It's a "it takes a village" kind of place

“Auntie?” I hear calling from my front door as I’m making dinner in my kitchen. I peek my head out and see two kids of my neighbor and another neighbor at the door. I greet them then go back to making hummus.

A few moments later I hear the kids and the neighbor in her kitchen in the back of her house. A few moments later the kids are running around the courtyard in front of all our houses.

I used to think that kids just showed up at my door because I was that different. Also, I have a pack of 50 markers and a seemingly endless supply of copy paper on which to color. But it’s also that when you live by someone with kids, it’s partly your responsibility to help raise them. It took me the better part of a month to figure out which kids went where in the houses near mine because they were always together and always coming out of a house that was different than the one I had seen them go into last time.

I spent the better part of my childhood wandering my suburban neighborhood with the kids who lived down the street, but it’s different here. Because there aren’t a lot of DVDs or board games or Playmobil here, when kids come over to your house, they basically just follow you around. It’s up to you to give them something that will entertain them or else all your possessions will soon not be in the places where you left them.

I am not a mom. And I don’t intend to be one for a while. But I would say these kids have taught me some things about how to raise kids. At least how to hide the things that you don’t want broken on the top shelf.