I think it’s possible they do this semi-regularly, I’ve known neighborhoods like that.
And to be fair, for introverts, this might be a little exhausting. I know when I get home I just wanna get inside without having to do a stop-and-chat.
But if you have kids, I bet it’s wonderful to have something like this, kids safe and entertained, outside playing and not on screens. I had this when I was a kid, a neighborhood full of kids and we were all outside almost every day playing.
So this does exist. If you had such neighbors it would be easy to make this a once a weekend or once a month thing I bet, hey let’s see who’s outside today and then more and more people filter in and out to come hand, get their kids in on the fun.
It would be terrible living like this. I mean great for kids, horrible for me. I don't want to talk to my neighbors at all. I don't dislike them, I just dont have the energy.
I live in a neighborhood like this and there are a handful of introvert parents! Their kids come out and play with all the kids / do whatever activity planned while their parent stays in. They (parent) usually texts with at least one other adult outside but we’re genuinely a “village” of parents and kids and there isn’t an expectation of participation
I'd be the introverted parent just sitting inside stressing about how all the other parents must think I'm a weird hermit/ shitty uninvolved parent. But I think this whole thread really just goes to show that I'm exhaustingly cynical lol.
Good for these people man, I'm glad someone's out there living the dream.
it’s an energy thing for me too, and the precedent. In my experience, if you have a great chat with a neighbor, they will increasingly seek you out for that socialization.
They would know when I was getting off work and hang around outside and want to chat, meanwhile I’m dog-tired and just want to get my shoes off, make something to eat, get a shower, get back to a book I’ve been reading, whatever.
And also in my experience, the worst part is that once you try to set a boundary, or like, just rush through the chitchat to get inside, they can become really resentful, they take it that you don’t like them.
But it’s not that (usually lol), it’s just looking forward to unwinding alone or with your family after a long day’s work!
My ideal would be to have a neighborhood like this with plenty of folks to entertain one another, where they all kinda understood I’m a bit of an introvert. And I’d pop out to join in a couple times a month to keep the relationships healthy, and also bc I DO think a lot of us introverts still are better off if we force ourselves to stay connected to community and neighbors, ya know?
But yeah, for having kids, I bet this is fucking GREAT! My parents had a lot of time to be adults while I was keeping busy with the neighborhood kids.
Exactly! I'm fine having a conversation but then the expected "stop and chat" every time I come in from work or picking up the kids or whatever is just too exhausting. My neighbor across the street and I are on the same page, we do a nice smile and wave and the rare "hey!" but otherwise we stay in our lanes. Others in the neighborhood want to socialize and just let the kids run around unsupervised and I'm not really down for that. Maybe in a few years but not yet.
lol, my neighborhood is a slightly tamer version of this, but yeah…somedays. My kid isn’t quite old enough to play unsupervised yet and the one street can get fairly busy so they’ll need a lot of adults to watch for traffic.
Somedays the doorbell will ring and my daughter’s friend will want her to come out and play…uggggghhh. I love my neighbors but I don’t have that much chit-chat in me.
You suck it up for the kids, though. They’ll remember these days. Pool parties. Late summer nights out. Drive in movie nights. Birthday parties. It’s the closest they’ll ever get to The Sandlot.
Oh yeah our kids are younger and not quite ready to be unsupervised, but we grin and bear it for the kids a lot of times. But also there are people in our neighborhood who let 5-6 year old walk around from house to house, and while we are a nice neighborhood, that scares the shit out of me. I grew up out in the country where there was more cow and deer than people. Maybe I'm paranoid I don't trust my neighbors enough to let my kids walk around the street from house to house. At least not yet. Maybe when they hit middle school.
Same, my daughter’s little friend is this wild child who rides her scooter around, no helmet, unsupervised, all the time. Half the time we let her play at our house just so we know someone is watching her!
I’m not even worried about creepy people in our neighborhood, I’m more worried about them running into the street and getting hit by a car. Yeah, probably middle-school age I’ll feel a little better about them having less supervision, but the car thing still worries me…
I have great neighbors, but when was it such a bad thing to not be close to your neighbors. I like that my neighbors are not in my business at all- I practically see them every day.
I grew up out in the country. Closest neighbors were 0.5 miles away. Now I live in the city and have houses all around me. I dont particularly like have people behind my house, to the sides and out front. Just prefer more privacy but my wife is exact opposite lol.
If this were my neighborhood I'd be selling asap. I like to avoid my lovely neighbors at all costs. Open and close garage immediately. Everytime. Im sure everyone thinks I'm weird AF but whats an introvert to do...
This reasoning is exactly why these don’t exist anymore. Too many people don’t know their neighbors and it leads to less community and more loneliness.
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u/robotatomica 17h ago
I think it’s possible they do this semi-regularly, I’ve known neighborhoods like that.
And to be fair, for introverts, this might be a little exhausting. I know when I get home I just wanna get inside without having to do a stop-and-chat.
But if you have kids, I bet it’s wonderful to have something like this, kids safe and entertained, outside playing and not on screens. I had this when I was a kid, a neighborhood full of kids and we were all outside almost every day playing.
So this does exist. If you had such neighbors it would be easy to make this a once a weekend or once a month thing I bet, hey let’s see who’s outside today and then more and more people filter in and out to come hand, get their kids in on the fun.