We have next door neighbors to the left of us who are absolutely wonderful.
They bring our garbage can up to our house, they offer to help us kill the weeds in our grass or trim our trees.
They are always kind and polite with many kind words to say to us.
They've offered their basketball court for the boys to go play on and even have a toy room in their basement that my 2 youngest like to play in.
Such sweet neighbors.
But the neighbors to the right of us our a different story.
They go to church with us, but they must be learning something a little different than we are there.
When we first moved in, she brought over fresh vegetables to share, but said she didn't like kids playing in her yard AT ALL.
She said that no rocks from her yard should be played with or moved.
(She has mountains of rocks in her yard that little boys just love to get their hands on and play with.)
After we set our trampoline up, next to her side of the fence where it was convenient and plenty of room, she came over and asked if maybe we could move it to the other side of the yard so it wouldn't bother her husband or her when they were trying to go to bed at 8p.m. at night.
(This was after she cussed at my nephews when they happily came jumping out at 8:30p.m. one summer evening.)
My adventurous boys love to take a ball out on the cement pad and bounce it against the brick wall against the house.
A few times they have bounced the ball over the fence and into her yard.
Yeah, that surely brings trouble.
She tells my kids to stop throwing the ball over the fence because she's not giving them back anymore.
She says she will just mow over them and throw the little pieces back in a pile in our yard.
Well, last week Daddy was pretty ticked with them when they came over.
They complained about Noah throwing a rock at their 84 year old friend.
Noah was playing with his friend in a neighboring yard and they were throwing rocks on the grass.
One rock bounced off something and hit the 84 year old in the leg.
They threatened to call the police and have Noah arrested for assault.
Well, them was fightin' words for Daddy-O.
Thankfully, he wasn't home when they came to the door to discuss it with me.
I told them Noah wouldn't do it again and I would talk about this with Noah.
It truly is hard to love your neighbor as yourself when the neighbor is downright cantankerous.
But nevertheless, we will try to forgive, while still trying to let our kids be kids.
Enough said! :)
Oh man, that is so hard.
ReplyDeleteKill em with kindness?
This is sad. This made me cry. Just do what The Brammer Family told you to do. "Kill em with kindness." You can be VERY nice AND kind, with them. You can do VERY nice AND kind stuff, to them. You can mow their lawn, rake their leaves, shovel the snow, from off of their driveway/sidewalks, give them cookies, babysit their kids, IF they have ANY kids, and take out AND bring in their garbage cans, on garbage day, etc.. Jesus Christ WAS VERY nice AND kind with EVERYONE that was mean with him. Good luck. God loves you AND YOUR Family. Thanks. Have a GREAT day/night. Bye.
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