Sometimes a healthy bitchin’ is just called for
I have a wonderful, beautiful amazing 7-year-old niece that my brother and our family first met last year. We get to have her visit a week or two in the summer. My brother goes out of his way, driving 5 hours one way to get to an airport to meet her so she doesn’t have to take a connecting flight.
Personally, I think that is quite honorable of him considering I know flight attendants would be wonderful escorting her from one location to another.
Anyway, I didn’t think much of what happened last year when she returned home to her mother a few states away - until something along the same lines happened this year.
I’ve taken a little over a week to mull it over, to release a little of the anger that was boiling inside and now I just have to write.
Writing does tend to be my own personal preference for therapeutic release and well, you all are wonderful at speaking up to make me feel like I’m bitchin’ with good cause.
My niece was here for just over a week. Everyone enjoyed having her around, she visited so many relatives, the poor little girls head was swimming.
The day came when my brother would have to drive back to Chicago to deliver his daughter to the airport. When they arrived, they found the flight had been delayed until the next morning. So, they were faced with having to get a hotel for the night.
When they checked in to the hotel, my brothers fiance ran his daughter through the shower and was in the process of brushing her hair when the bomb was dropped.
At 10:00 PM - she began asking weird questions - like:
Do you see any bugs in my hair?
What about eggs? You know they look shiny and like a teardrop almost.
When my brother and his girlfriend began asking the reasoning behind the questions, they were informed that there seems to be an ongoing infestation problem at the girls house. The mom keeps getting it from kids she cares for and can’t seem to get rid of it.
Ok, my first thought was O MY Gawd, that woman put this child on a plane with lice and flew her to us.
How many people came in contact with her?
How many people came in contact with her seat?
Then I began to stress out mulling over my own time spent with her.
Did my head touch hers?
What about my kids?
Fortunately, a quick research online revealed that since we are a family that uses Tea Tree Oil Shampoo and Conditioner, that we most likely had little to worry about.
I did a quick once over of my kids heads - then called my cousin to check mine.
The psychological affect alone is enough to drive a person INSANE!
I cannot believe that woman sent her child in such a state. I mean come ON!
Last year she through a fit when her daughter returned home trying to make my brother feel like it had come from his end. Only this year we learned the truth.
Seven-year-olds do like to talk - and they talk a LOT.
I honestly can’t believe that people take risks with their kids and family like that when there are products on the market that actually PREVENT such horrible experiences.
If it weren’t for hurting my niece, I’d like to plaster the mother’s name all over the net for placing SO many people at risk.
But I’ll be nice and hope that she happens on my blog at some point and sees her own reflection in my writing and feels a twinge of embarrassment for her poor parenting skills, at least where this particular topic is concerned.
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POSTED IN: Parenting
8 opinions for Sometimes a healthy bitchin’ is just called for
Thrifty Karen
Jul 20, 2008 at 3:21 pm
During my early years of teaching, there was a classroom of kindergarteners that were infested. It was one child that kept reinfecting the group. Each day, the children came in and put their belongings on the tile, the teacher checked them into class, and then they had to put their belongings in a trashbag in the closets. It got so bad that volunteers came in to check the children’s heads everyday. Then they spent hours each day picking the nits out of one child’s hair.
I feel so badly for those kids. What a memorable kindergarten year!
CheeryGoth
Jul 20, 2008 at 3:27 pm
We’re talking about head lice, not bubonic plague! What do you think your kids were at risk from exactly? I am a teacher and these things go around primary school about once a year. It’s actually the clean kids that get it worse.
Chill.
Sue Doe-Nim
Jul 20, 2008 at 3:39 pm
She has no right to babysit any child who isn’t 100% nit free.
I’d be outraged for too many reasons to count.
Gayla McCord
Jul 20, 2008 at 4:36 pm
@ Karen - In the schools where you taught - you were lucky. In the schools around here, if a teacher addresses hygiene issues of any kind with a kid the teacher can get in trouble. They say it embarrasses the child.
I’m sorry but if a parent keeps sending the kid to school with head lice or even so smelly that it makes my kids gag, I’m gonna have to opt for embarrassing the child or the parent to make sure they clean their act up.
@ CheeryGoth - Telling a person who is OCD to “chill” over a case of head lice is like telling a normal person not to blink. I will NOT chill - it’s a nuisance that no one should be subjected to. All it takes is an ounce of prevention to keep it under control.
@ Sue - I couldn’t agree more! I’m sorry but if a kid comes to my house with head lice, I’m gonna go ape shit on the parents ass and make sure they clean it UP!
Once I bought the stuff, went to a parents house - treated them, their kids and helped them clean up their house because my kids kept getting it when they would visit their dad. Keeping them from their dad wasn’t an option, but putting the lazy culprits in the position to HAVE to clean up was.
The mother said she couldn’t get the two year old to sit still long enough to treat. I told her I’d get her to sit still or shave her head - plane and simple. She let me have a try and the girl didn’t move a muscle. Maybe it was my commanding tone - I don’t know - but we never had a problem after that.
When it comes to gross stuff like this - I am a witch and I don’t care who thinks it, says it or knows it.
tanyetta
Jul 20, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I would call the mother. In a loving way inform her on the lice information.
that girl
Jul 22, 2008 at 9:05 am
My mom taught elementary school and once she had a first grader who missed most of the year because of head lice. Policy stated that once she went home for them she must be checked to re-enter the classroom, so time after time she would come to school all excited and have to go right back home. My mom felt so bad for her - can you imagine what her future holds? It was sad.
Thrifty Karen
Jul 22, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Normally it is the rule not to let children re-enter school if they have lice. I guess the school figured that the children would miss out on their kindergarten year if it was up to the parents to treat the lice.
Angela
Jul 23, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Her Mom is a piece of work!
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