Maxi-Taxi brought a new ecosystem home with him from school yesterday. I don’t know how we did it, but one Tsunami or another has been in daycare since 2005 and we’ve been completely nit-free. Term 2 of big school and it’s combs at the ready.
I couldn’t believe how quickly they’d set up camp. I noticed him scratching a little before bed on Tuesday night, toured the head with a torch and found absolutely nothing. By Wednesday afternoon, there were 7 actual specimens and about 132,000 eggs. I drowned him in Pantene dry/damaged conditioner and spent 2 hours with the comb, the nails and the wriggling child, banishing the clingy little buggers one strand at a time.
This morning he insisted that we visit the principal’s office to let him know about the nits. I asked him why we needed to tell Mr Smith and he said “Mr Sniff knows everything at school. He needs to know about this.”
I humoured him because I really doubted that Mr Sniff would be in his office at 8am on a Thursday. But in there he was. Maxi-Taxi marched in, bold as brass and boomed “Mr Sniff, the nits are on the loose!” Mr Sniff cracked up. He’s a terrific principal.
So, beware. The nits are on the loose. And frankly, I have PTSS from the whole encounter. Can’t stop scratching. Scratch, scratch. Bet you’re scratching too, right?
Gifts of Serendipity says
Why does just reading this have me scratching my head whilst giggling all the way?!!?
If there’s one thing I really can’t stand [or understand] it’s ‘Nits on the loose’. Since becoming a step-mum I’ve been introduced to the horror of not only discovering them on others but on my own little scalp [eeek,the shame, the pain!].
I’ve taught in primary classrooms for over 20 years and managed to maintain a pristine scalp that whole time but that’s all over now.
When it first happened I’d only been living with the children a short time and wondered if it was the kids way of testing me [ala the frog incident with Maria in The Sound of Music] but quickly realised that it’s more sinister than that. Hundreds of dollars and tears later I have worked out a system that works well for us [perhaps not so much the environment though] 1. Treat with Lice Blaster Plus 2. Wrap the head in alfoil to resemble some kind of mutant alien and send them off to play 3. Wash out and comb through with super-duper lice comb 4. Use Robi-comb each morning to kill off any super-virile bastardos.
Ooh this is now a very long comment, thanks for the therapy session.
x Felicity