I have no village. I have a couple of old friends but they don't live near me and they are in a different part of life - single guys in the city vs married mum in the country. I have some friends around here but none I would ever ask for any sort of help. I used to have BB as my village but I wreaked that with my constant whinging and complaining and oversharing so it is just DH and I.

I think about this often. Only a generation or two ago people tended to stay in their home towns and had family around, cousins for the kids to play with etc. My MIL was just saying over Christmas that when she was a SAHM there was never a boring day because they were all friends with the neighbours and there were siblings and parents around to visit/come around and the kids grew up knowing their family well. Compared to now when more people move away for work or whatever and live away from family. My kids are growing up isolated with no close bonds to anyone outside our immediate family. They see their grandparents maybe 2 or 3 times a year. It doesn't seem right to me, but there is not much we can do about it because where we live is dictated by work availability.