Lice Lessons

It happened!  The thing most moms hope never does- my child came home from school with lice!  I wanted to cry!  I wanted to burn everything Izzy had laid on, touched, or could have touched in that last week.  I felt like those little pests were crawling all over me.  I felt like everything was dirty and that there was an infestation in our house.  I was embarrassed.  I was angry at the child (or at least the mother of the child) in her class for using homeopathic treatments that didn't kill them all the first time.  I was frustrated that I had to go through this extensive cleaning process and bag everything for a month.  I was worried that Izzy had spread it to her  friends over the past couple days that she had spent so much time with over break  I was sad to have to shave my boy's heads, something I swore I would never do.  But then I started to see how my immature attitude and feelings were affecting my daughter.  She started to feel embarrassed, ashamed, dirty and worried.  Those were not traits I wanted to pass on to her when something challenging arises in her life.  I had to change my attitude, my words, and my outlook on this situation.  

Once everything was bagged, vacuumed, shampooed, and once I changed my attitude, things became less stressful, and ironically fun.  I enjoyed the one-on-one, uninterrupted time I got with Izzy twice a day to go through her hair section by section (30-40min).  I was able to focus just on her and talk about life. school, friendships, and anything else on her mind.  It became fun looking for anything that might not belong in her hair- it was like popping pimples and picking scabs- weird, I know!

It's been almost 2 weeks since we have been lice free!  Life seems to have fallen back into it's normal chaotic way, and in some twisted weird way, I miss the lice (but I don't want them back)!

If you find that your child has lice, please call me- I know what you are feeling.  I've done so much research on the topic and spoken with many other victims that I would love to help talk you off the cliff!  :)