The (Unwritten) Great Divide

Cincinnati is an amazingly weird city. Yep, that’s right, it is weird. I never realized how weird it was until I started meeting people from other cities. When people ask you where are you from? They don’t expect “Cincinnati” as the answer, they expect “west side”, “east side” or “northside” as an answer. They are very distinctive components to the city and it is the unwritten rule that you live in and remain loyal to your “assigned” area.

For example, I have never met a more tight knit group of people than westsiders. Talk about a community that sticks together. Back in October, my husband and I invited some friends of ours over for dinner on a Friday night. They declined our invitation as they had to go to Friday night football game. Really ?! I have not set foot on my high-school campus since the day I graduated. Eastsiders do not attend Friday night games with husbands and kids in tow, with a class of “99” jacket on. The westsiders are loyal.

And over on the other side of town…

I grew up in Anderson. I am an “eastsider.” Anderson is a great area with flourishing public schools and a continually failing mall. I went to college in Cincinnati and still lived in Anderson. I got married to my husband, who also grew up in Anderson, and so naturally we bought a house in Anderson. Then purely to give my parents gray hair we moved!

People were aghast by our choice to move a mere 8.6 miles from our previous house to…. Amelia. Not just my parents… my husbands family and our friends were literally in shock. We had broken some unwritten rule. We were no longer official Andersonites.

The main questions we get are “why did you move to Amelia?” and “where will your kids go to school?” These questions are laced with a tone of disapproval and the curiosity just gets the best of them. The shocking answer is that we moved to Amelia because we like it here. Our house in Anderson did not have a place for our kids to play outside, my husband to collect lawn mowers, or our dogs to run free. Despite what people think Amelia is not entirely mullets, Tweety Bird t-shirts, and pickup trucks. We have a wonderful neighborhood, a nice house, and yard that is great for kids and doggies.

Our daughter currently goes to private school. The school district out here has had some issues. Academically and spiritually we felt sending the kids to private school was the best choice. Then our son was diagnosed with a severe speech delay and we realized private school may not be the right fit for him. With a knot in my stomach, and a flood of emotions I sent my 3 year old to a “failing” public school. His speech delay has been a blessing in disguise.
All of these preconceived notions I had about the public schools out here have been wrong. He has made astronomical progress, he has friends, and he has teachers that care about him. There are kids from all different socioeconomic backgrounds, and while that may turn some people away, my husband and I are embracing that diversity. Not everyone grows up in a two-story house with a white picket fence. Private school has been great, but so has our public school experience. For me personally, I want all of my children exposed to the same education, we want 100% of our family invested in a school system.

Over the past year, the biggest lesson that I have learned is that unless you have actually experienced it, you should not look down or up on any community. I encourage you to take your family to the “other” side of town. Over the course of a weekend this past summer we ate breakfast at the Sleepy Bee in Oakley, visited Union Terminal downtown, let the kids play at Washington Park, ate lunch at Eli’s, went to the American Sign Museum, took a hike at East Fork, and finished it up with dinner at Los Cabos. At the end of that weekend, after my husband got done talking about all the miles we racked up on the van, we talked about how wonderful Cincinnati is as a whole. We talked about how providing our kids with all these life experiences will help them flourish no matter where they go to school or what part of town they grown up in.

Cincinnati Moms Blog offers a special thank you to today’s guest blogger, Katelyn Grube.

Katelyn’s Bio: Katelyn is the mom to two amazing kids and wife to Paul.  Four furry friends (2 dogs, 2 cats) complete their family.  She is also a pediatric nurse who loves to drink coffee! Katelyn was also featured in CMB’s Superhero Mom series, which you can read HERE if you would like to learn more about her.