I went sledding with my daughter's class today. I already had some doubts about this because in their newsletter for the week, they told the kids to bring their magic carpet sleds in a garbage bag. I sure hoped noone read that part of the newsletter or followed it as i don't know where anyone keeps their garbage bags (is it in a clean place) and i sure wasn't going to interview all the parents to find this out!
So I'm at the school helping the kids put on their bike helmets and stuff when those in line decided to kick the custodian's garbage container across the floor. Not too impressed but I take it in stride. I try to remember which kids they were so i don't touch them later on. I'm not too successful at this, as you'll see. Most kids just had their sleds done up with elastic bands, so I'm ok there. Then I find out that the teacher is taking a garbage can along with her. It's filled with sleds too. (Calm down Karin, the sleds have probably been in that can for years. I'm sure it's not a GARBAGE can.) I make sure not to walk too close to the can.
We're at the hill and everything is going well until Katrina gets knocked on the head by another sledder, so she's done for the day. I sled with her down the pocked up baby hill, everyone else uses to climb up, and feel every dip and bump there is. Glad I only have to do this once! We walk to the parking lot nearby where there are some tiny hills made by a snowplow clearing the lot. Kd was happy to play there. Then she found something green in the snow. Curious, she had to go pick it up. It looked like one of those plastic pee troughs so kids (esp. girls) can pee outside. Thanks, KD. I make her put it down and go to a clean bit of snow and wipe off her hands. I tell her she does NOT have to pick up everything she sees, but I'm sure that message didn't even make a dent inside her brain before it flew out the other side.
Finally the kids get ready to go back to the bus. A little boy from Katrina's class can't get his sled rolled up so I help him (he wasn't one of the 'garbage-can-kicking' boys, was he???) and he lets me carry his sled back to the bus. I am also carrying Katrina's sled. So i'm now wondering if her sled is contaminated by his but try to push that thot out of my head. There at the top of the bus stairs is the big garbage can full of sleds and we all had to get around it. There was no way i wasn't going to be able to touch it, so i just did it as fast as possible.
When I got back to the school i just put Katrina's sled and my mitts in the trunk, my coat in the car and said 'stuff it' to the contamination thots running thru my head.
Maybe me and garbage containers will soon be on a friendly terms.
You go, Karin! I loved this post! It seemed like everything was set up to drive you to obsession (the garbage cans, the green thing), but you persevered and kept your sense of humor. Congrats on moving on even when you had contamination thoughts. That is so huge! I'm really happy for you and proud of you!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tina. I'm working on the idea that i have a choice. I can say Yes or No to my ocd ideas and since i've had a LOT of time logged in to watching other people and garbage cans plus heard it over again that the cans (esp. in a clean building) aren't dirty with toxic dirt, they are ok. So i decided to say NO to ocd. Not ready to do that with garbage cans that actually come in contact with garbage trucks yet tho....
DeleteSo in a few minutes i'm leaving to take KD to gymnastics where for some reason they also have a need to have tons of huge garbage cans around. I'm getting tons of visual exposures that's for sure! So maybe by the time i or katrina bump into one, i'll be ok with it.
You have made me realize how much little kids can unintentionally set off my OCD. When my nieces and nephews were little, I would be so anxious with them sometimes because they would pick up "dirty" things and then I'd have to wash their hands and my hands and try to tell them not to pick up dirty stuff but they wouldn't get it and then I'd stress.
ReplyDeleteI used to hate taking them to restrooms when they were of age to use restrooms. I remember one time my niece dropped her little purse on the restroom floor, I nearly passed out when she picked it up again!