For the third time this year, an infestation of the icky little brown bugs has occurred on an unfortunate preschooler in my littlest's class, so the school (and we) have been checking heads with a fine-toothed comb. Literally.
Because in my head, even though I know lice are a fact of life, they infest young and old, clean and messy alike, there's just something skin-crawlingly icky about the thought of little brown bugs scooting around on your scalp.
And so, Mommy's been engaging in an on-going Avoid Lice 101 course for her kiddos, trying to scare them out of the types of behaviors—sharing hats and hoods, combing each other's hair, etc., that could lead to making all of my nightmares are true. We talk about how you get BUGS IN YOUR HAIR! (Exclamation point required.) That you will then need to sit and have your hair brushed for hours, and have icky-smelling stuff poured into it. Fortunately, my oldest, whose thick, dark hair reaches nearly to her waist, seems to have gotten the hint, and shudders right along with me at the mere mention of lice. (She is my target audience anyway—it'd be relatively easy to pull the bugs from my youngest's baby fine, shoulder-length hair, but my oldest will likely lose her locks if she ends up with lice.)
Some of the moms in the school have taken extreme measures—boys with razor short hair, coats placed in plastic bags (those coathooks are apparently too close for comfort), rubbing herbal potions that are said to repel the bugs onto their heads. I'm not quite ready yet to take it that far. But after one session of delousing, I may start to see the benefits of putting my kids in a lice-free bubble.

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