It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a neat freak.

When I was a kid (an only child, of course), I used to forbid friends from sitting on my bed for fear of messing it up. I’ve been known to re-tie my shoelaces four or five times before a long run. I also usually burn through 20 or 30 paper towels a day—most of which I manipulate to clean up crumbs from the kitchen counter.

Imagine, then, how challenging it is for me to feed my six-month-old daughter rice cereal with a spoon.

It’s not the logistics of feeding; despite my irrational fear of the girl choking on my watch, I’ve actually gotten relatively comfortable with the whole “insert-spoon-here” idea. Instead, the part of these feedings that gives me agita is the mess. Put simply, little L (and most babies, I’m guessing) gets her food everywhere.

Her hands. Her nose. Her cheeks. Her arms. Her onesie. The bib. The tray. The high chair. You name the surface, L gets food there regularly. Today, while downing her afternoon snack, she somehow managed to get rice cereal in my hair and, at the same time, on the face of a cabinet 20 feet away.

My OCD about neatness definitely plays a role in these feeding sessions. While I don’t wipe her little maw after every bite, I do keep a wet washcloth on hand to clean away the cereal when it starts to resemble a Fu Manchu. Sometimes I also will use the cloth to clean her hands (these can get pretty goopy, especially when she chases a spoonful of cereal with some finger).

Then I get up and rinse the washcloth vigorously every few minutes to keep it clean.

To this point, L has been patient with my neuroses, watching me curiously all the while. Sooner or later, though, I know she’s not going to stand for it. And I can’t say I blame her at all.