Thoughts for Thursday: Neighbors

We have been very fortunate to have had the best neighbors we could ask for living next door to us for the past two years, as well as other good friends living just a few more doors down since we both moved in 7 years ago.  We spend a lot of time together, have meals together, etc.  It is truly a blessing.  It is hard to imagine not living so close to them!
To me, the important part of a neighborhood is not the value of the houses, but the value of the people.  People that look out for each other.  People who have things in common.  Do you agree?

I think I lived in a pretty awesome neighborhood growing up.  There were a ton of kids in the neighborhood and  while we didn't all always get along, we spent a lot of time together playing games, sports, all sorts of stuff.  Having so many other kids around was really important to us, although I didn't really recognize the importance of it while I was a kid.  You experience a lot together when you see each other all the time.  One of my old neighbors is still one of my dearest friends (Bradie). 

I have heard horror stories about bad neighbors, and it makes me even more grateful for the good ones we have!

Are your neighbors important to you? Do you have a good relationship with them or do you dream of a big move?? (Either you or them!!)

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Other TFT posts today:

Michelle on change

Jessica on culture

Jenny on giving Hi-5 or the "pound"

Dana on scams

Helmet on thieves

Comments

[Mary]

Unfortunately, where I currently live, I don't know many of my neighbors. Partly because we are on a very busy street and partly because I always knew that it was only a temporarily home for us. However, we are moving in a few months to a neighborhood. I am excited about this and look forward to getting to know my neighbors. I hope that we will be able to make some good friends.

[heather]

We live in an awesome neighborhood, and I am so thankful for it!!
My younger years of growing up, we lived in a culdesac with a ton of other kids and we were outside playing all the time. Those are some of my best memories. Like you said Krist, one of those friends... who I met when I was four!!... I'm still in touch with today. Then we moved when I was 10 and there weren't kids playing outside all the time like we were used to... there were kids around, they just weren't out and about or very friendly families. My parents have now lived in that house for 23 years and still only know the neighbors directly on either side of them... and that's mostly by name only. They are not friends at all. I think that's sad. There is such a feeling of community when you know and trust your neighbors. It's priceless.
My first two apartments, we lived nextdoor to good friends and it was such a great experience... everything from having someone to run to if you needed to "borrow a cup of sugar" to having people who look out for you and your property, people you enjoy being around and sharing life with. It's priceless.
Our last home, in MI, we lived in a good neighborhood. Good as far as area, safety, really nice neighbors, safe for the kids, etc. We knew our neighbors and chatted every once in awhile... but everyone was very random; different ages, diffent interests. It was comforting to know who was all around us, but we didn't really "know" them.
Now since we've moved to MO, I don't know if we can ever leave this neighborhood. We've only lived here for not quite a year, and in the first summer we got to know the families of 10 houses surrounding us close enough to be able to ask them to do anything for us. There are kids everywhere, of all ages, outside playing all the time. You drive through and you see neighbors chatting at mailboxes almost every day. We invite each other over for barbecues, dinners, neighborhood parties... we help each other with kids, with yardwork, with mail/garbage stuff during vacations. It is such a COMMUNITY and it's amazing. We consider each one of these families our friends. It makes living here such a better experience. Knowing that we look out for each other, that we know each other and care about each other.
It's a good thing if you've got it!

[Michelle]

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my neighbors. We all have kids the same age and look out for each other. Example, last year when B ate a mushroom, I was able to throw her in the car and rush to Children's knowing that Annika was safe with someone I could trust. That's awesome. I could never imagine leaving this neighborhood. We have such a support system here and I want my kids to grow up here and make friends here.

Our neighbors in our old neighborhood however sucked. They were all 70 plus and mean. Did NOT like them!

[Michelle]

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my neighbors. We all have kids the same age and look out for each other. Example, last year when B ate a mushroom, I was able to throw her in the car and rush to Children's knowing that Annika was safe with someone I could trust. That's awesome. I could never imagine leaving this neighborhood. We have such a support system here and I want my kids to grow up here and make friends here.

Our neighbors in our old neighborhood however sucked. They were all 70 plus and mean. Did NOT like them!

[adrienne]

I LOVE My neighbors!!! Especially the one to the left of me lol. She comes over all the time and scrapbooks with me lol

[Dana]

I have the same childhood experiences as you... and the funny thing is I was just thinking about this yesterday. When I was growing up, there were always TONS of kids... on our block and on the nearby surrounding blocks. I really only talk to a couple of them now, and very rarely.
Fast forward to now... Jasmine also has many friends on our block... I'm glad that she has friends she can play with by my moms, because we don't know our neighbors by our apartment, I just recently saw a little girl who was trying to ride her bike this week. We have terrible neighbors at our apartment... everyone is unfriendly and our downstairs neighbors are ok one day and terrible the next. They have called the cops on us on several occasions... and for no reason. I'll leave that for one of my blog posts! :) but yes... Good Neighbors do mean a lot to me... especially for Jasmine.

[jenny]

aaaah, neighbors.

for the most part, we have great neighbors. i live two blocks from where i grew up so we are pretty much in the same 'hood. there are a lot of great people that are here and i am happy that they seem to value their neighborhood as much as we do. i'm happy to live in such a close community - everyone knows everyone and you look out for each other. i have one neighbor who is a crankster. other than that, things are great! :)

[Robyn]

Growing up I lived in great neighborhood. It was the epitome of small town America, but it was good. One of our family of neighbors are very nice, the father can be a bit overwhelming at times, he just talks way too much. Our other side are weird and our backyard ones just plain suck. It's kind of sad that we have lived here for almost 6 years, and we don't really know many others on our block.

i dream of my immediate neighbors (ONE FAMILY) moving. soon! HATE living next to them! but the rest are quite lovely. i have had really nothing but good neighbors otherwise. my last house i LOVED our neighbors, they were a true "community". i loved knowing that someone was truly "looking out for us".! good topic.

[leslie]

good neighbors are very important to us! living on a military base your home may be duplex style so you want someone on the other side of you that's respectful of the person on the other side of the walls. I've hadd good luck most of the time so far; only one that was so bad we were calling the base cops on them pretty frequently. neighbors are also important to us because on a military base they become your "family" and friends. you want to have people around you that you can laugh with, celebrate with, be sad with, and all that stuff. I hope that once we get our home here in Italy we'll have some good neighbors and friends.

[LeeAnn Howard]

I look forward to being in a subdivision where we can enjoy the company of our neighbors. We live in a slightly older neighborhood and not many kids around for us to get to know them and their families. I grew up in a neighborhood where we had sooo many neighbor kids and I loved that. I loved that my parents got together with the neighbor parents and we just had some really good times. I'm hoping we can sell our house soon, so we can get into that dream neighborhood and grow up with our neighbors.

[Kelly]

When I was a kid we had great neighbors. We all watched out for each other. In the summer we would get together for barbeques and in the winter we would get together for sledding. As an adult my neighbors suck. We live in a quiet,small town but the police are at my neighbors house at least 3 times a year for disorderly, domestic things. I avoid them at all costs. I can't wait for the day that we can move.

[Lisa's Chaos]

I have had nice neighbors in the past. Right now my neighbors are fine, I don't really know them. I miss our old neighbors, we would sit out by a firepit at least once a week visiting.

[Helmet]

: ( Im jealous! My neighbors suck!!!

[autumn dahlia]

I agree! I had pain-in-the-butt neighbors at my last house and I was miserable. Everything else about it was great, but I could never enjoy the outdoor space because they always seemed to be in my business (and not in a good way).