Close The Door

S. has developed an obsession with shutting doors. The minute she is strapped into her car seat she starts announcing "close the door Mommy. Close the door" with increasing volume until the door is closed. If she wakes up in the night, she insists we close the door when we leave her room. When she wakes up in the morning she shuts the door to her room as she leaves, and she then enters our room and shuts the door behind her.

I have to admit I think this is a good thing.

I like to shut doors, especially cabinet doors. I think things look cleaner when doors are shut. I'm not even that big on opening windows. But I grew up with parents who weren't advocates of shutting doors. I remember repeatedly cracking my head on overhead cabinets which had been left open in our first house. Then my parents built a house, and they decided that since "no one" closes cabinet doors we should just have no cabinet doors. This didn't mean that they kept things neatly, though, so the cabinets just looked grubby.

Now I've married a man who also doesn't seem to close doors. Last week I woke up to a neighbor bringing our dog back, because my husband had taken the trash barrel out without shutting the gate. Last night I asked him to put something in the guest room, and he put it there, but left the door open and the light on (I try to keep our guest room shut and cat free). He never closes cabinet doors.

So if S. wants all doors shut, I support that. It is so much better than the alternative.