Guest Blogger Jenny: The Private School End of the Year Marathon and My New (smaller) House

Jenny Heitz

Our fabulous contributor/guest blogger Jenny Heitz has been super-busy. She got married! She also moved to a new house in the hills of Los Feliz, from a bigger house in Hancock Park. Yes, that’s correct, Jenny downsized in L.A. (gasp!). Check out her new blog series about the new house and what she’s doing to fix it up on her style blog, Find A Toad. We know once it’s complete, Jenny’s unique, modern sense of style will transform her new space into a very cool family house! Unfortunately, she realized they moved without a coffee maker, but she found an awesome espresso maker that would make a great house-warming gift.

 

Meanwhile, end of the year at Mirman is upon her. Read on:

 

Once your kid has been in private school for at least a year, you recognize it: the end of the year slog toward the summer break finish line.

 

It’s as if all the private school powers that be got together and decided: enough learning, we must have ceremony, and lots of it! Thus, at Mirman, we had the Pops Concert, followed by the Spring Fair, followed by Colonial Day (presentations given by Room 5 students in full colonial regalia), followed by a music recital (skipped this; my daughter isn’t playing an instrument), followed by Open House (Mulholland and the 405 at rush hour: such fun). Soon, there’s a violin concert, the Upper School play, and then the massive number of matriculation and awards ceremonies. Finally, there’s Field Day, the final day of school that’s all about play.

 

Just reading the last paragraph, much less writing it, makes me long for a solid nap.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Mirman and what it’s done for my daughter, but driving up there from Los Feliz makes me break out in hives. And having to haul up there repeatedly over a two month span of time during critical traffic hours has brought new levels of road rage to the surface. What happened to spreading these things out, to moderation? Why was Open House the same night as Obama’s visit to George Clooney’s estate?  Why bother asking why? My daughter’s lucky to go there.

 

I’ve written in the past about how wonderful it is to have a bus route from the east side, so that we no longer have to carpool 4X a week. But, the bus has spoiled us rotten. Now that we don’t have to schlep up to the campus constantly, the occasional sojourn is that much more painful. While I realize that road construction is a temporary state of affairs, it has made the commute, even done occasionally, a total unpredictable nightmare.

 

I also wonder a bit about families with two intensely working parents: how do they cope? I work from home and have a flexible schedule; I still have a bad attitude about the drive and the constant events. How do doctors, lawyers, bankers, and anyone else with a “normal” job manage it? Are you tag teaming the events, or perhaps letting relatives fill in? Really, I want to know.

 

In the meantime, we will schlep. And slog. And clap for our matriculating kids. And, finally, welcome summer and some sort of sleeping in.

 

Jenny Heitz has worked as a staff writer for Coast Weekly in Carmel, freelanced in the South Bay, and then switched to advertising copywriting. Jenny is a graduate of Crossroads. Her daughter started 4th grade at Mirman School last year. She previously attended 3rd St. Elementary School. Jenny has been published recently in the Daily News and on Mamapedia, The Well Mom, Sane Moms, Hybrid Mom, The Culture Mom and A Child Grows In Brooklyn. She now writes about gift ideas and products on her blog, Find A Toad.

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Christina Simon: Los Angeles, California, United States I'm the mom of two kids who attended The Willows School in Culver City and Viewpoint School in Calabasas. My daughter is a graduate of Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism ('23) and my son is a sophomore at UPenn/Wharton ('26). I live in Coldwater Canyon with my husband, Barry, and our dogs. Contact me at csimon2007@gmail.com

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