Does your family know your neighbours?

[FearSonic]

In recent discussion with a few friends, I've found that their families do not know very many people in the neighbourhood. Thinking about it, I found out it was basically the same for me! My family knows families in either side of our house (Not very well mind you) but we know no one else in the neighbourhood.

Is this just because of unfriendly neighbours who move in or are people just scared to socialize? Always wondered this! Opinions?

EDIT: And by neighbours, I meant anyone in your neighbourhood, not just adjacent houses!

EDIT 2: So as to clarify a little more, "knowing" your neighbours to me means that you have a good relationship with them and are able to converse with them on a regular basis, and basically do things that friends and family friends can do. Until I can edit the poll, just read this! :P

[IBOPM]

As of right now, 100% of the people who voted knows their neighbours. Consider yourself antisocial.

EDIT: Great, now you voted... so it's 50%

[FearSonic]

As of right now, 100% of the people who voted knows their neighbours. Consider yourself antisocial.

EDIT: Great, now you voted... so it's 50%

:)

But it has to be more than just me whose family barely knows anyone in the neighbourhood. I mean my street goes up to house number 230 and we know at most two or three families that live on our street. Not including the other street that runs THROUGH our street!

[mgronqui]

What do you mean by know? I'm cordial with them, does that count? However, we never exchanged personal details or had tea and crumpets.

[desi_eng]

What do you mean by know? I'm cordial with them, does that count? However, we never exchanged personal details or had tea and crumpets.

+1

There should be more than 2 options for this poll...

[FearSonic]

I would imagine yes to mean as you have a good relationship with them, where you converse on a regular basis and what not.

I'll try to edit the poll, but I have no idea how! :P

[CSK'sMom]

Our answer is yes. We know many of the families on our court. It started because we all have kids that play or hang out together. As families have moved out we've made a point to meet the new neighbors, kids or not. Currently we have a great relationship with our single neighbor 2 doors down, we sit out a couple of nights a week shooting the breeze while sharing a beer. As it turns out he's been incredibly helpful to out 19 yr old starting his culinary career as he's a well trained chef who's now working the institutional side. He's introducing him to many different chefs and has him catering with a very influential chef he knows very well. We actually have plans to do a backyard sushi bash on Labour Day weekend as he trained in Japan and wants to teach our son. :cheesygri

[molala]

we just moved into this neighbourhood 3 weeks ago and it's a brand new neighborhood...so it's ok that we don't know anyone yet! :) ..but in our old neighbourhood..my dad knows a lot of people and often get invited to bbqs...not me..i'm antisocial! :|

[UrbanPoet]

I know a few of my neighbors...
There's this old man that always drinks beer and says hi.
there's also the crazy cat lady next door... We try NOT to know her though.
Now we have this friendly firefighter that recently moved in next door. Nice guy...
There's also another family i know more b/c the son is my age.

[mingyang]

I hate my white neighbours

[funkyfr3sh_]

Our answer is yes. We know many of the families on our court. It started because we all have kids that play or hang out together. As families have moved out we've made a point to meet the new neighbors, kids or not. Currently we have a great relationship with our single neighbor 2 doors down, we sit out a couple of nights a week shooting the breeze while sharing a beer. As it turns out he's been incredibly helpful to out 19 yr old starting his culinary career as he's a well trained chef who's now working the institutional side. He's introducing him to many different chefs and has him catering with a very influential chef he knows very well. We actually have plans to do a backyard sushi bash on Labour Day weekend as he trained in Japan and wants to teach our son. :cheesygri

Just about the same situation
We know pretty much everyone on our side of the street as well.

[UrbanPoet]

I hate my white neighbours

I like my white neighbours.
IF they arent crazy like my crazy cat lady neighbour... they have REALLY nice houses.
Whenever they cook, it smells like spaghetti. That brings back fond memories of my best friend in elementary school named Dave.

whenever i go in side their houses its really neat. Its like they never have any stuff! Everything is so well decorated and clean.
One time i asked for a shopping bag to put some things in... and they didnt have any. Apparently... white people throw those out and dont keep drawers full of them like asians. :confused:

[Legend24]

I like my white neighbours.
IF they arent crazy like my crazy cat lady neighbour... they have REALLY nice houses.
Whenever they cook, it smells like spaghetti. That brings back fond memories of my best friend in elementary school named Dave.

whenever i go in side their houses its really neat. Its like they never have any stuff! Everything is so well decorated and clean.
One time i asked for a shopping bag to put some things in... and they didnt have any. Apparently... white people throw those out and dont keep drawers full of them like asians. :confused:

Haha, that just made my day. Some people do have ridiculously neat houses. It's as if they never cook in the kitchen, never sleep in their rooms, etc.

Sometimes I wonder if these people actually live in their houses and not in some hidden bunker down below the basement.

[Emancipated]

I rather not know my neighbors. I don't know their names or even exchange pleasantries when I see them out and about. I honestly don't give a damn about them, but a portion of my family knows a few of them. For the most part, it's the same attitude coming from them judging on the vibe and interactions as a 3rd party observant. I do not see man people shooting the breeze all that often, it's more of isolated pockets of interactions of the block. Houses 1 and 2 will associated with each other but house 3 will be associated with house 4 and so on and so forth. Generally speaking you won't find a place in Canada or America where the entire block knows everyone on an intimate level and are comfortable enough to say, borrow a cup of sugar from; that's just the new reality. We're all couped up inside our homes.

[Emancipated]

Haha, that just made my day. Some people do have ridiculously neat houses. It's as if they never cook in the kitchen, never sleep in their rooms, etc.

Sometimes I wonder if these people actually live in their houses and not in some hidden bunker down below the basement.

Just to add to that, I find Caucasian homes have a nice smell also whereas Asians have stinky kitchen smell or simply no odour at all. Caucasians put a lot of effort into decorating and presenting their homes; if not for visitors or guests, then for self adulation. It's an odd thing but that's how it is.

[ndrew029]

My neighbours keep their garbage can in the front yard on hot summer days. In the winter, they park on the street for the plow can't go through and leaves a big mound of snow/ice in front of my driveway. A few weeks ago they threw a filthy toilet for collection on their curb that the garbagemen have no intention of picking up...

...my neighbours can F-off.

[Uncle Cool]

My family knows their neighbours but I don't know mine, by choice.

[TapemanPL]

from what i've noticed between my friends. people who live in the suburbs rarely know or talk to their neighbours whereas people who live in neighbourhoods within the city are very close to their neighbours, probably because there are more neighbourhood events that happen...like i pretty much know everyone on my street and my best friend lives across the street

[Uncle Cool]

One time i asked for a shopping bag to put some things in... and they didnt have any. Apparently... white people throw those out and dont keep drawers full of them like asians. :confused:

I ran out of room in the drawers and now they take up the whole underside of the kitchen counter.

Albert? It's me Dave...

[nano]

my family has a good relationship with all of our neighbors. the people on the immediate right and left of us are great. we always get invited to parties weddings bbq's (we also return the favor) we share tools we call if we see someone the garage open at 2 am...

i work for a utility and I'm disgusted by people that call and try to tattle tale on their neighbors.

[dragon_drift]

we know some people around us, but we're not that tight.

[Jay-c]

we're very friendly with our neighbors. The wife and one of the neighbors take the dogs to the park together all the time, I drink beer (the wife says too many!) with the boys, it's a great neighborhood. We all look out for eachother, many of us have keys to eachothers houses. When anyone goes away and didn't have time to cut the grass, without a doubt it will be cut while they're away, or the driveway cleared in the winter.

Not sure if we'll ever find better neighbors than this

[Atheral]

Just to add to that, I find Caucasian homes have a nice smell also whereas Asians have stinky kitchen smell or simply no odour at all. Caucasians put a lot of effort into decorating and presenting their homes; if not for visitors or guests, then for self adulation. It's an odd thing but that's how it is.

I think it really depends on the family. All the Asian families I know put A LOT of effort into decorating and presenting their homes (especially indoor plants and outdoor gardens). But maybe that's just my neighbourhood. :)

[Odysseus_Maximus]

We know are next door neighbours pretty well, The rest not so well.

[3weddings]

We live on the major street through the subdivision (perfect with kids IMO) and know most of our neighbours (again b/c of the kids) socially.

There are a couple of streets that make the show Swingtown look like Sesame Street though......glad we don't hang out with them :cheesygri

[Ziggy007]

I live in a smalltown so it is easy to be friendly with your neighbours.

I actually have a really good set of people all around me here.

To my west my neighbour is a big time grease monkey who rebuilds classic cars non-stop in his garage at night. Super helpful anytime an engine needs a tuneup as that just isn't my thing.

On the east side I have a retired electrician and the grandfather of a guy I played hockey with all my life so that is good. The guy is nuts with Christmas lights, he keeps a nice neat lawn and even helped replace the light fixtures at the end of my driveway once, agian really helpful.

[Peckerwood]

Growing up we lived in a crescent, and as a kid I was curious to visit all of my neighbours.

The people next to us had the biggest 3 storey house I had seen and was also the home of my babysitter.

In the other direction lived an antisocial bunch.

But next to them was Mr Merryweather who also happened to be my favorite old guy to visit

Then on to the Biley family and home of my childhood friend.

Then to the ever cool Chinese token family who I got to visit often for dinners(they cooked the best food)

Then to the Rathmusens who had no kids but they tried awfully hard due to all the strange noises I heard and did not understand at that age(but thanks to grade 4 that all changed ;) )

Then to the one guy who broke into our house and robbed us blind...twice ...Darren :mad:

Then the neighbours with the rottweiler...damn friendly dog :)

Then the Couch family with their grown up kids one of which who was studying Aikido back then but I didn't know it until I actually started studying it myself and figured out what is was through retrospect.

On to the Backer couple...friendly but quiet

And of course the people right across from us, the Wickhart couple and their Bull Mastiff that routinely jumped their 6 foot fence to go for solo walks.

Behind us in the alley was an old couple that I would visit often to bug them and score raspberries off their bushes. The house facing them was the biggest winter display of lights in the entire Candy Cane Lane...these people would always brag about their power bills routinely being in the high hundreds each December.

The neighbourhood bully lived down candy cane lane and was known to make other kids eat sand covered dog turds at the "park"(playground next to Parkview elementary school)

His older brother once caught him doing this and laid the boots to him.

Other than that I had no idea who lived next to me.

:)

[strangeepiphany]

Truthfully, we don't know most of our neighbours. And those that we know, we don't necessarily like. I don't know if we have some bad neighbours or if we're just antisocial.

The family on the left has lived there longer than we have. There are two kids, one who is my age and one my younger brother's. I used to play with the older daughter when we were younger, but she's grown up to be a bit of a b***h, so now we don't really talk. My brother thinks the younger daughter is bossy, and a drama queen.

We get along OK with the family on the right, for the most part. My mom always talks to the mother of their household, and she and I greet each other and make small talk when we see each other. The grandparents hate us, though. Our houses are connected, and the box running our phone line is on their side. When their son died, they blamed us, claiming that we moved the box over and gave them bad feng shui. Um, NO. It was like that when we moved in.

The family a few houses down is known by my mother as "that damn family that always blocks the driveway." The houses on our section of the street have garages behind the house, all connected by a common driveway. That family always has people over, and they tend to park their cars in the driveway in such a way that my mother can't get into our own garage, which really pisses her off. She's talked to them about it, but they don't do anything.

We pretty close with the family a few houses up the street, though. The son is my age and was my first friend, and I used to go over and play with him all the time. The daughter is my brother's age, and they always used to be in the same class. My grandmother visits their grandmother pretty often, and my mom always offers them some of the stuff we grow in our garden.

[isom3tric]

We don't know our neighbors at all. The family before the ones that lived beside us was cool. My dad would talk to the dad, and they would bring my sister to the YMCA so that their daughter could have a friend to swim/play with.

But the family who moved in now is an annoying bunch. Their kid is like 7 years old who makes weird noises and can't speak. He also has tons of temper tantrums and bangs on the wall often, it pisses me off especially when I need to really study. I don't think there is ONE family living in the houses directly beside us. I think its like some kind of apartment with 2-3 families/singles living inside. I live in an attached bungalow, where the one to the West is attached, and the East detached.

On the other hand, there's private townhouses across the street from me. My used to be lab-partner lives there and that's really the only person I talk to in my neighborhood.

[CSK'sMom]

We don't know our neighbors at all. The family before the ones that lived beside us was cool. My dad would talk to the dad, and they would bring my sister to the YMCA so that their daughter could have a friend to swim/play with.

But the family who moved in now is an annoying bunch. Their kid is like 7 years old who makes weird noises and can't speak. He also has tons of temper tantrums and bangs on the wall often, it pisses me off especially when I need to really study. I don't think there is ONE family living in the houses directly beside us. I think its like some kind of apartment with 2-3 families/singles living inside. I live in an attached bungalow, where the one to the West is attached, and the East detached.

On the other hand, there's private townhouses across the street from me. My used to be lab-partner lives there and that's really the only person I talk to in my neighborhood.

Uhmmm.... just a thought here, but maybe if you got to know that family you might find out their son is possibly autistic. Maybe, just maybe if you knew what his issue was you wouldn't be so "pissed off"...

[mrlooneytoon]

One time i asked for a shopping bag to put some things in... and they didnt have any. Apparently... white people throw those out and dont keep drawers full of them like asians. :confused:

HAHA, brown people too.

Don't really know the neighbours, just the occasional pleasantries nothing more.

[isom3tric]

Uhmmm.... just a thought here, but maybe if you got to know that family you might find out their son is possibly autistic. Maybe, just maybe if you knew what his issue was you wouldn't be so "pissed off"...

Actually I haven't taught of that, I just kept thinking he's an annoying brat. Now I feel guilty assuming :(

[yao416]

After what happen to us last time, I do NOT want to know my next door neighbour! :twisted:

[AudiDude]

I want my neighbours to know me instead. That way they tell their kids to stay away from my property, don't park their cars in front of my house, and don't leave a mess where I have to see it.

Before people became self absorbed, inconsiderate @$$holes it was great to talk to all the neighbours. I mean for blocks and blocks around you'd know everybody. Now if you are remotely nice, you look out side and your neighbour parks on your driveway, washes his car and gets yours dirty/wet right after you finished waxing, has their kids trampling your garden, people leave garbage on the front lawn, park on the front lawn etc.

So my inconsiderate "their just kids playing" and "I was just going to clean up that mess" thats been there for 3 years, don't bother because I've made it painfully clear that I won't put up with their crap.

My neighbourhood used to be more multicultural but at least two hillbillies moved in down the street and one across the street. Their favourite thing to do is yell at each other from house to house instead of walking over or using the phone. It's really annoying on quiet weekends and unnecessary and I really don't need to hear them yelling fcukin "a" out the window of their pickup trucks with stupid dual exhaust that does nothing other than make noise. I guess its even worse to me because growing up, cars and trucks used to make more noise because their engines were modified (and you tried to keep that quiet), not because some 'tard wants you to look at him.

[ricoboxing]

when i go away on a long weekend without my dog, i give one of my neighbours the key to my house so he can feed my dog.

my neighbour on the other side of my house, i wouldnt trust to pick up my newspaper.

[ronny1980]

I know a few of my neighbours and I'm 99% sure one of them is a growhouse. Its an older (~60) viet couple that lives there and every now and then decked out reggae playing SUVs with chome rims would stop by. Most of the time the drivers are black and they would go into the house for few mins then leave.

[FearSonic]

This turned into a really interesting thread. :) But I guess I have a few questions:

For those who don't know their neighbours:
Would you PREFER to know your neighbours? So all of you who have problems with your neighbours, you might have a better chance at getting them to not be so problematic?

Would you feel safer in your neighbourhood knowing that you have good relationships with many people in your area who will look out for your home and your family as long as you do the same?


For those who know their neighbours:
How did you and/or your family go about getting to know and furthering the relationship with these neighbours?

Do you feel safe since in your neighbourhood?


I ask a lot of questions, but I've always wondered these about neighbourhoods! I mean I feel particularly safe in my neighbourhood, but that's only because of me, my mother doesn't feel so safe here because she thinks anything could happen anywhere. We barely know any families in the neighbourhood, but the ones on the immediate right and left of our house do keep a good watch over our house and have knocked on our door a couple times if we ever leave car windows open or garage doors!

[George W. Bush]

In North America, especially, people are much colder and indifferent vs. the European counterpart. Not sure how the rest of the world is.

I find that in N. America people are too busy running around shopping, working, or just mowing their lawn to even care, talk, or greet their neighbours. I do, and talk to them and I am the one that approaches them. I find that "Canadian" born neighbours are colder than the ones that have just grown here. It is a mentality that people aquire - schools, media?

[3weddings]

For those who know their neighbours:
How did you and/or your family go about getting to know and furthering the relationship with these neighbours?

When you live in a bedroom community, it's usually the kids that bring you together. This is the case with us. I am a very outgoing person and will introduce myself if there is a new neighbour (no not with cake/casseroles..lol).

Do you feel safe since in your neighbourhood?
Absolutley....neighbourhood watch is a little extreme in our 'hood..lol, but appreciated!


I ask a lot of questions, but I've always wondered these about neighbourhoods! I mean I feel particularly safe in my neighbourhood, but that's only because of me, my mother doesn't feel so safe here because she thinks anything could happen anywhere. We barely know any families in the neighbourhood, but the ones on the immediate right and left of our house do keep a good watch over our house and have knocked on our door a couple times if we ever leave car windows open or garage doors!

My mother in law told me once...don't do coffee with the neighbours. That is mainly b/c she is an anti-social person. I can pretty much sense who I want to befriend or just be acquainted with and have not been wrong yet. Knowing your neighbours and trusting them has to come from you, and your ability to nurture a friendship or just a tolerance.

My two direct neighbours are total opposites. One is a Stepford family and I cannot fathom ever befriending them, but we are now civil toward one another (but still can't stand one another), the other side is a younger, fly by the seat of your pants household that we socialize and travel with often. There is an open 'back' door feeling with us, and we watch out for one another.

[sw1ft]

Yes 50 49.50%
No 51 50.50%