This has been interesting! Our current Bay Area neighborhood was built in 1979 and, consequently, there are a lot of older home owners with grown kids. Slowly, they are cashing in and moving out to minimansions or condos in Tracy, Oregon, East Palo Alto (!) and so on, and younger families are moving in. This is good for us, but I find that people don't hang out much outside their houses. There are maybe three of us who do that, and our elderly neighbors who we call our Neighborhood Watch as they really do notice everything and tell us what's going on. We have met about 6 or 7 of the neighbors over the past ten years but, unfortunately, noone has kids the same age (or gender) so we didn't click. Some are in daycare full time, so that is also a barrier. After all, these homes have appreciated dramatically since we moved in, so nowadays it would be hard to live here without two solid incomes!
A few years ago, I practically chased down a woman pushing a stroller when I realized that she lived on our street (woo hoo). We became good friends as both of our kids were the same age and gender. It was so nice to walk to playdates, but they were renting and moved out last year. Otherwise, we make a point to introduce ourselves to people who move in, but again it hasn't clicked because they don't have kids the same age (or at all) and we already have a huge social network so we tend to be busy with that!
Do you know we've been living here for TEN years now and, in all those years, I've only seen the neighbor who lives two doors down... ONCE. I walk around a lot (with and without the kids) so it's not like I never walk by her house! Some other family moved in two years ago, and I went by to introduce myself to the grandparents (it was an extended family - Chinese origin, I believe). Last year I saw the lady and her kid in her van, so I waited by the van for her to get out so I could say hi (our daughters are one year apart). I waited and waited.. but she didn't come out! I think she was trying to avoid me
I can't understand all this. We're all busy - heck, I'm always late for something or another, but would it hurt to say hi?
I'm a pretty social person so I'm not too concerned about making new friends (and yes, I do make the effort - over the years I've approached people during kid's classes/the gym/the bus/meetings/online - we joke that I'm like an Amway lady
) but I am concerned about moving to a brand new place and leaving our wonderful friends behind...
I guess I got off the original subject
I'll be looking into those areas! Thanks.