Neat Freaks

Children naturally crave order. I'm not sure if this says anything about the human condition, and I'm not willing to speculate. But I do know for certain that small children (and some more than others) thrive on order: routines, traditions, habits, or any other kind of order you can imagine. It seems that three-year-olds are particularly affected by this "disorder", if you would allow me to call it that, for in our family, the need for order sometimes turns our lives topsy-turvy. Now when I say "our" I mean Derek's and mine.

Example One: Everything has its place
Maïa is very particular about what goes where. We have a number of baskets in which reside the children's toys. There are smaller ones there are larger ones; each contain a particular set of toys. When we first placed the baskets back in July when we moved to our new home, none of them had a their own space. But once we had put the dishes basket on the right on more than one occasion, that became its home. Now, it would be unthinkable to place that basket between the other two or to the left.

Example Two: Things must be straight and square
Again, the toy baskets. They must be placed on their respective shelves, but not in any-which-way. Oh, no. They must be pushed (but not too far in) and be perfectly aligned. Closet doors, doors to rooms, cupboard doors, drawers: all must be closed. If anything is left ajar, it gets pushed in.

Example Three: Routines are key
This one is a maxim that most parents of small children know well. In the baby books, generally the routine spiel is usually broached in the context of bedtime. Oddly, Maïa is very flexible with her bedtime routine. The mother of all routines in her world is the one surrounding the bathroom. There are at least 15 steps (we've counted), and they must each be done in the exact order or else all bets are off, and she's down on the floor, screaming. So we've just let it go. We coach her through each step to get her moving along (if left unchecked, she will take up to 30 minutes, and I'm not exaggerating: I tried it one day when we weren't in a rush to do anything).

There is no question that Maïa is a neat freak, for now, anyway. And it looks like Solanne is well on her way, too. Yesterday, as she was sitting in her highchair, having a snack, she yelled out, "Uh-Oh!! Uh-Oh!!!" I looked up to see her pointing at the utensil drawer I had left ajar (by about 1 cm). "Uh-oh!" She looked at me in earnest, so I closed the drawer. Then she clapped.

Sigh. I wonder what her mother-of-all-routines will be... I'll keep you posted.