What info do you include in your neighborhood directory? I'm a little hesitant...

[gatorsmom]

We are building a new house in a neighborhood I'm not terribly familiar with. I grew up in this town but this neighborhood didn't exist when I was
living here. I recognize some names like the nephew of my college roommate lives here and my allergist does too. But that's it.

A neighbor approached DH while he was working on our house and asked if we would like to put our family name and info in the directory yet, even though we don't live there yet. She gave him a copy of one and told him to call her. He said he's leave it up to me.

Well, I looked at the directory and it had names of all family members, address, all phones, email addresses, and dates of birth of the kids. There are about 50 families in this neighborhood. This was the exact same amount info given in the directory of our last neoghbohood of 30 fAmilies. But I knew almost everyone there and felt comfortable giving the info. Now I'm not feeling so sure.

What do you include in your neighborhood directory? Do you know everyone?

[ZeeBaby]

I don't believe we have anything similar to this.

[o_mom]

We put our names, address, home phone and month/year of birth for the kids. We live in a neighborhood with about 250 homes.

Our names/addresses are public record on the property, so I don't see any harm in that. We are not getting a bunch of solicitations, etc. from the phone number being there - if anything it is helpful if the neighbors see something wrong, then they have a place to find our phone number without us having to go to each one to give it out, then hope they can find it when they need it. The month/year of birth for the kids helps us find same-age playmates in the neighborhood but isn't enough that someone could steal their identity - you could do just year if you really wanted.

[WatchingThemGrow]

If it is your forever neighborhood I'd lean towards doing it. Clearly if you don't feel comfortable yet, then don't. Our n'hood had one assembled years ago without emails or bdays, a newer one has emails and cell phone numbers. I find it very useful when an animal is loose or something suspicious is happening or we want the correct spelling for a party invitation.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I didn't include kid birthdays, just their names. Home Phone and my generic email.

[wencit]

We don't have a neighborhood directory, but if we did, I would probably just include DH's and my name, address, and email address. I personally would not put any info about the kids at all. If there happened to be other kids the same age as mine, the other parents could email me if they really wanted more info or to set up a play date, etc. I would worry about information falling into the wrong hands if one of my neighbors lost their directory or just tossed it carelessly into the trash. I fully admit that I generally err on the side of caution, though. If I get a school directory or any sort of piece of paper with others' private info, I always shred it rather than just throw it away.

ETA: You could also give out the bare bones info now, and then add more to future editions as you get more comfortable with your neighbors. Once you put that info out there, it's much harder to take it back, KWIM?

[Nooknookmom]

I'm a privacy hoarder...I don't like too much info out there mainly about the kids. If we had something like that I would only put DH and I's names and a generic email. Maybe the home phone...maybe.

We have a home based business and I refused to put our address in our old yellow page ad..just too many weirdos out there!

[KrisM]

We do names, address, home phone, my email, and kid's birth years.

[s7714]

Ours doesn't have anything like that and I'd never put in all that info. even if we did. Maybe my and DH's names and an email, but that's it. However, I'm the type that prefers an unlisted phone number and I had a bad experience with the parent of DD's classmate giving out my phone number to a religious solicitor so I'm rather biased now.

ETA: Our HOA has all the homeowner information on file, so if there was an emergency or conflict, another homeowner could contact us through them. For things like parties or something, if we know them well enough to be invited then they can ask for that info IMO.

[hillview]

I'd give names, year of birth maybe and email (gmail or hotmail if that is more comfortable) after a year you could add as you see fit.

[squimp]

I'd put in everything but the DOB. You could leave the kids' names off as well.

I put all this info in our school directory, 400 families, it doesn't really bother me to have my info out there and it hasn't been a problem. I find it much easier to get people together for fun stuff.

[DrSally]

I did everything except just kids month and year for birthdays. I don't like posting my full bday. The organizer asked me for the full dates, so they could match everyone elses, so I just complied.

[BDKmom]

Our neighborhood has several hundred houses and we put in DH's name and email address, my name and email address, our street address and home phone. We use our generic email addresses. We have never had any problems.

I agree with pps who suggested putting limited info in this time around and judge your comfort level next time as you get to know your neighbors.