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When I think about my childhood I think about summer days filled with running in the woods and nights playing flashlight tag. The fall was for leaf piles, the winters were for sledding and the spring for riding bikes. No matter the season we were outside and we were playing. Playing hard- hating to go inside. Those years are a chunk of my life that I can say were easily some of the best of my life. I had an amazing childhood, one that I am forever grateful for.
When you’re lucky enough to have memories such as these it’s pretty hard to not want your own child to have the same experiences. These days though it seems that children play safely in their backyards or are shuffled off to organized activities. Community seems to be something you sign up for and drive to, not something that easily exists on your block.
When we moved to El Dorado Hills I had a BIG dream, a dream of living on a street where Jaxson could have an amazing childhood like I had back in New York. A childhood filled with lots of kids and surrounding neighbors that we could call friends. Now I know that times have changed and kids don’t just run around like they use to but to be fully honest, I felt sad when I first moved to California and noticed that neighbors just politely wave and then would go into their fenced-in backyard.
Teaming up with a few other families that also said they craved community- flyers were passed out for a block party. 44 people showed up and stayed for hours! Kids ran free with bare feet and sticky fingers from various kinds of treats. Laughter filled the air! What happened that evening was magical- we all realized that we want more for our children and for each other. Adulting is hard and having other parents to hang out with is SO nice!
Since that first block party- play dates have been hard as well as outings to concerts, BBQs, dinners, happy hours, watching sports and in this last picture above- a swim party for the younger kids on the block!
Everyone now remarks how much fun it is to live on a street where hellos are longer and childhood memories are in the making!
So if your street is not the community you hoped it might be- take the first awkward step and I guarantee most neighbors will be happy you did! It’s worth a try- just look at all those happy kids in that picture! Not in the picture are equally happy parents!
Community- help make it, foster it and enjoy it!
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