So, what do you do?
I should preface this by saying that I'm not used to dealing with neighbors that live 10 feet away from my house. I spent most of my childhood on 80 acres while my parents ran a youth camp and the rest of it on 5 acres. Our house sits on a city lot, with other houses around it on a city lot.
On one side, we have a nice lady who we swap desserts and casseroles with every now and then. On the other side is this family that I simulatneously feel sorry for and really angry at. Here's the problem: they are loud and they are vulgar and they have no compunctions about sharing either of those two things with the entire neighborhood. The mom cusses at her kids constantly, which is something that we can often hear if we are outside in our yard and sometime hear if we are inside our house. It is so incredibly sad. I know I have no idea what they have going on, but it's impossible for me to imagine a scenario where cussing out an 8 year old would be an appropriate response. This makes the kids angry, so they either blare their music (you can hear it through our entire house), fight in their yard (or the street, or the yards around here, or inside their house...I've had to break up fights before where there was serious harm going on), or scream profanities at the top of their lungs at the five and six year old who live two doors down.
I feel awful for being so frustrated- but I just want peace. I don't even like taking Noah outside anymore because you never know what's going to be screaming or blasting or seen from next door. Kyle made this beautiful garden in the back and we love being outside, but the stuff that they do completely ruins it. Among other things, I just don't think that it's good for any kid to be hearing #%$^, *&$!, and #@*@ every other time they walk out the door. We've talked to them, try to be nice to the kids and mom when she's home, and our kids collected money and toys for them and we left the Christmas presents on their doorstep for all of the kids and for their mom (anonymously, at least until another neighbor snitched us off).
Now I find myself wishing that they would move while feeling ashamed that I'm not being more compassionate about what is obviously an awful situation for the kids to be in. I find myself being selfish and wanting to take care of MY family and OUR peace and not caring so much whether they find theirs.
Blech.
I should preface this by saying that I'm not used to dealing with neighbors that live 10 feet away from my house. I spent most of my childhood on 80 acres while my parents ran a youth camp and the rest of it on 5 acres. Our house sits on a city lot, with other houses around it on a city lot.
On one side, we have a nice lady who we swap desserts and casseroles with every now and then. On the other side is this family that I simulatneously feel sorry for and really angry at. Here's the problem: they are loud and they are vulgar and they have no compunctions about sharing either of those two things with the entire neighborhood. The mom cusses at her kids constantly, which is something that we can often hear if we are outside in our yard and sometime hear if we are inside our house. It is so incredibly sad. I know I have no idea what they have going on, but it's impossible for me to imagine a scenario where cussing out an 8 year old would be an appropriate response. This makes the kids angry, so they either blare their music (you can hear it through our entire house), fight in their yard (or the street, or the yards around here, or inside their house...I've had to break up fights before where there was serious harm going on), or scream profanities at the top of their lungs at the five and six year old who live two doors down.
I feel awful for being so frustrated- but I just want peace. I don't even like taking Noah outside anymore because you never know what's going to be screaming or blasting or seen from next door. Kyle made this beautiful garden in the back and we love being outside, but the stuff that they do completely ruins it. Among other things, I just don't think that it's good for any kid to be hearing #%$^, *&$!, and #@*@ every other time they walk out the door. We've talked to them, try to be nice to the kids and mom when she's home, and our kids collected money and toys for them and we left the Christmas presents on their doorstep for all of the kids and for their mom (anonymously, at least until another neighbor snitched us off).
Now I find myself wishing that they would move while feeling ashamed that I'm not being more compassionate about what is obviously an awful situation for the kids to be in. I find myself being selfish and wanting to take care of MY family and OUR peace and not caring so much whether they find theirs.
Blech.
posted by Brie @ 1:38 PM
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