Practice makes....

....Perfect

I have a house full of perfectionists....(well most of the time)....Megan particularly is bordering on obsessive when it comes to doing things again and again and again until she gets it right....and she applies this to EVERYTHING!

Whether its doing her hair before school, or a handstand in the front room....or as we are finding out at the moment....perfecting her ballet routine for her recital or grading....she always applies the same level of dedication....she has very high levels of expectation.

Now, on the surface I suppose this is a good thing, as she always perseveres until she achieves her goal....but it does have a downside however....

If she can't get something right she gets stroppy, well stroppy doesn't really cut it....don't dare tell her not to worry about it or "it'll be ok in the end"....she knows better....!

Sarah and I do worry sometimes though because if Meg is not grasping something as quickly as she thinks she should do, she gets anxious, and when she gets anxious you can actually see her pupils dilating before you....and when it reaches this stage her coping mechanisms are well established.

Whenever Meg is feeling anxious she withdraws from whatever it was she was doing, she complains of tummy ache and becomes very quiet and contemplative. Now she is a clever cookie is Meg and most of the time she can rationalise things, think things through until she is happy and moves on.

At its worse though, Megan displays signs of OCD, she is a hand-washer. Years ago, before we realised what the signs were Meg would get such dry skin from repeated washing, cold water washing with soap would leave her hands red raw too sometimes.

Now though we are alert to the signs and keep an eye out for extra trips to the toilet or bathroom. Megan will talk to me or Sarah about why her butterflies have come back and what is maybe concerning her; for example recently we had Uncle Anthony in hospital and Great Granny's funeral. So we talk about what these things mean to us, how it makes us feel and how it's important not to put too much pressure on ourselves or each other.

Meg is keen to be successful in all her activities, whether its Gym class at school on a Friday before the normal lessons start, or her ballet class and practice for grading....we just make sure FUN is the main reason for doing all these things :)