Obsessive compulsive…

I’m a little obsessive compulsive. No, I lie! I’m a lot obsessive compulsive. Even back when I was little, though the actual term didn’t exist, I definitely knew I had some sort of issue when it came to neat-and-clean-ness.

I probably first realized it in the context of my family. We have these cousins who are the poster children for OCD. They would sit at the edge of their seats on public transport because they were afraid of the train-and-bus-cooties. When they came into their home, they’d actually fully wash up in an external restroom, built specifically for that purpose, so that they wouldn’t pollute anything. And that is just the tip of the OCD iceberg. The craziness ran deep :P. And needless to say, they were universally mocked for it. But even as I laughed along, some part of me, deep down, knew that I had a bit of it. As did my sister :D. So while people blamed their oddness on the ‘other side’ of the family, I figured maybe ‘this side’ wasn’t completely innocent ;).

Now that I’m married, and live with my husband, I realize that I have actually found someone who makes my OCD look tame. He’s a neat freak and I’m a clean freak (we’re talking specialties here, that’s not to say we’re not fussed about the rest). We feed off of each other. So he’d sulk and gripe if I kicked off my shoes anywhere but into the shoe cupboard. And I’d fuss and grumble if he didn’t rinse out his mugs and plates instantly, and do the cr*p out of the laundry! So essentially, until recently, if you came to ours, you’d find it almost scarily clean and in place. And I say until recently because that’s when our daughter came along! Need I say more? Probably not, but I’m going to ;).

I was always one of those people who had strong opinions on how a home should look. There is no excuse in today’s world for bad design, I said. And if I ever had a child, I’d never let ‘its’ stuff creep into my space and take over, I also said. Ha! Kids stuff goes EVERYWHERE. So between the bold contrasts of our walls (they’re turquoise and brown) and the ‘rainbow threw up’ scheme of most kids toys, our house looks like the kind of thing that’d make me run screaming in the past. But, we’ve gritted our teeth, and coped.

And then there’s the feeding! Oh GOD. She’s recently started on solids and the process of feeding a child solids I think is an exercise you need to take if you’re trying to curb OCD issues! You can go one of two ways: you either feed them purees – which they spit and smear all over themselves and, if you’re not careful, stick their hands into. Or you can give them finger food and encourage them to feed themselves – which involves gumming and spitting and squashing and throwing of things. God help me! I do a mixture of the two, and shudder, even let her hold the spoon in an effort to encourage her to explore and generally not get our hang ups. Gosh, this is costing me a fortune is acidity meds to combat all that heartburn from the stress.

Oh well, all I can say is, the things you do for your kids boggles the mind. And hey, in the process we’re getting free therapy to break the habits of a lifetime, yes?