But the orange “A” blends right in to the orange square!

Jack has a toy Noah’s Ark that has animals mounted on shapes which fit into slots in the top and which fall through into the ark when you pull a lever or twist a knob or some such manipulation. Whenever I put this ark away, I make sure all the animals are sitting in their proper holes and – this is the important part – facing forwards. Because that’s how they’re supposed to go. Forwards. If the cow-mounted-on-a-circle is not facing forwards when I first put it away, I will rotate the cow-mounted-on-a-circle until it is.

Yes, I realize I have a slight problem.

But I am not alone. Just last night Big Sister #4 was telling me about putting away her son’s foam puzzle thing that has alphabet cutouts. She and Elfin Nephew were picking up the puzzle squares and letters, and she found herself with an orange “A” in her right hand and an orange puzzle square with an “A” cutout in her left. All the other letters in that puzzle square were yellow, and she was faced with a choice of finding a yellow “A” or just putting the orange “A” into the orange square.

“Mom,” said Elfin Nephew, “that ‘A’ doesn’t go there. That’s the square for yellow letters.”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” said Big Sister #4. “It fits, so let’s just put it in here and put the yellow ‘A’ somewhere else.”

That’s what she said, but only because she doesn’t want to be responsible for creating an OCD monster. In her head she was shouting, “I know! You’re totally right! We clearly need a yellow ‘A’!”