We don't really have a backyard. When we first moved in, we liked the idea of an "open community," with shared areas and not a lot of fences. The neighborhood would be like one big family. Besides, we were so close to the park that kids could just go there to play, right?
Well, they don't have a wood swing sets like I had. And it's not as much fun to have a dog when there isn't a specific space for it. I'm not the accomplished gardener and landscaping that my mother is so every year the vegetable garden sprouts a bumper crop of weeds.
But my kids see it a different way. Here, there are plenty of friends and games around that it's not too hard to find some fun. With a bucket of chalk, driveways become art galleries. The local dogs are smothered with affection by my kids (except for Baby, who is still nervous around any pets that are too big for a hamster wheel). Lemonade stands and rock sales become a corporation. Bike parades and cookouts. Popsicles and dance shows.
It's not my childhood but I'm loving that it is theirs.
What was/is your favorite thing about your backyard?
8 comments:
We had a really awesome pomegranate tree. I wish I still had one!
that does sound wonderful. our backyard is kind of small. but i'm kind of glad I have a fence. my neighbors seem weird.
We have a park a couple blocks away and used to go there a lot when the kids were littler. But at 7 and 9 they've outgrown it.
Our backyard is pretty small, mostly taken up by a garage. The remainder is a patio and a little grassy area that we wedged a 2 story fort onto, with a small double swingset and twisty slide.
The disappointment for me was that the fort was too hot to play in during the summer, so the girls only went out there in the spring and fall.
Last spring, however, the girls finally figured out how to pump themselves on the swing, and that gets used all summer.
Of course now we have a monster dog whose only place to poop is on the patio (I fenced him out of the fort area after cleaning poop off the girls shoes and feet a couple times).
Part of the reason we're seriously considering moving is to get a bigger yard.
I've never heard of an open community before! How fun!
I grew up in several different houses (my dad always sold our house just when we were finally used to it) but the house that was my fav was HUGE with a trampoline and tether ball in the back. My brother and I also owned motorcycles and my dad made a trail for us across the street in the woods. Sooo many good memories!
I'm glad your kids are making good memories!
Sounds like a fun place for the kids! :) We don't have an open community, but people seriously don't believe in fences here. As in, you are considered unfriendly if you put up a fence!! Anyway, we love our yard, that it is big and has a slope with lots of trees and a dry creek bed at the bottom of the slope.
I had many backyards growing up...but my fondest memories come from the Black Hills of South Dakota. He lived in the middle of nowhere, and a huge cow pasture was on the other side of our fence, so we'd go exploring in the mountains, cut down our own Christmas tree & fire wood, watch baby cows be born, catch snakes, pick choke cherries, dodge bats @ night, tube down the creek, and sled in the winter. We were only there for 18 months, but it was by far the most memorable place I lived!
Times were very different and I just ran amok through the neighborhood with all the other kids. One backyard just bled into the next!
I remember spending my entire summer outside too! We'd pretty much leave the house in the morning, and only come back in for meals.
Kinda sad that in this day in age, I don't feel secure enough to let my kids wander the neighborhood we live in like I used to...
It doesn't seem to bother them, though!
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