{"id":9087,"date":"2019-08-09T00:02:15","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T06:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mops.org\/?p=9087"},"modified":"2019-08-09T00:02:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T06:02:15","slug":"backyard-front-yard-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/backyard-front-yard-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Front Yard Living"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the summer, during our daily Quiet Rest Hour, the energy in our house changed. I looked up from my book and felt that it had gone from Quiet Rest \u201cQuiet\u201d to eerily and suspiciously \u201cQuiet.\u201d I closed my book and walked upstairs where I found my oldest daughter obediently and happily reading in her room. My three-year-old was not in her room or in the playroom \u2013 our two designated Quiet Rest spots.<\/span><\/p>\n

I looked into our garage and, sure enough, found the door open and a tricycle missing. Barefoot, I walked out to the front, crossed the street, and headed toward the most likely of our neighbors. There I found my daughter and her friend playing sweetly in the driveway. I waved to our neighbor who told me that, when asked, my daughter confirmed I knew exactly where she was.<\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome to our neighborhood. Of the eight houses in our cul-de-sac, seven know my kids and take an interest in our daily lives. Three have an open-door policy, meaning if I can\u2019t find my kids, I\u2019m fairly certain where to look. But really, I know exactly where my girls are: out in the street, biking, playing, imagining, building forts, and exploring with the neighborhood kids and grandkids.<\/span><\/p>\n

This community didn\u2019t happen overnight. When we moved into our house in the suburbs four years ago, it was December so we didn\u2019t have much of an idea about our neighbors. We had a good feeling \u2013 right away, people stopped to introduce themselves and I often found our driveway and sidewalk miraculously shoveled after a snowstorm. As winter merged into spring, we found ourselves outside more and more often.<\/span><\/p>\n

Garage doors stayed open, front porches were filled in with comfortable chairs and hanging plants, and I discovered we had moved into a neighborhood of front yard people.<\/span><\/p>\n

I responded by moving our water table to the front yard, stocking our freezer with Otter Pops, and learning the value of shifting from the backyard to the front yard. Often, my inclination is to go out back, where I can read quietly in our hammock, where my preschooler can run through the sprinklers naked, and where we have a sweet haven from the busyness of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our backyard still functions as that but it has become so much more. When we intentionally decided to shift to living out front, we invited our neighbors into our lives. We met the little girl across the street, who is nearly the same age as our oldest. We met the grandparents whose grandkids often bike with our girls. We sat on front lawns and learned the stresses and joys of each other\u2019s lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a cost to living out front. We\u2019ve had to navigate boundaries and space when it comes to kids trooping in and out of our side gate. On stressful days, I just want to close the door and hunker down and that\u2019s not always possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Choosing community can often be messy. And yet, I wouldn\u2019t give up that intention for the world. Now, as our kids grow and our activities have changed, we\u2019re not just hanging out in front as often. Already I feel pangs of nostalgia as our kids get busier. I\u2019m thankful for the newborn down the street, knowing that front yard living will continue for a few years more.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think back to that relatively simple act of moving the water table out front and marvel at all that unfolded from there. Even as summer comes to an end and we look toward more structured days, I think about small ways I can keep my focus on our neighbors \u2013 from bringing a book or my computer out front to wave as others walk by to date nights after bedtime on the front porch rather in the backyard, I want to continue the spirit of loving my neighbors well by being present in my neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is one small shift you can make to live in your front yard more often? Perhaps sidewalk chalk or bubbles in the front yard will help you meet new neighbors? I am amazed at the ways the simplest acts bring about community.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Annie Rim lives in Colorado where she plays with her two inquisitive daughters, hikes with her husband, and writes about life and faith on her blog:\u00a0annierim.com<\/a>. She has taught in the classroom, at an art museum, and now in the playroom.\u00a0She\u2019s a contributor at The MOPS Blog, the editor for\u00a0The Red Couch Book Club<\/a>\u00a0at SheLoves Magazine<\/a>, and naptime scribbler.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the summer, during our daily Quiet Rest Hour, the energy in our house changed. I looked up from my book and felt that it had gone from Quiet Rest \u201cQuiet\u201d to eerily and suspiciously \u201cQuiet.\u201d I closed my book and walked upstairs where I found my oldest daughter obediently and happily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":9097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[2314,301,40,2315,2316,169,56,450,2317,2318],"class_list":["post-9087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-backyard","tag-children","tag-community","tag-front-yard","tag-hammock","tag-kids","tag-motherhood","tag-neighbors","tag-otter-pops","tag-quiet-time"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}