I love my neighbors. I have two neighbors at the opening of my circle who are home all the time and are very aware. One of them is like a young grandmother and the other is another mother. They always seem to notice what is going on around the neighborhood. When we first moved in, one of them called up to say that Nathan was crying at the front door. He was still too little to get the door open and had been shut outside! They know when my kids are at the boundary-line of their freedom (the end of the circle) and become extra watchful.
Another thing that's great about my neighborhood is that we live in a relatively small town of mostly obedient people. That means that the cops are usually available. My neighbor heard a noise at her back door one night when her husband wasn't home. She called the cops and they were there almost immediately. Of course, that also means that they are available when someone calls to complain that there are some children playing unattended in the street. Yes, those were my kids - breaching the boundary-line. To be fair to the kids, they had just been home a few minutes before that and they usually have friends there that they play with. It was just bad timing all around. And no, I wasn't watching them. I was peeling potatoes for dinner, which I'm sure was very obvious to the cop as I was holding a potato and peeler when I went out to talk to him!
And we have a dog. He's very noisy (to keep up with the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood) and lets us know if anyone approaches. When we go out of town, he stays and another good neighbor comes over frequently to take care of him.
We live in a good place!
Hey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by! Doesn't your neighborhood make all the difference? We just moved into a new neighborhood a couple of years ago and many are like us with young children. Since I had the baby and my husband has been sick, we've had such an outpouring of gifts, dinners and even a lawn mowing!