Beware of the following

Uhoh. This is so scary. I have known it for awhile, but it is getting scarier by the day. I am afraid to break the news of this disastrous phenomenon. In one of my previous posts you were probably thinking I was a bit picky about keeping the little ones cleaned up and all that. Yes, I like to have my house in order, everything in its place and a place for everything. But, over the past 5 years of being a mommy I have lightened up quite a bit. Really, I have. Somewhere between the time of March 2000 and now there has been a spy. In my house. Watching what I do. Every move I make. My responses, my idiosyncrasies, my good habits and bad habits. No, it is not the government. It is my daughter. She is like me. But worse. Way worse. I have known it for some time. She is 5. She cleans her own room. Everything has its certain spot. If you move anything, she knows. Even her doll house has to be set up just so. Sometimes we'd play doll house and I'd rearrange the furniture. She would later come and ask me, "Mommy, was the couch right there? For real?". It needed to be just so. Just like I had done it. She saves everything. Even used Kleenex. I will find wrappers to Princess snacks in her room at times. I am proud of her. I'm glad she likes to be clean and have a clean room. The thing is, she barely plays in there. She doesn't want to mess it. She can't even enjoy it!!! I tell her over and over again that it's ok, she can clean it up, but she needs to enjoy her things! We often have pandemonium in our home. Toys strewn all over the place. I used to follow the trail picking it up. Now I say, "It's ok, we'll get it later". Sometimes we need to just enjoy life and not worry about the crumbs amongst us. Well, H is getting a bit more particular. She likes to put her own clothes away. I don't even have to ask her to do it, she just takes them and does it. The past few times she will sit on her floor crying or throwing a fit. She doesn't remember if her yellow shirt was under her butterfly shirt. "Mommy, were these shorts right here?" It is scary. Very scary. I like neat, orderly drawers, but I don't color coordinate, nor do I put things in the exact spot they were in when I took them out. In fact, my drawers are rarely orderly anymore. Who has time with 3 children? Especially when the littlest one likes to go and empty them! What do I do? I have told her that it does not matter where or how her clothes go in the drawer. All that matters is that they are put away. I also have noticed it coming out in her schoolwork. She gets upset if her B doesn't look like it should, or if her 9 isn't right. I try to tell her it takes practice, and sometimes that suffices, but sometimes she is so upset. Have I created a perfectionist? I haven't intentionally been 'picky' so she picks up on it. I haven't been 'drilling' her with the routine of how everything needs to be just so. I just pray she lightens up. I am glad that she desires to have great organizational skills and wants to be clean and orderly, but there is a point when one becomes obsessed by it. Oh, please don't let her be one of those!