Has anyone else realised how OCD they are, since becoming parents?

[Keef]

I am not, nor would I ever claim to be, the cleanest and tidiest person in the world. However, I've always been a bit ocd about things being in their place, and being straight and in line. As a result, myself and my daughter have a running battle going on. We have these fridge magnet puzzles of little people, and I'm constantly straightening them up, only for her to come and mess them up, bless her, it doesn make me upset with her or anything, but it makes me wish I could ignore stuff like that.

[The Nappy Lady]

Keef, wait until she starts playing with (read losing) bits of Play People, or Polly Pocket or Lego etc.

It drives me to distraction, I have realised I am very OCD about trying to keep toys intact. Eeeeeek.

[damzel]

Same same same. Although I think my little girl has inherited some of it too as she likes tidy lines and spends ages getting those Inocent magnets lined up perfectly. My OH can't understand why I want one toy cleared away before we get another one out. I leave him and her alone for half a day and my brain can't cope with all the disorganisation when I get back. I play snap with my little girl and she never puts the card on top of the pile, I find that I have to move it on top before I can play mine. It shouldn't matter!

[Ruth_Baldock]

Keef: My husband has always had OCD (no, really...) but since Baby Baldock arrived, it has got a LOT worse. I worry for his mental health on a daily basis. A lot of it is worrying about the cleanliness of the house, and will little bubs' get dysentry from toddling into the kitchen and so forth. I am a bit oCD about his clothes and socks and toys being neat and tidy. But my husband? Seriously, strait jacket/nice men and ladies in white coats for him STAT.

[Polly D]

Ha ha phew, thank goodness I'm not alone! Damzel - I do the same when we play 'remember remember', if he doesn't put the pair in the box I can't quite handle it.

OCDs were at their most heightened when my son was tiny. If the remote controls weren't lined up with my phone and glasses' case, I was feeling stressed. Ridiculous I know but the only explanation I can give is that it gave me some order amongst all the chaos of dealing with a newborn.

[Fuschia]

I don't like mine peering in the loo as they flush it...

[buggie]

...surely that's common sense Fuschia!!

[Pickle]

Totally. My kids have come to expect the words "we've got a new system for your toys, come and see how it works..." on quite a regular basis. As they get older it gets harder. Lego. Worst nightmare.

[Belle]

It's funny, I read this thread's title, thought 'nah, not me', then read all the posts, and yes, absolutely! Have to retrieve all toys every night, HATE it when one disappears, put things in the box they came in often to keep them together. I think it's true that it's our way of imposing some order on a situation which is inherently disorderly and unpredictable.

[candj]

I have separate storage boxes for the sylvania families, the polly pockets, the barbies so on and so forth... There are days when i avoid the playroom because i know i'll collapse in a sobbing heap. My OCD has just been exacerbated, that's all.

edited for ocd reasons

[The Nappy Lady]

I have this internal 'tussle' with myself...part of me thinks I should love the fact the children are really expressing themselves, using their imagination and combining assorted toys into one HUGE mess....errr sorry I mean game....BUT then the other, boring, sensible, grumpy, OCD half always seems to kick in and I find myself walking around muttering whilst trying to carry far too many items back to their orginal place. Most days all the upstairs stuff seems to end up downstairs and vice versa.

I do find on the odd Friday night once I've had a large glass of wine I suddenly develop 'toy blindness' however, this is an excellent thing!

[Fuschia]

buggie Wrote:

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> ...surely that's common sense Fuschia!!

Yes, but they do insist on doing it and I feel a surge of panic each time! And I am not at all OCD about germs usually

[anna_r]

The other day my husband asked my just two year old what mummy was doing and she answered with a sigh 'mummy's sorting'. Mummy spends a lot of time sorting. We just got her a toy kitchen with loads of toy food in crates which provides lots of opportunity for both mummy and daughter to do sorting. I also have separate boxes for toys in our expedit unit with tags saying things like 'instruments', 'small toys' (all those stocking filler type things which get everywhere) 'Lego' (of course) and 'balls and cars' which are currently combined due to lack of boxes although that is starting to bother me....

[snowboarder]

I wish I were more 'ocd' about toys and tidiness and household things in general. There are boxes for toy types (set up by daddy!) but I just can't summon up the energy to be too bothered about the refugee duplo in the brio railway box. Now what I do need to do is iron vests because the envelope neck irritates me if it doesn't lie flat. But that's a different thing, surely....?

[Fuschia]

anna_r Wrote:

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I also have separate boxes for toys in

> our expedit unit with tags saying things like

> 'instruments', 'small toys' (all those stocking

> filler type things which get everywhere) 'Lego'

> (of course) and 'balls and cars' which are

> currently combined due to lack of boxes although

> that is starting to bother me....

We have an expedit in child no 1's room (6x6) and one in the conservatory (4x2) and another shelving unit the same dimensions (4x4 allocated to toys) and NUMEROUS crates and boxes to fit the 60 (!) slots available

Aargh

[candj]

Love the Expedit, we had a huge one when we lived in Shanghai and I used to arrange the childrens books according to size ... I wish we still had one.

[23e Heure]

I've always known about my OCD tendencies.

With the recent arrival of LittleHeure, I'm actually hoping those tendencies will be forced to realx a bit... wishful thinking!?

[Mellors]

No, it weird, cause whilst I am pretty orgnaised about my own things, I chuck all the toys together in big boxes. Hence we never have all the bits for any of our toys, and boring small plastic things like lego are banned. Every 6 months or so OH finally cracks and sorts it all out, and chucks out all the halves of things that don't match. It lasts about 2 days......

Do you lot want to come round to mine? I will provide tea and cakes whilst you sort it all out for me? Please!

I do have a very shiny sink though.....

[Fuschia]

Mellors Wrote:

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>

> Do you lot want to come round to mine? I will

> provide tea and cakes whilst you sort it all out

> for me? Please!

what a good idea! will the babyoiled brazilian be there?!

[Sanne Panne]

I've gone down to OCD'ing once a week. Works wonders for the soul.

[GinaG3]

Oh my, lots of people. Thought I was the only one. My thing is everything on a slant, I cant do straight unless its flush against a wall. Anything not on a wall has to be slanted and symmetrical. On the fireplace we have these lanterns, I cannot tell you the amount of time I rush to slant them when they are knocked out of place. Ive always had a thing about even numbers, I hate them so I try to stick with odd amounts of things, usually 3 or 5. Its a bizarre thing. Deja vu is more frequent and weird too.

[Keef]

When I was at uni, living in halls, the lads on my corridor were in my room watching Shooting Stars on telly, and one of them threw an empty crisp packet on the floor, and said "I bet you can't wait to the end of the programme before picking that up". I tried to just stare at the screen, but I only lasted about a minute before having to put it in the bin. When I'd go out to the loo, they'd quickly move posters on my wall, so they weren't quite straight, and then laugh as I sorted it all out.

I also can't walk on the cracks between paving stones.

Quite odd, as I'm probably messy in other ways.