- May 14, 2015
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I'm sure some of you here can relate. I don't know if I'm so much looking for advice, rather just the knowledge that I'm not alone in this.
I have a son who will turn six this month and being an OCD parent is hard. Some days I feel like a terrible parent, because he will do things like color a picture for me and I have to pretend that mentally I'm not nitpicking everything (i.e., coloring outside of the lines or making a dog in the picture green instead of "normal" dog colors...know what I mean?). And then there are times when he will be doing something like building something with his Legos and he wants me to watch and I have to walk away because he's mixing red blocks with blue ones to build a wall and I start feeling very anxious. My grandmother thinks it's terrible that I still clean his room for him every day. She feels he's old enough to do it himself, and I agree, but I get really anxious knowing he won't do it "well enough". I know he won't line the books up on his shelf from tallest to shortest or he'll throw action figures in with his Thomas track stuff. So I spare myself the anxiety and do it myself.
Then the whole germaphobia creates a new set of problems. I won't take him to the public playground, because of germs. I homeschool him so that he won't be exposed to other kids and their illnesses. I won't let him play with the little boy across the street because the kid always has a snotty nose and the one time he did come over and play in the yard he kept hovering over my son. It freaked me out. I'm constantly making him wash his hands or use hand sanitizer when we're out in public. My dad laughed one day and said, "will you just let him be a kid?" I hate it, because I'm afraid I'm going to ruin him because of *my* issues.
I have a son who will turn six this month and being an OCD parent is hard. Some days I feel like a terrible parent, because he will do things like color a picture for me and I have to pretend that mentally I'm not nitpicking everything (i.e., coloring outside of the lines or making a dog in the picture green instead of "normal" dog colors...know what I mean?). And then there are times when he will be doing something like building something with his Legos and he wants me to watch and I have to walk away because he's mixing red blocks with blue ones to build a wall and I start feeling very anxious. My grandmother thinks it's terrible that I still clean his room for him every day. She feels he's old enough to do it himself, and I agree, but I get really anxious knowing he won't do it "well enough". I know he won't line the books up on his shelf from tallest to shortest or he'll throw action figures in with his Thomas track stuff. So I spare myself the anxiety and do it myself.
Then the whole germaphobia creates a new set of problems. I won't take him to the public playground, because of germs. I homeschool him so that he won't be exposed to other kids and their illnesses. I won't let him play with the little boy across the street because the kid always has a snotty nose and the one time he did come over and play in the yard he kept hovering over my son. It freaked me out. I'm constantly making him wash his hands or use hand sanitizer when we're out in public. My dad laughed one day and said, "will you just let him be a kid?" I hate it, because I'm afraid I'm going to ruin him because of *my* issues.
God be with you.
