Well, my girls learned a valuable lesson today that not everyone is kind, and in the most obvious way possible.
We have lived here almost 2 years now. We are literally the ONLY family that is under 65 years old. As you can imagine, that makes life rather difficult at times for us as a homeschooling family. There are no other kids for my girls to play with on our street, and we don't have much in common with our neighbors in general.
However, there is one couple in particular that we don't get along with. I have maybe spoken two words with them in the time we've lived here, and my husband has had maybe two briefs chats with them. The majority of our contact has been in the form of letters from the city to notify us that we are in violation of codes for this or that and to fix these things within 30 days or be fined. At least, that was the extent of our contact until today.
This afternoon, I decided while we were out walking to stop and ask them if they had any objections to us putting up a fence out back (merely a formality since we don't really CARE what they think) Well, first off he was fairly hostile to me and kept glaring at my girls (who were standing quietly behind me, except Jordan who was sitting on my hip smiling cutely) The conversation was fairly brief and VERY uncomfortable for me. I said to him "We're hoping to get to it this year, but if not then definitely next year, but would you have an issue with us putting up a fence...." which he promptly interrupted with "we're ROOTING for one, preferably the privacy variety."
OK first off, I don't disrespect my elders. It is NOT something that I do normally. Secondly, my children were there and I pride myself on setting a good example for them on how to interact with all kinds of people of all ages in a respectful manner. So I pretended to not notice the blatent RUDENESS and disrespectful manner in which he spoke down at me, along with his body language and how he presented himself (as we approached his home, he stepped outside and to the edge of the poch so that I couldn't take the step up, placing him higher above me than he already was because he's tall and I'm a little on the short side) I chose to use this as a perfect example of teaching by example when confronted by disrespectful and rude people.
So I gave him a sweet smile and replied, "oh yes, we have been looking at this lovely white 6ft privacy fence that has a sort of trellis style at the top. We were thinking that a white fence would be a perfect backdrop for the roses we would like to plant on the street side of the fence. I hope my children haven't been wandering into your yard at all, we have spent a lot of time trying to teach them to respect other peoples' property." To which he replied "oh if they were you'd know in a New York minute" in a condescending tone.
Then he proceeded to question my parenting by allowing my children to ride their bikes on the dead-end side street that rund by my home (the little road they live on). Now, granted we do live on a busy main road in a small city, however the road I lived on as a child had more traffic than this little dead-end side street with 4 houses on it. In the hour and a half that my girls were riding their bikes on the street, we saw a total of ONE vehicle that they had to get in the grass for. They are well aware of the dangers of riding the street, and we have gone over the rules of safe street riding very carefully and I have checked to be sure they had them memorized before I allowed ANYONE to set a bike on the street. So, yes, I am comfortable with letting them ride on a small portion of this side street (from the end of the tree line in my yard to the driveway of the neighbors behind us to be more precise) as long as there is a responsible adult supervising them.
I think it is safe to say this neighbor hates us, particularly because we are young and have children. Of course, I'm certain that it didn't help any when my father told the wife that if they ever spoke to us or caused us any more trouble that he'd burn their house down. *smacking forehead* I'm thinking that it may be time for the girls to have a short cooking lesson to make some cookies to take the neighbors this week, and perhaps we'll invite them over for a cookout this summer. I am going to make an attempt to be neighborly and show them that we have good kids and are good people. If they decide to not give us an opportunity, then that is their choice. We will have made a fair attempt, and that is all that matters. To hell with them if they decide to judge us by my father and how he was, and the fact that we are young and have children.
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