Ohio: In or Out?

So one day, a few weeks ago, I happen to be reading through my blogroll, when I come across Cool Zebras. Heather is starting a new blog, and she’s looking for writers! What a neat coincidence – I’m looking for more places to write!

But her blog is going to focus on Midwestern parents. And I live just outside of Cincinnati. So this begs the never-ending (in my house, at least) question: is Ohio part of the Midwest?

I emailed Heather to see what she thought – after all, it’s her new blog. Interestingly enough, she said that in her opinion, Ohio was part of the Midwest, but her husband disagreed. What do you know? That’s the same split decision we reached at my house!

My husband thinks that I could have been a reference librarian. At various points in our life together, he has affectionately referred to me as his Little Dictionary, his Little Thesaurus, and his Little Encyclopedia. However: never, not even once, has he ruffled my hair and called me his Little Atlas.

I will admit it: I am geographically stunted. My development in most other academic areas progressed without incident. I learned to read at an early age and I still adore reading. I don’t have a love affair with math, but I made decent grades and I remember enough to balance my checkbook and add fractions for seam allowances when I sew. I have a crazy memory for spelling and grammar and early childhood development. But hey, Michelle, what’s the capitol of Montana? Ummmm…..

For Father’s Day last year, I bought a neat set of magnets that form a map of the United States for Chris. It’s been a long-running joke that if I do, indeed, end up homeschooling our not-quite-two-year-old… well, Daddy will just handle the Geography lessons, alright? And I’m okay with that.

But getting back to my story. Here we were: Heather wanted other moms to write with her on MP, and I wanted a place to write. Two women believing that Ohio counted – and two men thinking that it didn’t. The time had come: I googled it. Guess what I found out?

Multiple resources that say Ohio is IN! (And, for the record, so are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Some sources added Kentucky to the list, and others left it out but included Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.)

You know what this means, don’t you? Yeah, okay, of course: it means that I get to write here at Midwest Parents! That’s all well and good. But the biggest lesson we learned? The wives were right, and the husbands were wrong. And no matter where you live, that’s a good thing to remember.