We live in a middle class neighborhood full of working parents and kids - a place where children are supposed to play together after school and parents should gather together from time to time for a barbeque - not in our neighborhood. We stopped talking to two of our neighbors years ago when their unsupervised brats kept terrorizing my kids and the parents wouldn't do anything about it. They left their children under age 10 home alone all the time, even to go out at night to party. Their only concern was their own fun, the toys they wanted (yes, the parents, like ATV's, snowmobiles, new cars) and the partying they wanted to do. They didn't spend much time with their kids and then complained when the kids didn't behave. After we stopped talking to them, years later when the kids were teen, I'd hear the kids screaming at their mother what a bitch she was and the mother doing the same to the kids. It was awful.

Well, recently one of the neighbor's kids died in a car accident and I felt really bad for them. I left a card in their mailbox telling them how sorry I felt for the loss of their daughter and offering to give any help they needed. There were a lot of people coming and going to the house - understandable - and they kept blocking our driveway so we couldn't drive into our yard. One day I asked some people in the yard if they could move one of the cars so I could get to my house and they went inside to find the person. As I sat and waited, the mom and her other kid came to the window and flipped me off. Can you believe it - after offering my sympathy and not complaining about the cars - just wanting to be able to go home - they were angry at me! I just thought that here they were supposed to be grieving for the deceased kid and instead they take the time to flip me off. They are still the self-centered people they have always been and will never change. I really hate my neighbors!!!