Quirks that haunt..

R’s Mom talks about ‘managing to lock and unlock the main door a million and one times‘ when RD is away. Well, here’s a confession, I do it too. *more than a little shamefaced* And what’s more, I do even more crazy things like that.

For some reason, I can’t be entirely sure that everything has been locked safely.  I am the one locking things normally – whether husband is around or not. For instance when we go out, Husband takes daughter and gets her into the car, while I lock up. And every single time, as soon as I get into the car, he asks me if I have locked the house – and I can never say it with confidence that I have! I would have to run back out to check(husband despairs every time I do this)! Every single time! Just for the record – the house is always locked!

Or locking the house, and then a doubt creeps in – did I really switch off everything? Do I have any option but to go back in – and in the process have to yank off my boots to get inside and check on everything.

Sometimes I have other more dangerous worries. One time I wasn’t sure if I had taken the plug off after using my hair straightener, and we had to go back to confirm. Again for the record – it was unplugged.

Night time checking is by far the worst. I normally do check before going up to bed. But sometimes, every night, just before I doze off, I have these massive doubts. Have I switched off the oven? Have I switched off the gas? Have I locked the door. Sometimes I go down, check and come back. Only for a fresh doubt to grow in my mind. And off I go again – checking and re-checking. Sigh! If only I could get this under control.. Sometimes, I end up going to bed about half an hour later than planned, because of all my doubts. One time I sat up in bed, horrified, smelling something burning. It was only after checking the whole house, that I realized that I must have been dreaming!

While most of the time, my worries have been unfounded, there have been a couple of times when I actually left something on. I forgot to switch off the oven once. I was baking some koftas for dinner. I was back within 20 minutes, but it was still too late to save my koftas 😦 All I could do was be thankful that the house did not burn down! And once, I did leave something boiling on the stove – when I rushed out to school in a hurry. That time, there was plenty of water in the bowl, so it was safe, but both these times, I was shaken. That might be why I am so paranoid now.

My affliction increases a wee bit when husband is not around. And now I have come to understand that the only way around this is to have checklists and to check off all my worry points as soon as I have checked it, and, this is very important  – sign it off with a time-stamp. That seems the only way I can avoid checking again, again and again 🙂 May be one day, some one will come up with a mobile app, that does just that 🙂

So tell me, am I the only crazy one? Or do any of you do these as well?