We're A Little Different

Peculiar personalities run in my family! No kidding. We know it and accept it. And no two of us are alike.

I’ve already told you about my daughter who puts problems on the back burner so she won’t have to think about them. Well, she has other idiosyncrasies, too. When you go to her house, the first thing you see when you get up in the morning is her spraying the kitchen counter tops with cleaner and wiping them with a rag. Every morning! No one ever asks, "why?" And she's such a perfectionist! She’s always on time, always dressed properly for every event, and knows the correct thing to say and do for any occasion. Sometimes I think I mistakenly took someone else’s child home from the hospital.

Another daughter doesn’t like to be with people. She admittedly prefers the company of animals. That’s why she works in a kennel and has four animals of her own. When she’s not at work, she spends her time with them and her two children and likes it that way. However, at family occasions, she’s the life of the party. Always has been. We couldn’t do without her humor and entertainment. As long as she doesn’t have to deal with a lot of strangers, she’s very happy!

My son lives alone and that’s just fine with him. He enjoys his own company and that of his cat. When he feels like it, he goes out with people, and enjoys himself, but it has to be when he wants to. No matter how much you try to persuade him, he won’t budge if he wants to be alone. When someone asks, “Why won’t you go?” He merely says, “I don’t want to!” No excuses, no details, no attempt to avoid hurting feelings... just the plain, unvarnished truth! And it doesn’t hurt him a bit. People like him and he has many friends. I suppose, down deep, people prefer the truth to a lot of pretense.

Yet another male member of the family has such an extreme case of OCD that when he goes anywhere to stay overnight, he doesn’t trust that the beds are clean, so he covers his whole body before going to bed. He dons pajama pants, a long sleeved shirt – sometimes a hoodie – and socks. No part of his body is exposed when he sleeps, or tries to sleep. I doubt he gets much shut-eye dressed like this.

My husband has his peculiarities, too, but perhaps I’ll let him off the hook. I wouldn’t want to embarrass him. But of course, you no doubt know that the children, all except the last one, who is an in-law, inherited their oddities from him. There's no other explanation.

Since I’m perfectly normal, where else could they have gotten them?