Phillip - The Neighbor Kid

Our neighbors are different. If I had to describe them in just five words it would be - Little House on the Prairie. You know, Mom is wearing the apron cooking and cleaning and tending to the kids. Dad is doing chores, fixing the house supporting the family.

I'm not exactly sure how many kids there are . . . perhaps five or six. Several are grown adults, there are a couple teenage daughters, and then there are Phillip-8 and Christina-5.

Since summer began, Phillip and Christina basically come over EVERY DAY. You might think I'm joking, but I'm not. Seriously, everyday they are at our house. Now, I am grateful that Kadin has kids around that he can play with . . . BUT - Phillip is just plain weird!!!

First of all, he's 8! I think he's a little old to be playing with a four year old, but that's just me. At first I wondered why he didn't have any friends his own age - then I came to learn that they do not attend public school. The whole brood is taught at home, by their mother.

I'm sure some people that choose to home school their kids do a fine job. I know there is a lot of curriculum out there that parents can use - but I am a big advocate of the public school system. We have teachers for a reason people!!! AND - even if you could educate your children properly at home, what about the social aspects of school that they will miss out on????

It is clear to me, from interacting with these two kids - they are definitely lacking some social skills. Here are just a few things that Phillip does that annoy/creep me out.

1. He will sit and peek in our front door - won't ring the doorbell, won't knock - just sits there peeking and waiting until we notice he's there. CREEPY


2. He will stand next to the bush that lines our yard and just watch us. Eventually he'll come over or yell to Kadin, but he typically just stands there and watches. CREEPY


3. The second we come home from anywhere - he appears. I think he watches to see when we come home. CREEPY and ANNOYING


4. We once caught Phillip peeking in the front door and Christina with her faced smashed into the glass of the back door - at the same time. CREEPY


5. I caught Phillip picking these little yellow flowers out of our grass and eating them by the handfuls. He told me they were wood sorrels and that you could eat them. Of course I didn't believe a word the kid said and when Kadin tried to eat them I quickly told him that they were yucky. Phillip then informed me that they clean out your intestines (I guess he learned that in "school"). As you can see from the picture - I think the little creep was right - at least about the type of flower they were! ANNOYING
6. He's very aggressive with the toys. He's the kid that comes over and ends up breaking everything. He's rough AND he's bigger than all the other kids - so someone usually ends up getting hurt. ANNOYING
7. He'll come over when I'm watering the flowers and talk to me about meaningless stuff. The other day he asked me why God made mosquitoes. I told him I didn't know. He proceeded to tell me that it was so people could remember the sins of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. ANNOYING
8. Brian caught Phillip in our house by himself when we were all outside. He told Brian he was getting some race cars to play with. CREEPY

I sometimes feel like we are prisoners in our own home - like we should keep all the doors and windows shut, leave all the lights off and pretend we're not home. Phillip would probably just come over with a flashlight.