Oh, West Hartford. Home to the #iconic Facebook group, “Neighbors and Friends in West Hartford”. If you’ve lived here in weha long enough, I’m sure you’ve been exposed to this hilarious group. With over 13,000 members, Neighbors and Friends is the place to be. If you need a plumber, a brunch restaurant, a tree guy, or an AMAZING tutor for your BRILLIANT child, you need Neighbors and Friends in West Hartford. If your two-year-old really really needs to learn to ski, but the one place you called won’t do lessons until age 5, you need Neighbors and Friends in West Hartford. If Honors Underwater Basket Weaving was too easy for your child and you need help enrolling your kid in the AP version, you need Neighbors and Friends in West Hartford. Bored on a Friday night and need some tea to sip? Open up Neighbors and Friends, and you’re sure to be entertained. In fact, Neighbors and Friends has so much great material that a snarky, satirical group has been made in honor (visit Weha Enemies and Distant Cousins for a good time).

Neighbors and Friends holds every stereotype of soccer moms and uptight neighbors you could ever hope for. Perhaps the most iconic post was back in June of 2017. West Hartford, being the boujee town that we are, welcomed in a new “basic white girl Instagram” hotspot – Milkcraft. While teens loved it, one mom was irritated by the fact that they played loud music with profanities and didn’t have room for strollers, so she took to Neighbors and Friends to vent. Little did she know, over 444 other neighbors had strong opinions too. This poor woman nearly broke the internet, setting off hundreds of angry moms to build on her frustration, or use her post as a way to rant about other non family-friendly sites around town. Luckily, group administrator Patti Albee got a handle on the situation and shut it down.

With the help of group moderators Sandy Holland, Carol Goodyear, and Cara Paiuk, this all-star team of women keep the group in check and the town running. Forget mayor or town council, this legendary group of women control the town from the inside. Breaking up Facebook fights and riled up soccer moms is no small feat, but they handle it with grace. Without these women, this group would be even more of a catastrophe than it already is.

But of course, we love that chaos that comes with a neighborhood full of helicopter parents and overachieving kids. With so much passion and emotion in this group, sometimes real feelings come out. When everyone’s favorite plumber to recommend, Nicholas Palazzo, said he was moving away, the town nearly threw him a going away party for his service. I guess it’s not all bad here in West Hartford. So whenever you have a first-world problem that needs solving, or you just want to read some highfalutin comments, visit Neighbors and Friends. It never fails to make you feel better about your own life.