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It's 90 degrees today in Upstate New York, and I have been smacked in the face by yet another OCD tendency of my 6 year old. The tedious process went away this winter season and luckily seemed to escape my memory for the past 8 or so months.
But 90 degree weather and 2 days of straight sunshine has caused a sudden re-birth.
My kid has OCD with "Sunscreen Application".
Are any other people's children obsessed with this phenomenon? I mean, my step-sons could care less about sunscreen. We usually need to chase them around poolside with lotion in hand, slapping their backs as best possible hoping that even the smallest amount lands.
My 9 year old will whine, but knows that succumbing to the rub-down is a much better deal than facing a time-out. There is no worse torture than watching your siblings play outside or swim while you sit nailed to a chair for 10 minutes. No worse torture.
But then, there is my 6 year old.
Sunscreen application is a very serious process. It begins at certain points on each arm. The lotion must be administered slowly - in small dabbing motions which then turn into single finger strokes, up and down, up and down.
Leg coverage is massive. The child looks like one major grease ball and if asked to hold anything within an hour after completion, items slip through her fingertips even with the most determined grip hold.
And then we have the ears, neck, underarms, shoulder and facial coverage. Facial coverage is what I fear the most. As yesterday reminded us, facial coverage causes facial sunscreen drippage after any amount of sweat or perspiration, which in turn causes massive eyeball burnage.
Wouldn't most normal people learn a lesson after just one experience of massive eyeball burnage? I would surely think so, but that would then not allow for the entire process of facial sunscreen coverage and here I believe is where the OCD takes over in my child.
And as much as I feel sorry for the kid, I can not help but laugh inside. I love that greasy mass of child, even as I realize that the season for wet-washcloth application over eyes has just begun.
God help us all.
11 comments:
Count your blessings! I walked upstairs one day to find my 4 y/o and her 3 y/o best bud covered in toothpaste. I'd much rather sunscreen lol.
LOL I'm just glad they can now help with the sunscreen application! I do the faces..they do their best with the rest and then I finish them up with the best sunscreen invention EVER...the spray can of sunscreen. Application time is down to seconds!
1. I can't believe it's 90 up there. It's not even that hot here.
2. The painful process of watching her dab and spread so precisely would make me scream and run crazy around the block in my bra and panties (not a pretty site by the way). I am a control freak much like her (no surprises there, right!) but I think her OCD trumps the few control issues I have left after having a child of my own.
It's so hot here in D.C., too! Our daughter squirms away like your older one during sunscreen application time, so we're going to try sunscreen spray. I wonder how your 6 year old would feel about the spray? She must enjoy being quite the slick swimmer in the water :)
My stepsons are from a darker persuasion and have never needed sunscreen! My poor child burn during a snowstorm! Today, I burned the whole right side of my body! I was not smart enough to move to the other side of the table to even out my burn!
You need to get spray on Suntan lotion.
Best invention ever.
Be glad you don't live on a farm. Lotsa stuff to spread on you here... by choice and by chance.
good thing the 6 year old isn't attending a state fair. He'd be tossed in the pool (like a greased watermelon) to be chased by screaming tanned children!
Have you seen the sunscreen facesticks? They work wonders at preventing eyeball burnage.
Too cute. I'm seriously missing little ones in the house. Due to her sunscreen diligence, she will look amazing at 50.
LOL! Nothing worse than getting it in the eyes. She does know that it's supposed to be absorbed into the skin, not a physical barrier?
Oh, and Zibbs, spray sunscreen is the best invention ever...until it lands in my husband's hands and I walk into the room as I hear him say, "Close your eyes." and he sprays my kids' faces.
Commense screaming.
Like I said, nothing worse than sunscreen in the eyes.
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