There’s a hole in the fence where the kids get in
Summer holidays just got better. There’s a brand new gate in our fence between us and the neighbours. Now the kids next door suddenly appear at my elbow while we are at the dinner table. “Oh hello!” I say, as they survey the food, and “Goodbye!” as they dash off again with shouts of “See you at 10am!”. My kids disappear for hours on end (well, an hour on end anyway), snacks are in high demand, there are spontaneous picnics, secret tamagotchi clubs under the bottlebrush trees and elaborate games about getting lost, getting killed (!), running away, joining a war, riding horses and camping out. There’s constant dashing through the gate as the games get more manic and finally it’s 6 o’clock and the kids are exhausted and hopefully will sleep ALL NIGHT.
Four kids are a lot noisier than two, and (gawd) you have to remember to close the bathroom door, and there’s a lot of mess at the end of the day, and there’s the occasional barney, or prickle or hunger-pang which needs seeing to – but this afternoon I got to sit and write at the kitchen table for two hours straight with barely an interruption. Awesome. I hope the novelty doesn’t wear off too soon.
Responses
17th January 2009 at 7:51 pm
hehe – that is cute! I can imagine the fun… for you and the kids!
17th January 2009 at 11:05 pm
Oh that’s just like in the ‘My naughty Little Sister’ stories. I bet your girls would love those.
18th January 2009 at 5:06 am
Charmingly told! This post could be a book. You are in the groove!
18th January 2009 at 8:10 am
Lovely photo … it just INVITES you to climb throught the fence!
Your blog is beautiful and I have added it to my list of blogs I like to read.
18th January 2009 at 9:19 am
what a lovely idea. it reminds me of being little and running over to my cousins’ houses.
18th January 2009 at 10:10 am
Great idea for the kids, i love it when friends come over and the kids totally entertain themselves for hours on end but the food. Ive got a 8, 6 and one year old and they never stop eating! Good luck with the book.
18th January 2009 at 10:50 am
That sounds absolutely wonderful. I am glad to hear that sort of thing still happens these days!
18th January 2009 at 2:32 pm
What luck you have that you can share this fun with your neighbours! You are giving yourself and the kids a great gift there. How absolutely lovely. 
18th January 2009 at 2:40 pm
Hi, Just found your blog, and just wanted to say I love it! You have great ideas and inspiration. Thanks for sharing.
Paula
18th January 2009 at 4:36 pm
How lucky the kids are to have neighbours around the same age.
19th January 2009 at 9:39 pm
Every kid needs neighbour kids and a hole in the fence … this is awesome … I hope you get on well with your neighbour grown ups too!
This beats what we use to do … we would all push our trampolines up the fences and jump over to eachothers houses that way good times, good times
20th January 2009 at 2:27 am
Fantastically inspiring If the family next door dodges the looming transfer-across-the-country bullet, we’re cutting a hatch in our shared fence… with barely 12 feet separating our houses, it seems silly to rely on phone calls & doorbells to get the kidlets together!
20th January 2009 at 10:57 am
We live like this too–on a small community with no fences between six blocks. What you lose in terms of control, you gain in every other way, chaotic as it can be! Good neighbours are a wonderful thing.
21st January 2009 at 4:57 am
Oh, we have the gate, but I wish that we had the children to go with it. Somedays it gets quite lonesome on our cul-de-sac.
24th February 2009 at 11:45 am
I would love to live in a neighborhood where things like this happen. Back in the day, it took a village to raise a child. In this day and age, we have a tendency to be so isolated even in our own neighborhoods.
Reach out to your neighbors!
17th January 2009 at 7:50 pm
What fun! I grew up in a street with fabulous kid neighbours on both sides.
We had a hole in our fence rather than a gate & we rigged up an intercom between the houses. Such a great childhood.