Passing on the Neuroses...

As you all know from reading my 100 list and other blog entries, I am somewhat neurotic...okay, okay a lot neurotic. And that's okay. I revel in my neuroses. I embrace my neuroses. But, when my 6 year old daughter starts showing signs of the same neuroses, I want to smack her upside the head until her mannerisms return to normal run for the hills.

I have noticed small signs of her being like me all her life but I have always clung to the fact that Teensy's personality mirrors her father's laid back nature way more than my high strung, high maintenance one (except for the complete bitch streak that every woman in my family is raised with from wee infanthood--she has that down pat).

On our way home from the other side of the state, we had stopped at a truck stop diner that I remember from my youth to have a bite of lunch. We sat at a table with a booth on one side and chairs on the other, in the same order that we regularly sit...Bubba and Dear Hubby on one side, Teensy and I on the other. However, Teensy was chilly from the air conditioning so we made the kids swap sides, so Bubba was sitting next to me and Teensy was next to her Daddy where the A/C wasn't blowing directly on her bare summertime arms. We were still waiting for even the drinks to arrive so nothing on the table was touched yet, including the silverware. But after Teensy switched sides, she reached back across the table and forcefully stated that the silverware now in front of Bubba were hers and slid him the ones that had been setting in his original spot.

Now, here is where I must stop and tell you that my obsessive compulsive nature rears its head at the oddest times and this would have been one of them. I would have laid claim to those silverware in the exact same way because god forbid someone else touch and/or use the napkin that was surrounding the silverware intended solely for my use. But it surprised the hell out of me to see my daughter imitating a move that I do without thought. I don't know how I came upon my idiosyncrasies as I do not remember having them as a child, however, I am left to wonder...

Have my daily unconscious neuroses been imbedded in my little girl for life or is this just a "be like mommy" phase?

Damn.