Thursday 11 October 2007

I must not be a control freak

I was very proud of myself this morning. I did not give in to my control freak tendencies, despite temptation. Some might say quite extreme temptation.

The occasion was C, doing his hair ready for school. He spent a good ten minutes putting gel in (yes - that means nearly a whole tube of the stuff - if there had been a naked flame anywhere near his room this morning the whole house would have gone up).

What's so bad about him putting gel in his hair? you are thinking...but wait until you see what hairstyle he was trying to copy...

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Oh, yes. A manga-style character from his beloved Yu-Gi-Oh card game. That's manga as in sticky up hair in vertical clumps.

I was tempted to ask him to go and wash out the gel and comb it flat, but just in time I remembered that self expression is a Good Thing in children and that I shouldn't crush his emerging sense of individual style with my desire to have everything just the way I want it.

So today's post is in celebration of my only-sometimes-under-control control freakery. Here are some other things that turn me into a CF:

  • Being a passenger in a car. I would much rather drive. Sometimes, members of my family who have endured me as a passenger also say they would rather I drive next time.
  • Leaves on the lawn. Argh - this drives me mad. There is a beautiful and very old cherry tree that grows in our garden. I love it in the spring when the blossom is so beautiful and in the summer when we can enjoy the dappled shade, but I hate it in the autumn.
  • My pens. Please don't borrow them. Ever.
  • Unmade beds. I really hate them. You can't start the day with an unmade bed. And just tweaking the corners of the duvet does not mean the bed is made. You need to shake out the duvet and toss it over the bed freshly every morning.
  • Felt tip pens with no lids on.

I can't help but remember the wonderful episode of Friends where Monica hosts a party and the guests play games which require the use of felt tip pens. She hectors everyboby on how the lids mustn't just be put back on the pens, but they must be put back and pushed until you hear the little click. Whenever I see a felt tip pen with no lid, I do scrabble around looking for the lid, and tut to myself. But I also remind myself that a new tub of 100 pens is only £5. Not the end of the world.

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PS. Have just noticed that there is a pencil in the pen tub above. Now that really is upsetting.

2 comments:

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  2. we call my lovely sister in law Monica- you would both get on very well. She cannot understand my brother and I and our outright rebellion when it comes to untidiness. We regularly tease her for her Monica-isms, but to be honest it is purely down to jealousy on my part. I am far too lazy. I totally get the pen lid thing though, and also hate people touching my stationary. When I was a nanny I had bad cases of CF-usually where jigsaw puzzles were concerned. I could never have more than one puzzle out at any time as used to freak if the pieces got mixed up. Am sure I am solely repsponsible for the teaching of eye-rolling to the children of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

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