Written by: T.M. Brunson
So, in this series, I was sharing three tips about what you should know before purchasing/renting a home before/when you have kids. Check out Pt1 for the first tip. Below are the last two.
The second thing you should do is:
2. Check out the neighborhood at night.
This is so important. I would have never thought about this before but it makes perfect sense now that I have all girls. You want to know who your neighbors are, who is walking around at night, what goes on in the neighborhood...Just drive around and check out your surroundings.
It Takes a Village
You want to make sure that your kids are safe. That is #1. Yes, you'll be watching them; but things happen. The kids could be playing outside and someone falls and one of the neighbors might be closer to them than you. If a ball rolls into the street and you have your eye on the other kid, a neighbor can run and get it and prevent your child from running into the street (no matter how many times you've told them not to do that!).
We had a Pearl in our development. Ya'll know who Pearl is—from that classic TV show starring Marla Gibbs called "227." Pearl was the neighborhood watch. Pearl knows everything that's going on. We had a "Pearl" when we lived in North Hollywood. Nothing got past her. And she still calls me, 'til this day, to let me know what's happening on our old block in North Hollywood. LOL
Every community should have a Pearl. Do you have one?
The third thing you should think about is:
3. Do you make enough money to cover the mortgage/rent, utilities, and all of the incidentals that come up when you have kids (sports, after-curricular activities, birthday parties or etc)?
If not, get a cheaper house.
I didn't realize that these little people cost so much money! And it's just not for them. It's for their friends too!
Tyler is having a pool party for her birthday, can I go?
Of course, I'm not going to deny her a chance to go to a friend's pool party. But then two weeks later...
Sidney is having a Chuckee Cheese party for her birthday! I have to go!
Oh the cesspool of germs!
Then the next month...
Mommy, Garin is having a Game Truck party! Can I go?
That's the "cool" kid's party. You don't want you kid to become a social pariah if they don't show up...
Before you know it, you go broke buying birthday presents for other people's kids! Then, if you have multiple kids, you cannot always have them tag along to the party unless you know the parent really well and you ask ahead of time. But is that even proper etiquette?
Mommy, it's not fair that she gets invited to birthday parties and I don't.
We had to choose our parties wisely. I never RSVPed until the last minute to make sure nothing else would pop up. I had a budget and I needed to stick close to it. We lived in California and our mortgage was through the roof—on top of everything else—and we also had four kids at the time.
And each kid was different. Some liked to do different things. Two kids did ballet, two others did gymnastics. Two I took to Kids Zumba.Two were in karate. One did soccer.
$$$$
It was a lot keeping up with their schedule and balancing the budget between everybody and everything.
Shout out to your village.
Go to @allmommyissues on Instagram and give a shout out to the people in your village. Thank them for all that they've done. I'm sure it will put a smile on their face.
Question of the Day
Are there any other "must think abouts" on your list before you buy/rent a house? Tell us on our FB page @allmommyissues.com