Help a frazzled parent

pumpkin65
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:05:55 +0000

In our family, we are all like this to one degree or another. Same stuff as other folks have mentioned… We adopted the strategy of minimal clutter, as other posters have mentioned. We joke that we live in a Pottery Barn ad. It has really, really helped to have a place for everything. Keys in a special cabinet…all computer and cell phone accessories in a basket, phone directories a cubby, three drawer unit in coat closet for hats, gloves, scarves, earmuffs. We process bills immediately to reduce paper clutter, or set up automated payments. If we touch passport, birth certificate or other super duper important document, I can’t rest until it’s back in its special place. We just can’t handle the stress and lost time that misplacing things causes.

If a cell phone or or expensive digital gadget is lost (IPOD, expensive calculator or the like)we will not pay to replace it for D1 or 2. It is a huge inconvenience not to be able to call your child or have them call you for a few weeks - but I figure, we all survived without them for a very long time. The child has to buy their own, or find it. I know in some families this would be tough, or a big safety issue as far as cell phone is concerned, but we get by.

Amazing there is so much company here on CC. My parents are not like this, and I don’t think DH’s are either, but all of us are. I also must say that when my parents stopped ‘helping’ me, I got better. You just develop coping mechanisms.

And my mantra is ‘crackberry, crackberry, OK, there it is, phew’. I don’t have glasses yet. I also sometimes lose focus in conversations like Wildwood. D2 has mild ADD, maybe I do also.

I am looking forward to the day that we can tag everything with RFID and find it magically.