get a new group of children coming in. Hubby and I are known as the grandparents in the culdesac! (that's funny as we do not have any grandkids of our own...and really we are too young to be grandparents anyway!) The neighbors always include us in everything. And when the husbands are away the families know we are just a phone call away.

I love to see the grandkids at the squares dancing with their grandparents and I also like to see the pride and happiness they bring to granny and pops. Maybe someday (when we have grandkids) they will be dancing on the squares with us. I do not like to see the older kids driving golf carts...it seems most of them drive irresponsibly and quite frankly I do not see any reason why they are aloud to drive carts w/o supervision.

Hubby and I just love TV. We are moving to TV because we love the friendliness, the beauty, the recreation, the fun...the lifestyle! I love the fact that kids can come visit for thirty days at a time...what a great place to come for summer vacation! What a sad situation for a child to lose his/her parents and and their grandparents having to raise them. But if everybody's grandkids started moving in full time it would become like any other neighborhood. It would no longer be a 55+ community with the lifestlye we all moved here for!

That makes quite a bit of sense to me. I agree that people's grandchildren should not be moving in with them. It defeats the purpose of what a 55+ community was intended for.

You explained your love of children very well. Children brighten all of our lives.

Children can come to visit for 30 days at a time, meaning a stretch of 30 days or is it 30 days per year?

Ours have already said that yes they would come to visit, but I'd bet they'd be spending most of their time at Disney World, Sea World, MGM Studios, Harry Potter, etc. I also would not want children driving the golf carts.
Thanks for sharing.

That's true.

I guess I see your point, TVII. I'll put my soapbox away, now. :oops:

I've lived in a Sun City on the left side of the country for almost ten years. I can tell you that people who have children living with them for longer than the limited time (in our case a generous 180 days) will have to leave.

How will the HOA management find out about them? Surely at least one of their neighbors will report them. Perhaps several. After all, as has been pointed out, they did not move into the community to have children on their block.

Once reported, our Community Standards enforcement officer sends them a letter explaining the violation and the remedy. They are given a cutoff date, by which they have to leave (they can rent the house or sell it, either one, or even keep it vacant). They may also request a hearing, but it really does no good to have one. If they do not leave by the cutoff date fines will ensue, and if necessary eviction proceedings will occur. By this time they will generally have lived there with the child for at least 1-1/2 times the 180 days.

That's the way it works here, I've seen it done more than once, not just anecdotal information. As previously mentioned, everyone knows or should know the rules, they were given a copy of the CC&R's, which they had to sign off on, when they closed on the house. If they are renters they didn't, but it is then the responsibility of the owners, who would be fined and be responsible for getting the people removed.

No children rule was not a big player in our decision as we absolutely fell in love with The Villages and would have came here anyway. That said, I prefer the lack of children that are of the 12 thru 18 years of age is a plus. I love the small frys, but can get offended by the antics of teenagers. (NOT ALL)

Hi Senior Citizen,
It's 30 day a year.