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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

On the Outside

This has nothing to do with knitting, so if you are here for that, skip to the end. I'm just wondering if anyone else has run into this. It has become much more noticeable since we moved to this neighborhood full of young families. If you don't have kids, or before you had kids, did you find yourself being kind of a "second class citizen?" For some reason lately this has been slammed home for me. Case in point, our new neighbors. They are a little older than my husband and I, and they have two children. When they first moved in they were very friendly people. Now they don't say a word to us, but I see the other neighbors (who also have kids) over there all the time. Are we not worthy because we don't have kids??

There are other things that have been going on with family (preferences for vacation time made very clear!), but I really don't want to bash my family here.

Sometimes I think once you get to a certain age, or have been married for long enough, it becomes much harder to find people to hang out with, especially to find NEW people to hang out with. What makes it even harder is to find people to hang out with as a couple. Speaking of couples, I remember running into something like this when I was the only one in my group who was single. Suddenly I was no longer worthy. Once I started dating my future husband I actually had a "friend" say to me, "Good! Now we can start hanging out again." I really shouldn't have been surprised when that "friendship" imploded a couple years later.

I guess I'm just feeling a little closed in. In High School and the first couple years of college (junior college) I had a large group of friends and a couple very close girlfriends. The ladies at work are great, but sometimes I wonder about getting too close to someone at work. I wonder if it could have repercussions later. Time to start expanding my horizons again!

Now moving on to more exciting topics! Pam has set the opening date for her new knitting store, Knitters Pallet!! It is opening on August 21st at Noon. The Grand Opening is going to be mid September. I've seen the inside of it and I am very impressed. There is a sitting area in front, and Pam has promised that there will be knit nights. The store is very well laid out and I love the store samples she has knit. I have a feeling that I will be spending a ton of time and money there! For those of you who don't remember, her store is in Lakeville at the corner of Cedar and 160th two doors down from the Kowalski's.

Since my brother's baby has been born it is now time to send them the baby bolero I knit. And I remembered that I forgot to put a picture of it here! So here it is.

baby sweater

I really like how it turned out, and I actually had fun seaming it together! I will also include a little outfit with it when I send it.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:08 PM

    Rebecca - CUTE Bolero! That turned out adorable.

    The things with the neighbors - I can totally relate. We have one family here that talked to us quite a bit when we first moved in, but then totally ignored us for a month or two. Now we talk to each other if we are outside at the same time, but that's about it. Who knows what the reason is, and it got to the point that I no longer cared anyway! LOL.

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  2. Anonymous9:06 AM

    The bolero is lovely!!
    Being someone with kids who doesn't have many friends, I think people with kids often become friends because of the kids. I know I was pretty friendly with H's friends parents when she was younger but as the kids got older and were doing things without the parent's involvement that kind of ended. We really didn't have anything in common other than kids the same age so it was destined to end. I say find someone who shares your interests and everything else will fall into place.
    Karen
    http://nothingbutknit.blog-city.com/

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  3. Ahh the whole kids thing. My husband and I get the reverse. Since we are the only one who are married, no one wants to hang out. It just can't be easy, can it!

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  4. Anonymous8:55 PM

    We're friends with several families because of the kids. They keep each other entertained and the parents can relax. Sometimes I feel left out at work because I work with a lot of childless people who go to concerts and movies frequently. I guess it can go either way.

    Alison

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  5. Your experience is interesting. It is good to see things from other points of view. Thank you for sharing yours. When we started having kids our friends without kids started pulling away from us. It hurt. We were lonely for a while until we established friendships with couples who had children. Everyone's perspective is different. I really like your blog. You are welcome to visit mine. Oh, by the way, you are valuable!

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