Won’t You be My Neighbor?

A couple of days ago, Chris and I happened to be looking out the window with Mia when some of our neighbors from across the street came home. Chris turned to me and said, “They sure do keep to themselves.” I burst out laughing, and he was confused. Until recently, we hardly knew any of our neighbors, and didn’t know any of them well. Then, Mia came along and I started touring the neighborhood with her strapped into her stroller or her Ergo and I met a few people. And then in the past few weeks, Mia has become infatuated with being outside and “playing” with the neighborhood kids. Now I know lots of our neighbors, or at least I know their kids and they know Mia.

When I called Chris out on his fairly ridiculous statement, he said, “Yeah, but they have kids. It’s hard to keep to yourself when you have kids.” He’s right about that. Mia walks right up to everyone she sees and introduces herself, so I have to follow suit. And it has been nice getting to know some of the people around here. Last night, though, took the cake. The doorbell rang at about 8:00, and when I peeked through the peephole there was nobody there. I opened the door to find this:

It’s a gift bag of candy and Halloween stuff and a little toy for Mia from “The Phantom” with instructions to do the same thing for two of our neighbors tomorrow. I am pretty sure I know whom it came from (family across the street, two girls, two cats, slammed the blinds shut when I opened the door), and I barely know them, but Mia has made quite an impression over there lately. When I showed it to Chris, he said, “The neighbors like us! It’s like we’ve arrived.”

Having a kid closes a lot of doors, I will probably never take a year off to travel the world or quit my job and move to New York to try to be an actress; but it opens a lot of doors too, like actually meeting my neighbors.

Comments

[Beth's Mom]

This is kind of a corny thing to do, but some of the young teachers at the various schools I have worked in love to do this phantom Halloween and Valentine's Day thing! I received a bag once, and felt quite honored.

When I was a little girl we ran around the neighborhood delivering May baskets on May Day (May 1), ringing the doorbells and running away. It was such fun planning the baskets and "surprising" everyone!

And yes, having kids gets you out there socially. Wait till Mia starts school or sports!

[Swistle]

You are so right! I am the shy, introverted type, but having a child gives an instant source for conversation, and an easy way to make introductions.

[Lisa]

And thank goodness the white trash neighbors left! Of course you could have left them a bag with some stogies and a six pack of Schlitz.

[Maribeth]

What a neat thing!
It's true what you say about meeting people because of kids. Well, (oh no, here she goes) Kids and dogs. I've met a lot of the neighborhood kids because of the dogs. I'm glad because my kid is a little old to be out meeting the neighbors. Unless, of course, they are single men around age 30!

[Meg]

It's so much easier to talk to people who have kids. Breaks the ice beautifully. The idea of joining the "dating" scene to meet mom-friends seems a little crazy, but that's what it feels like to me.

[ali]

that's too funny. it's totally true. we know a whole bunch of our neighbors because of the kids. and the nannies...my nanny makes friends with the neighborhood nannies and my kids have so many friends now! ha!

[Pamalamadingdong]

HEY!
I want neighbours like that.
All I get is conspiracy theories from mine.
boo

[Kelly]

Darn...I forgot that was coming, and I was just beginning to enjoy the season! Do I sound bitter? I guess 7 years & 7 kazillion trips over to Wally World to purchase stuff for stuff like this, and I'm not so honored anymore!;)

[Dee]

That is great! For a minute there I thought that was a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" basket. LOL!

[nichole]

That's so nice! We moved recently, and I've been trying to meet some new people. I even went to a playgroup. But I am SO BAD at this meeting-new-people thing. I can't get past "How old is your baby? My baby is 14 months old. Thank you for speaking to me. Goodbye."

[ann adams]

I think it's great. All this worry about playgroups and you seem to have formed your own.

I must be getting old. I liked the "welcome to the neighborhood" baskets and the neighbors bringing food the first day or two. I've done the same thing.

[sweethomealagirl]

I actually met one of my best friends when our 2 year olds found each other while they were out walking! Well, that makes no sense; their family was out walking, and me & my guy were in our yard...we didn't let our 2 year olds walk the neighborhood together. ;)

It's fun to know you've arrived :)

[Chatty cricket]

It's so true! Now that Lady falls in love with every person we see on the street, we're meeting tons of people in the neighborhood. The best? She stands at our front door and yells "HI!" through the screen to everyone who walks by. We'll randomly be walking around the neighborhood and someone will recognize her as the very social girl who likes to yell Hi at the people walking by.

Although we also have some mystery neighbors, who also live across the street, and who have two kids. It wasn't until we had lived in our house for a year that the wife said hi, and after that brief turn of friendliness, she hasn't spoken to us since! Odd...

[candace]

We love that Halloween thing but we call it "ghosting." The biggest thing for my kids is to be the family to start it, even though it's all anonymous.

[Michelle]

What a great idea! I wish we had neighbors that we could do the phantom Halloween with. All of our neighbors are older with grown children but we do have our house on the market so we can move to a younger neighborhood (a few other reasons too) and I will definitely keep this idea in the back of my mind. I think it is great that you are getting to know your neighbors I’m even a little envious!

[Linda S.]

That's sweet, we barely know any of our neighbors despite all the stroller-moseying we've done. Although does this mean you have to come up with your own gift bag creations by tonight? I would have Technical Difficulties with that, I think.

[Tasha]

That is such a cute idea. How cute, that your neighbors did such a thing. I think I might steal the idea and start it in out neighboorhood!

[Jen]

I LOVE that idea! Our neighborhood could use something like this!

[Annie]

We did these fun bags in our neighborhood we lived in last year. I'm not sure about them in teh new neighborhood. Not many kids on the block.

[Kate the Shrew]

That's a nice idea; I wish our neighborhood was more like that.

[samantha Jo Campen]

That is so cool! What a great idea--congrats for being a part of the 'in' crowd! :-)

[Tara]

Hmmm. Having a kid has made us closer to some of our neighbors, but we were already friends with them and we all sort of had kids at the same time.

We live in a pretty rural area, so we only have one close neighbor (i.e. we can see their house), and we wish they would move away. I sure wouldn't take them a Halloween treat. I am not even sure they celebrate Halloween, actually.

*sigh* I almost wish I lived in your neighborhood with the fun neighbors, except that I'm a country girl at heart and I love my land & privacy. (except for the aforementioned neighbors, of course)

[trina]

How fun! We just moved 2 months ago, and have only met one neighbor. Can you share what was in the letter so the rest of us can be social and meet the neighbors???

[Melissa]

The Phantom....that is such a cute idea. We know some of our neighbors, because we ahve kids. But there aren't a lot of kids in our neighborhood, mostly older adults.

[LISA L.]

THIS SOUNDS LIKE SO MUCH FUN AND SOMETHING THE KIDS WOULD JUST ENJOY AND LOVE. I HAD TO INTRODUCE MYSELF TO MY NEIGHBORS WHEN I FIRST MOVED IN, THEY DIDNT SEEM TO CARE MUCH ABOUT WHO I WAS BUT PEOPLE USUALLY LOVE KIDS SO THEY ARE POLITE TO THE KIDS. I DO THINK NEIGHBORHOODS NEED TO CONNECT MORE AND HELP ONE ANOTHER OUT WHEN NEEDED. I TRY TO BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR AND HELP OTHERS OUT. I TEACH MY KIDS THAT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO HELP OTHERS WHEN NEEDED (OR HOW CAN THEY EXPECT TO FIND HELP WHEN THEY NEED IT). AS A SOCIETY WE NEED TO CONNECT WITH ONE ANOTHER MORE OFTEN AND KNOW ONE ANOTHER. VERY IMPORTANT FOR SAFETY TOO