Do you like your neighbors?
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
Canada
December 29, 2006 11:06am CST
At a holiday party I attended, there was a discussion about neighbors. Many people said that they prefer NOT to get to know their neighbors at all. They are content to say a "hello" in passing or to wave across the street now and again... but they have no desire to make friends. I believe this has a lot to do with where you live, too. I've lived in the suburbs and in the country. People are just different.
I go hot and cold on this topic, myself. I mean, I have some lovely neighbors where I live right now. We talk over the fence, when the weather's nice, and we offer to help each other out with things like picking up mail or setting out the trash, if one family or the other is going to be away. But, outside of that, we don't delve any deeper. These neighbors are actually senior citizens and my husband and I feel protective of them but we wouldn't really be socializing with them.
In the other extreme, when I was living with my parents, we had a "coffee neighbor." You may know someone like her -- going house to house, on any given day, ringing the bell unannounced and waiting to be invited in for coffee. Once inside, she would gossip about all the other neighbors that she wasn't visiting that day. When I moved out and bought my first house, this same woman got in her car and drove across town to show up for coffee and gossip. I always felt bad because, at her core, she was a nice lady with a good heart... but some days I just wanted to hide under the kitchen sink, rather than opening the door to her!
How do you feel about your neighbors?
2 people like this
7 responses
@vivasuzi (4127)
• United States
31 Dec 06
Wow I never had a coffee neighbor! We have Miss Neighborhood Watch living across the street. I guess it's a good thing since it means our house is always under her watchful eye! She's always out there on the porch, day or night it seems, smoking and drinking coffee. She doesn't even try to hide it, she stares right at us whatever we do.
My next door neighbors on both sides are nice, but I don't feel the need to talk to them more than once every few months. My mom keeps them up to date on my life :) In my future house, I would like to know my neighbors and I would hope that we are comfortable enough with them to ask them for sugar! But at the same time, I'm shy and not likely to introduce myself so we'll see how it goes next year :)
1 person likes this
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
• Canada
31 Dec 06
Oh man! My mom had a neighbor like that! She was sort of the backyard neighbor and, because she lived in a semi-detached house, it was a much taller building than my mother's bungalow. The woman would get in the window of one of her upstairs bedrooms and look down into the neighbors' yards (which she couldn't see if she were in her own yard due to fences, hedges, etc.) One day, she called my mom to comment on the new kitchen curtains she had just hung and, another time, she called and asked my mom if everything was ok because she hadn't seen any movement in the kitchen or my mom's BEDROOM for awhile. Can you IMAGINE? My mom was ill by that time and spending a lot of time sleeping on the couch, where she was more comfortable, and this woman was peering into her bedroom. Some people give me the creeps LOL
@vivasuzi (4127)
• United States
31 Dec 06
What really makes this lady weird is how it all started. Two guys live in that house, and slowly she started coming over more and more. Even when she was just a "guest" at their house, she would still spend hours a day on the porch and the second we came outside it was like she had just seen a great new tv show! She'd turn and everything to face us as we do whatever in the front yard.
Now she's a little more sly about it and she just turns her head a little. She probably saw us catch her eye a few times and started to try and cover it up, but she's definitely still watching! We aren't sure if she watches other neighbors or not, but if I peek out the bedroom window, she is sitting there a lot! How boring of a life, and she's only in her 30s!
1 person likes this
@thinkingoutloud (6127)
• Canada
31 Dec 06
LOL!!! A great new tv show! That's hilarious... and the sad part is that I know exactly what you mean. The ol' coffee neighbor used to walk right into my mom's backyard to check out what she was doing. My mom would be gardening and she'd turn around and near jump out of her skin. The lady would be standing there, having a good look around at everything, and she'd say something like "oh what's that you're planting there? I should get some of that too". We had another neighbor on the street that used to peek out through her living room curtains. You'd walk by the house and never see a soul... but those curtains were ALWAYS moving LOL
You're right when you say it must be terrible to have such a boring life that you have to live through other people. Being social and friendly is one thing but, honestly, take care of your own things!
@ponygirl (37)
• United States
1 Jan 07
I like to know my neighbors are out there but not be able to see them. I am very unhappy right now in the city so close to my neighbors. I tried to be nice and make friends but as I disapprove of always seeing their children up in the window, trapped in their room all day...it is hard to be friends.
@Eborsisk (195)
• United States
31 Dec 06
Most of my neighbors are very nice. There's an elderly couple next door with a great sense of humor. They love my son and he will wander over into their yard sometimes and the lady will come out and give him candies. He absolutely adores them! I wonder why?
And then the guy behind us will cut our grass if he just happens to be cutting his. He loves my son too! He lets us borrow his yard tools and even gives my son presents.
And then there's a really big Iraqi family down the street. The parents don't speak english so I have never spoken to them. Their kids are cute though and always want my son to come out and play, even though he is too young.
I guess kids unite people sometimes!
But, none of us have fences either so that may be a factor too.
1 person likes this
@babystar1 (4233)
• United States
29 Dec 06
Yes I have only two good neighbors they are so friendly when we see each other we always wave. We go shopping together at times, go out to eat. and just sit down and have a good chat.Now the other neighbors are not friendly. When my kids were young and played ball outside and the ball when into her yard , she would yell at them for going in her yard. So we put up a fence.She was so mean, she was a older lady living by herself.
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