When your child is born some of your main parenting skills are around “safety” “behaviour” and “reassurance”. How ironic when your child has a diagnosis of OCD the main avoidance for parents involve “safety” “behaviour” and “reassurance”. If only I’d realised the questions at a younger age were in fact OCD talking. If only I’d realised when I was asked to buy antibacterial soap instead of general soap it was in fact OCD talking. How ironic my child’s “what ifs” became my “if only”. Watching your child disappear behind the over encapsulating being of OCD is distressing ,frightening and painful. As a family we have lived through extreme OCD and as a family with knowledge we are now conquering OCD. No longer will you stop me from hugging my child or tell my child she cannot eat through fear of contamination. No longer will you stop my child from walking barefoot in the house or relax in a chair after spending hours scrubbing herself again and again before drip drying through fear of contamination. No longer will you make my child throw away her precious belongings though fear of contamination. No longer will you make my child cut off her beautiful long hair for fear of contamination creeping up her legs. We have the ladder of recovery and we continue to climb upwards. You will not beat us OCD we have now got inside your mind as you did ours and we have discovered your weakness, you do not like “sharing” the thoughts you so want to share with our daughter. We now know this and with this knowledge we will continue to discuss your thoughts with our daughter accepting them for what they are “just a thought” and by dismissing them as an OCD thought this will weaken your grip on our lives.