Nitpicking
Last week marked Sofia's first days in pre-school; this weekend marked our first battle against head lice. It hardly seems fair: Sofia spends four days in pre-school (Monday through Thursday), and we spend all night Sunday lathering her locks with delousing lotions. The kicker is that I found one or two in my own hair, which meant that I had to lather up and sleep on the couch to avoid spreading our six-legged friends to Pegs and our bed.
Since we were still finding eggs in Sofia's hair this morning, I thought it would be considerate of me to work from home and avoid contaminating my entire office (and keep Pegs from shaving Sofia's head), but my boss apparently didn't share my perspective. When I emailed him to tell him I would be working remotely today, he responded (only half-jokingly), "You know, my kids have had lice dozens of times in the last year, and it's never stopped me from coming into the office." To this, my reactions were as follows:
Since we were still finding eggs in Sofia's hair this morning, I thought it would be considerate of me to work from home and avoid contaminating my entire office (and keep Pegs from shaving Sofia's head), but my boss apparently didn't share my perspective. When I emailed him to tell him I would be working remotely today, he responded (only half-jokingly), "You know, my kids have had lice dozens of times in the last year, and it's never stopped me from coming into the office." To this, my reactions were as follows:
1. Ew.
2. Next time, please warn me that your kids have lice before I sit next to you on a conference call.
3. Your kids have had lice "dozens of times in the last year" and you've never gotten them? Dude, how often do you hug your kids?
4. Um, your kids really need to hang out with some new friends. Or at least stop sharing hats with them.
5 comments:
First off -- I'm so glad you are back! I've missed your blog!
Second -- gross to the lice, but at least is isn't bed bugs. My boyfriend had a horrible 6-month-long battle with the horrible little heebie jeebies since his brother brought them back to England from Spain. We didn't know they were there until AFTER I had visited and got a zillion weirdo bites. Needless to say I boilwashed all of my clothes, threw out my suitcase, and had a bout of chemical warfare in my house in CA. (Luckily nothing ever manifested here.) Paul had a much worse ordeal, though -- and had a long battle with them and have finally won. We are both bedbug free finally!
I'm with you, Lee, though. I wouldn't want to sit next to anyone who had lice. Now I must cut out the part of my brain that is thinking about seat-backs on planes -- ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
(I guess I'm not doing much to dispel the stigma of this stuff. Get well soon!)
Maybe your boss does hug his kids often, and that's why they get head lice dozens of times a year.
Ewwwwwwww.
He's pretty short, right? Next time you're at the office, you should stand right next to him, look down, and check for head lice.
We had bed bugs a few years ago. We called an exterminator and fumigated the apartment and then I threw away the (perfectly good) bed that was infested because I was too grossed out to keep it.
If I had to choose between bed bugs and lice, I would choose lice. I've spent the last two days washing everything, but that's nothing compared to scrubbing a fumigated apartment.
They say that bedbugs are coming back everywhere. I was in SF for a conference a few weeks back and it was the front page story in the Guardian.
After my own near-miss, I went out and bought some super duper (read: expensive) things called mattress cases that are some material that simultaneously keeps bugs out of the mattress and doesn't feel like plastic. I figured that in case I travelled anywhere where they might be, then I wouldn't have to get rid of my amazingly awesome mattress. I think when I get to England and get established, I'm going to do the same thing as those icky buggers (har har) are so prevalent with travels now.
Welcome to preschool Sofia! No head lice for us, but plenty of pink eye. Be prepared for more joys of preschool coming your way, esp. in the winter months. Nice to *see* you back! XO - Jilly, M, N & M
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