Mine and Not Yours.

[shovelmike]

I think TV and air conditioning have contributed greatly to the isolation of people and lack of interaction. I remember when we did not have a TV or air conditioning. We'd spend the time outdoors or sitting on the porch. In town, we'd sit on the front porch and talk to the neighbors who were sitting on their front porch.

I don't see any problem in the way the OP's neighbor behaved, just establishing whos who and introducing himself. It's the way things are commonly done here in rural Missouri. Neighbors saw me building my shed and came to help, neighbors with car or tractor trouble felt welcome to ask for help, which I cheerfully gave. One day when it was threatening rain we saw a neighbor with hay in the field they were trying to get put up before rain ruined it, my wife and I dropped what we were doing and assisted, just what country folks do.
I miss the tight knit sense of community before TV and AC dominated people's lives.

 

[Diggin It]

I don't even want to SEE a neighbor's house let alone be close enough to talk to them on their porch. I remember those days too. Never again.

 

[jonathco]

Well the great migration has started. My neighbor sells real estate and sold 7 properties to people from California just last week.

Ugh, I guess there is a benefit to living in Michigan... No one is moving to my state; it's been a mass exodus out of the mitten for years! Keep away from Detroit and Flint and the rest of the state is quite rural.

Bottom line is, when I was a kid (50s-early 60s) we were taught manners, about trespassing, basically what to & not do, etc.
Modern people (most) are rude and disrespectful. They like noise (loud music, cars-trucks-atvs-motorcycles)...they don't like quiet serenity. To us (wife & I)...it's just weird. I don't believe our grandparents generation thought the same of us. We were different yes.
So back to Chuck and original post, the guy was fine in my opinion. He didn't or couldn't have known who's who. Then he did introduce himself. We should be so lucky here!

Folks, this is why my wife and I homeschool... We teach our children to say "yes ma'm" and "no sir", every adult they meet is referred to as "Mr." or "Mrs.", and church is their main social interaction with other kids. I really don't want my children learning the bad habits of the world, these days.

 

[MossRoad]

Ugh, I guess there is a benefit to living in Michigan... No one is moving to my state; it's been a mass exodus out of the mitten for years! Keep away from Detroit and Flint and the rest of the state is quite rural.



Folks, this is why my wife and I homeschool... We teach our children to say "yes ma'm" and "no sir", every adult they meet is referred to as "Mr." or "Mrs.", and church is their main social interaction with other kids. I really don't want my children learning the bad habits of the world, these days.

We sent our kids to public day care, catholic grade and high school, public summer camps, public sports programs, etc... so that they'd get an idea of what the rest of the world is about besides just what they'd be exposed to in catholic school. That gave them friends and social interactions from all walks of life. It seems to have served them well.

 

[jonathco]

We sent our kids to public day care, catholic grade and high school, public summer camps, public sports programs, etc... so that they'd get an idea of what the rest of the world is about besides just what they'd be exposed to in catholic school. That gave them friends and social interactions from all walks of life. It seems to have served them well.

Glad yours turned out, MossRoad. My four are are still quite young (11 and under). I often get concerned with what I see out there; parent's with no maturity or common sense, kids out-of-control and not learning how to work. It's going to be a challenge for my kids to find good potential spouses in the years to come; the world seems to have gone mad. Glad there is still some sanity here on TBN.

 

[MossRoad]

Glad yours turned out, MossRoad. My four are are still quite young (11 and under). I often get concerned with what I see out there; parent's with no maturity or common sense, kids out-of-control and not learning how to work. It's going to be a challenge for my kids to find good potential spouses in the years to come; the world seems to have gone mad. Glad there is still some sanity here on TBN.

Yes, your concerns are real. However, if they learn at a young age how the world works, it won't be such a shocker for them if they run into it for the first time when they're in their late teens.

I know many parents that home-school their kids for many reasons. Most of their kids are very well behaved, usually appear to be more knowledgeable than traditionally schooled kids, and do quite well in adult situations. Some of them do have trouble in social situations with kids their own age from different backgrounds.

 

[ultrarunner]

Surprise to me how many homeschoolers in my circle... to be fair some parents are credentialed teachers... dad held a lifetime K-12 credential.

All the kids have been super achievers and about half in special interests like child actors for local productions.

 

[Whidbey]

I was prejudiced against home schooling. I would not want to do it and thought most parents would muck it up. I met several parents whose homeschooled children did very well. One went to the Air Force academy another to an Ivy league school. Others were were polite and well behaved. Now I think they might be performing better than the average student.

 

[MossRoad]

Surprise to me how many homeschoolers in my circle... to be fair some parents are credentialed teachers... dad held a lifetime K-12 credential.

All the kids have been super achievers and about half in special interests like child actors for local productions.

Yep. My mom was a teacher and my dad was, well, gifted in many things, to say the least. Growing up in their home was like growing up in a university. Mom's degree was in biology, but she was an art teacher. She said biology helped her understand how her subjects were put together when she painted/drew them. Dad was an architect, fluent in Egyptian hieroglyphics, collected stamps and fossils, and was a WWII vet from a combat engineering battalion in the south pacific, where he was, among other things, a small arms instructor, a chemical weapons officer, company photographer, and a demolitions officer. Finished his war-interrupted degree after the war and had a job "working on things" for the government in the Tennessee valley after the war (wonder what that was? :laughing. To a T, my 4 older siblings and I all pretty much got bored with school after 3rd grade, and learned more from our parents than the schools. Turns out a lot of teachers don't like being questioned on some things by little kids. :laughing: A nun accused one of my sisters of being a communist when she was in 4th grade, I think. So I got a lesson from my folks when I asked what a communist is? :laughing: I was in 1st grade. :laughing: Anyhow, we were all pretty much home schooled, with a dose of real-world exposure to other kids by attending school. To us, school was a 12 year lesson in social interaction rather than the three R's.

So hats off to any successful home schoolers, as I've kinda been there, done that to some extent.

 

[MossRoad]

I was prejudiced against home schooling. I would not want to do it and thought most parents would muck it up. I met several parents whose homeschooled children did very well. One went to the Air Force academy another to an Ivy league school. Others were were polite and well behaved. Now I think they might be performing better than the average student.

My wife works with a guy who's wife is a certified teacher. Once they had their 4th child in about 6 years, they realized they couldn't afford day care, so she quit her job and kept the kids home. She was having great success, so she didn't send them to school, kept them home, and taught them herself through 8th grade. She sent them to high school, only because she didn't want to learn the teaching material, and she wanted them to go to college prep high school. She made it a point to get them involved in clubs, sports, etc... to get them socialized when they were young. We've met the kids at several academic competitions that they and our kids were invited to. AWSOME KIDS! They won everything they entered. Spelling, math, geography bees, etc... super nice kids, too.

We always made it a point to get our kids involved with things outside of their school, so they'd meet other people with different stories.