Do you have experience, as a child, living with no immediate neighbors?

I don’t have kids, but my ex neighbor just moved from her estate home on 5 acres, without close neighbors, to a neighborhood, and she says her kids love it.

Most of my life, I had no neighbors to speak of. They were there, but for the most part they didn’t have kids and they sorta kept to themselves. So living in a ‘burb isn’t necessarily a guarantee.
Though some of the most fun that I had was when there was a neighbor kid in my age bracket to play with.

Rural living has its share of things to offer a child. I suggest that you stay connected with her current friends, at least until she’s made some local ones and is old enough to travel a bit on her own.
Children are remarkably good at finding ways to entertain themselves. I wouldn’t worry about that.

I’ve never had a non-elderly neighbor who lived closer than a quarter of a mile away and it never bothered me. I’ve always been very solitary, though.

I spent most of my summers on my great uncles farm (now mine). I wasn’t a very social kid and didn’t get along with other children. I loved to help out on the farm and explore the woods. I developed my love affair with old machinery on that farm.

I lived in a house with no immediate neighbours until I was almost 8. We had a cemetery on one side, and a vacant block of land on the other side (the owner had started to build illegally, and was ordered to stop). I was quite shy at that age, but I still made friends at school fairly well.

Many friends who lived in the country had no problems except as the kids grew older and were involved in more extra-curricular activities, they felt as if they spent a large part of their day chauffering from one event to the next!

There is a flip side to your question @jonsblond, in that, you can be more selective about who your daughter has for friends.

I grew up in the country and visited my neighbors via horseback. That was a great time in my life. Those are wonderful memories riding Strawberry. Most of my neighbors had horses also and we had a lot of fun riding together. Never will forget one day, we found this huge wasp nest and we would take turns riding by the nest and throwing rocks at it. Well, my luck, threw my rock and one the wasp got on my horse’s ass and you know the rest of story. My horse started running out of control and when i looked up to see where we were going a limb hit me square in the forehead and i ended up on my ass. I was okay… Everyone was laughing at my expense.

You daughter is a lucky girl. Country living is the best environment for a child, in my humble opinion. Having taught school for a number of years, country children usually have better values than those that grow up in the city. Think that has something to do with peer pressure. I think it okay to kindle a child’s infuences growing up. They will have plenty of time to get to know the World. Now days, they know more by age 10, than i knew when i was age 30. Our lives were more sheltered back then. My son has restricted his children’s negative influences and i think this is a good thing. Small doses of the World is enough.

When I was 12 and my brother was 8 we moved to a rural area. We had neighbors, but they were not very close and none of them had children our ages (either babies or much older). I was old enough to ride my bike to my friends’ houses, but my brother wasn’t allowed to do that. He had to have my parents drive him to a friend’s house or invite the friend over.

Even when we didn’t have friends over, we had a lot to do. We’d go fishing, explore the woods, or just play outside. Your daughter may not be able to ride her bike as much, but she’ll have plenty of other things to do. Maybe you could see if there is a school nearby where your daughter could ride her bike when no cars are there. Our street isn’t really safe for little kids to ride bikes, so we go to the high school parking lot for them to practice.

You can help her find a good place outside to build a fort, look into outside toys other than the bike, and just make sure to invite a friend over for her on a regular basis. You have older kids, so you know how fast the time flies. It’ll seem like the blink of an eye before she’s out the door on her own. Meanwhile, she’ll have a lot of fun. I loved living out in such a rural area as a kid. :)

Well living in the country you can have pets. I had a rabbit and my sister had a horse.
We had plenty of dogs. My friends came to my house the loved it. Alot like @MissAusten . The wonderful thing about that is not being in town you don’t have to worry about your kids as much being outside and strangers. We had three wheelers and snowmobiles too. It was awesome.

When I was five, I lived on an 80 acre farm. I got to see the kids in town when I went to preschool. I had plenty of social time and lots of time to run around and play outside by myself. I loved it.Kids also liked coming to where I lived because we could play unsupervised for the most part for hours.

I’m loving all of your stories. Thank you so much, I’m glad I asked this! We won’t be too far from a town that has dance and tumble, so that will give her an opportunity to be around other girls her age. We are definitely going to find a four wheeler @Frenchfry. Great suggestion!

@BoBo1946 You make a good point. We have two children on our street that have caused a lot of problems. They are so young to be getting into the trouble they do, and they aren’t the nicest of children. It will be nice not having them at my door every day. :)

Thanks again everyone. I’m starting to feel better about our decision to move.

The four wheeler is a great idea! My dad got one not longer after we moved, along with a mower attachment to cut the grass. My brother and I loved riding around on that thing, and in winter my dad would tie a sled to the back and pull us around. If the ice on our pond was thick enough, he’d drive right out onto the ice. The sled would fly off the bank and slam down on the ice, us holding on for dear life and feeling our spines compress from the impact. Sometimes he’d take a turn too fast, and we’d roll off the sled….and just keep rolling. Know I wonder if he was secretly trying to kill us. Best. Time. Ever.

I grew up in a residential neighborhood chock-filled with other children. We were free to roam the streets and woods, as long as we were back for dinner. When I was pre-teen, our parents started travelling for business reasons, and my much older sister and her husband took care of me on their 17-acre land and farmhouse. No TV, no sugar or salt, an outhouse, and the shower was in a utility room right off of the kitchen. Oh, and the only source of heating was a wood-burning stove and no A/C. It was quite a culture shock.

Despite it all, it was a great experience. The house was filled with books that provided wonderful adventures and insights. My sister introduced me to cooking, canning, and refurnishing antiques. My BIL taught me archery, how to ride a motorcycle, growing bonsais, caring for a fish tank and how to repair things. While not remotely close to being talented in any of these areas, it was a much better use of my time than sitting in front of a TV.

We have lived in the country all of my sons life. He is an only child and he has definetely benefitted from the rural setting. I used to worry about him not getting enough interaction with other children but those things all work themselves out. I can definetely say that his imagination and creative skills have been better developed than if he had had cable or satellite TV readily available and he has come to love to read. There are always plenty of opportunities to interact with other kids and after spending a night or a weekend at one of his buddies houses he was always ready to get back home. So don’t worry yourself jonsblond, children have the awesome quality of being quite adaptable. :~)

@Tuesdays_Child Thank you! :)

@jonsblond only thing i’ve against you, i’m not moving back to the country also. At young age, would be better to stay here.

I’m from “the country”. It was a huge pain in the butt. My only neighbor was a little boy that I didn’t get along with very well. I wouldn’t recommend it.

My grandparents always lived out on farms where the nearest neighbors might be a ¼ mile or more down the roads and I loved it. My grandmother and I rode our bikes along back roads, went on a lot of walks, climed up onto the roof of the house with blankets and pillows to stargaze. We did learn where other kids lived and my grandma would try to make a day where the lot of us got a picnic day together in a nearby town park or zoo. I was a social and open kid but never felt lonely where we lived because there was so much love in it.

You are very welcome jonsblond :~P

Our experience has been wonderful. My daughter is being more creative with painting, my son has taken out his flute and keyboard and reading more books, and we spend more time together as a family. This is the best decision we have made in a very long time! :D