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[quote=Anonymous]The village of yesteryear is really gone.  Nowadays, people socialize more outside of their neighborhood.  Our kids do some things with their school friends.  Their school friends are mixed over a dozen neighborhoods some nearer and some further (thanks to a school board that routinely redistricts where neighborhoods are zoned to go to school).  But we are in a lot of activities and we tend to duplicate some aspects of the neighborhood among the activity groups.  Namely, carpooling, parental supervision, visiting, etc.

For us, the new version of the village is text groups.  When our kids are involved in activities, we find families that live near us and carpool and share parenting and we set up text pools for those groups.  So, my kids are in scouts.  We have a group of 5-6 families whose kids are all in the same scout troop and we text each other to see who is going to weekly meetings, who can carpool or chaperone the kids going to X event, so that we don't all have to go to the same one.  We have a small group of parents from our kids friend group at school.  We often text each other about what is going on at school, who is going to the extracurricular activity, if one of us is buying supplies for X event and picks up supplies for the group, etc.  Not unusual when someone is running late for pickup and texts out asking if someone can take their kid either to their home or the driver's home so the late parent can pick them up somewhere else.

I have several groups associated with my kids friends in various activities and have a group of parents that I can text with for that activity/event for support.  They key is to make sure that you are available and provide support to the group as often as you can.  When everyone tries hard to do that, the group works.  It's when you have someone who uses and doesn't reciprocate that it falls apart.  So, try not to be that person.  As my father taught me many years ago, you give when you have so that when you need, others will give back.  I make sure to offer support before I need it and then people try harder to help when I need the help.  And that sets a foundation for mutual support.  [/quote]

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