September 28 is National Good Neighbor Day! It’s a day to celebrate the importance of being a good neighbor and contributing to the community and one another. Being a good neighbor is an essential part to build a better community and form a great place to raise our families.
Having friends and family is important but having neighbors you can rely on and have a good relationship with is vital especially when having kids of your own. You want to trust the people around your home. I don’t know about you, but I’d want the relationship with my neighbors to be as friendly and as stress-free as possible.
How can we be good neighbors?
There are simple ways to be a good one that doesn’t involve much effort. Simply waving and acknowledging them when you see them. Being considerate with noise before and after certain hours is another one. A lot of people like to see their neighbors keep their yard looking nice to keep the whole neighborhood looking great. Kansas is famous for its wind and if it’s a windy day on trash day, you know there will be garbage bins strewn all in the street. Take 5-10 minutes to pick up and move some of those bins closer to your neighbor’s homes. It really isn’t a hard task but a kind and considerate one.
Why we need our neighbors
In our family’s case, our neighbors are very important to us. Our family is not from the Wichita area originally and we don’t have any family around. We like to form great relationships with our neighbors because we love having them as friends and people we can trust and rely on. If an emergency comes up, I like to know that I can trust any of my neighbors to watch my kids if I need them to. We like to know that they’ll watch out for our house if we are out of town. It’s also come in handy when I really needed a block of cheese and it was just a text away from my neighbor!
How to Celebrate Good neighbor Day
Celebrate National Good Neighbor Day with a neighborhood celebration if you’re into that. Celebrate by baking cookies (or buying some. No shame in the no-baking game) and dropping them off at a few neighbors’ houses. Celebrate by making little gift baskets with some treats and small gift cards and a note that says thanks for being a great neighbor. Celebrate by simply just telling your neighbor you’re thankful they are your neighbor.
Being a good neighbor doesn’t just mean being nice to the people who live on the same street as you. It means being a good member of your community and treating all with kindness and respect. It means listening and not yelling. It means having conversations not arguments. It means showing compassion and care. It means smiling at the mom with the yelling kids in the store. It means holding doors open for someone. It means doing simple things like taking someone’s cart for them in the grocery store parking lot or complimenting someone while in line at Target. We are in a time of social media which makes this world seem a lot scarier and divisive than ever. It’s easy to be a good neighbor. Imagine if we all did something simple and kind every day to just one person. I think it’d be a pretty great neighborhood to live in.