With three kids in grade school, I always knew it was possible that one of them could end up with the dreaded head-scratching scourge of the playground: lice. So in a certain way, I was mentally prepared?though totally grossed out?when my seven-year-old daughter said to me, ?Mom, whenever I scratch my head, I get these little bugs under my fingernails.? Apparently, the white flakes on her hair that I had thought were dandruff weren?t flakes at all?they were egg sacs. (Ew!)
Like any self-respecting millennial mom, I got information from the internet and set about washing my daughter?s bed sheets on high heat, bagging up her stuffed animals and meticulously combing through her hair to weed out nits. It all seemed par for the course, something that would soon be a story I?d swap with other veteran parents as proof of our child-rearing mettle. Meanwhile, I played the situation down to my daughter, offering platitudes like ?It?s not that bad? and ?Lots of kids get lice. It?s normal? and ?Just give it time. It?ll pass before you know it.? To her credit, she handled the whole thing with surprising equanimity. Though she cried at first, she submitted with relative calm to time-consuming hair treatments and the temporary absence of her favourite plush toys.

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