OCD

My three year old has OCD. I'm sure of it.
Life is very neat, tidy and organized for her and when that is somehow disrupted (by say, a younger sister) she emotionally begins to melt down.
I try to encourage creativity and spontanaity with her mainly because I want her to RELAX and ENJOY her life even if it's not clean or organized. We live in South America and organization is not a top priority. Fun is. Noise is. Family is. Closeness is. But organization? Not so much.

Case in point, today I pulled out all the paint and a big piece of poster board for the Frips. She began to paint big blobs of green and white.

Me, "Is that a tree?"
Frips, "No."
Me, "Is that a mango?"
Frips, "No."
Me, "What is it?"
Frips, "Mommy...*insert exasperated sigh*...it's paint."

Oh.

Of course.

We'll keep working on that creativity stuff.

7 comments:

Brenda said...

Don't worry, Latin America will smack it right out of her. Paul used to nervously look at his watch when he was 10, like an old man. I though maybe I inadvertently raised a North American. But no, now he does not wear a watch and is as laid back as a hot summer day under a mango tree. :)

Rita Loca said...

brenda said,"I though maybe I inadvertently raised a North American."
that cracked me up!

Christie said...

I have decided this is a "first child" trait. It's one of my prayers that, like Brenda said, Latin America will smack it out of her. I watched my 9-year-old enjoy hours in the pond while my 11-year-old pased around the shore for thirty minutes before deciding it wasn't worth it. You should see her trying to keep up with the dust on the floor!

Unknown said...

HMM, this got me to thinking. I must have had OCD but no one knew it back in the day! I lived and shared a room with your mommy you see!! I was also the ONLY child for five years! Do you see where I'm going with this?

But in all seriousness, please don't label the child ANYTHING. I'm so sick of labels for everylittle personality gitch!

Love you! I said that in case my previous statement came off harsh! But I think you "get me" and I need not worry.

Jackie said...

Tia: no worries...as always I was being sarcastic. I haven't labeled her anything, other than "Unbelievably Cute" and "Super Smart." :-)

MaMa Vaughn said...

That is so funny...sounds like the time I was trying to be creative like you (cutting out bodies then cutting their heads off...and havin the toddlers glue them back on...) It ended up being a total mess...my two year old still likes to rip paper to shreds and the head thing she totally did not get...oh well! I tried!!

That is so funny!

Tamar Chansky said...

That is precious. I think your child has a great case of being a three year old! It feels so great to be right, to use language, ahh, blissful (and not at all OCD)... and I am a child OCD specialist!
Tamar Chansky
www.freeingyourchild.com