My son's friend and classmate has head lice. EEEEEWW! ((shivers))
My worst fear would be if my son came home with it. EEEEWW!! EEEEWW!! ((shiver-shiver))
Admittedly, I am a freak when it comes to this (I no longer want to say the word, l***). Only my sister rivals me in this area. I truly don't know how I would handle it if it ever happened to us. However, for some crazy reason–and perhaps because I'm so freakishly afraid of one of us catching it–I have a gut feeling that, at some point, one of my boys is going to come home with it.
Now I know that it is pretty common and can happen to any unfortunate kid who happens to get too close to the next unfortunate kid (or whose mother DIDN"T INSTRUCT HIM TO TAKE THE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS!!) and so on and so on, but still it has a strong stigma of being dirty. I think that's half of my fear, that our family, if one of us ever got it, would be labeled "dirty". Come on, admit it. If someone in your child's class got it, you'd forever see them as less than clean.
TMS thinks I'm being overly concerned. Tell me, will he be the one who'd have to pick out the nits? Would he be laundering all the bedding, carpet, stuffed animals, coats, clothes in our home? Would he feel guilty for not wanting to get too close to his own child out of this unreasonable fear??? Help! I've actually been praying that he doesn't get it. Seriously, I've been praying. I know there are many more important things to pray for, but it's all I think will help. That, and the fact that I'm that crazy mom who HAS INSTRUCTED HIM TO TAKE THE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS!!
8 comments:
I have never in my life thought of anyone or any situation that involved lice as dirty. I think this is a psychosis (and we all have them) that is TSK-family(pre-marriage-centric. I remember every once in a while at school, a kid would be out and we would hear that he had lice. The sofa in our classroom would be burned.
Again, we all have our own "things" that freak us out, but I do not feel any kid would be labeled as dirty.
I don't know if I would be freaked out about it from the "dirty kid" stigma, probably more from the fact that like Chekhov said during one of the Star Trek movies, "Captain, dey put creatures in our ears!". It's just creapy to think you have parasites on your body. Yuk.
A woman that works for me had one of her kids end up with them. She said the amount of work you have to do to rid your kid and house of them is huge, just as you described.
I don't blame you for including this in your daily prayers!
I don't think lice is a big deal. Just think of it as the human version of when a dog has fleas. A dog with fleas isn't dirty...it just has fleas. You just treat it, and then you move on to the next "crisis".
I don't remember you freaking out when P.U. had fleas back in the 90s. Although, when I told Dominique about it, she did call P.U. a "dirty flea bag".
My moons ago, when she was in elementary school, my sister got head lice. My mother, like you, freaked out. She thought of it as dirty and instructed me and my father and my sister to not breathe a word of it to anyone....ever. My wise grandma told my mother, "it isn't shameful to get head lice, it is just shameful to KEEP them!"
I think those are word to take to heart...
So far so good. I keep doing the daily head checks and still none. Phew!
TBF -- I DID freak out when Zoe had fleas. I didn't tell anyone for a long time. Now I am okay with it. I don't know, for some reason, fleas aren't as bad. Afterall, it is an animal.
KF -- Your Grandmothers wise words are helpful. Your mom must not be the only one who told their child not to mention it. The only kid out of school last week, came back and said he was out sick. Right.
TBF -- PUs vet actually called her a flea-bag.
This, in addition to it being written on her permanent record, "Licks rear end a lot."
My mom meant not to tell our extended family members,(aunts and uncles, my paternal grandparents..) She didn't want THEM to know. I mean, really it is embarrassing. It shouldn't be, because it isn't anyones fault, but there is a stigma about it.
Thank goodness I never got it, nor did anyone else in our family.
My husband can remember when the school nurse would come and do lice checks for everyone in the class. He loved it. He never had lice, but he said her playing around in his hair made him almost fall asleep.
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