Friday, April 17, 2009

Having Fun with OCD

I have a child with minor OCD tendencies. Well, ok they are probably more than minor.

A couple of weeks ago I found an almost complete set of vintage alphabet blocks at a thrift store. When I got home I noticed there were enough letters to spell out our last name. I didn't want them to be all straight. I wanted them to look a little cock-eyed because that's the way I like it. A few hours later I noticed that the blocks no longer looked like this

They looked like this.

At first I thought it was just the kids getting used to having the blocks sitting around & they were messing with them. So I fixed them & walked away. Later in the evening I noticed they again looked like the second picture & not like the first. So I fixed them again. The next morning the OCD child had fixed them again. It was at this point I decided to play a little game. I call it "Having Fun with OCD". I display the blocks in an unperfect manner and the OCD child comes and "fixes" them. This has gone on for a couple of weeks and I still have not tired of it. I am just trying to decide if I am being cruel or not. Am I causing a problem that will take years of therapy to undo? Hmm?

2 comments:

amy said...

but, yet, he never worried about coloring in the lines...

Unknown said...

Ahhh go ahead and have fun with it...when you find him in a corner with super glue and the blocks can no longer be changed...then you know it's time to stop :)