OCD S.O.S.

We have a pretty strong strain of OCD running through our family. My grandmother passed it to my Dad, who has passed it to me and my brother, and the two of us have passed it to Macy and Gabriel. So sad. There are parts of the disease I try to fight, and others I just give up on and accept that that's the way I am. My main symptom is that I have to make sure everything is in it's proper place before I go to bed at night. I don't repetitively circle the house, or do things three times or anything WEIRD like that. But I will rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher if Jav loads it, and constantly gripe to myself about where he puts things. The thing about having OCD is that you convince yourself that you have a good reason for having to have everything just right. So if Jav puts something in a place I haven't deemed it should go, I have to fight telling him that it's in the wrong place and why. When I get tired I am not as good about keeping my mouth shut. He is always a prince and just lets me rant.

So of course Gabriel has picked up on this and is starting to show signs of OCD here and there. But I'm wondering if there's still time to save him, and how to go about it. Should I make an effort to not put things away before bedtime, no matter how much it will drive me up the wall? Should I leave things in one room even though they belong in another, like Gabriel's matchbox cars that he likes to drag to the living room every day? I usually move the box back to the playroom just before he goes to bed. I just don't want it to control his life, like it seems to with me and with Macy. When we visit my brother she spends quite a bit of time telling everyone what they are doing wrong. And although she doesn't know how to be any other way, that doesn't seem like a very fun hobby! (Plus it won't win you any friends). So I will practice saying, "it doesn't really matter where you put that" and try not to sound too forced. But if the kid was born with it, anything I say won't really help at this point.