I don’t want to offend anyone with this post. I’m sure I will anyway, so, I apologize now. If you are prone to offense, why not go read about that peaceful chapel again and just skip today. Also if you get itchy when you think about lice, maybe come back another time. Okay, that seems to have covered it! Moving on …
I do get a little weirded out about cooties. And each country has it’s own particular cooties, germs, parasites, and assorted creepies and crawlies both large and small. But let me just say … threadworms. And … verrucas. And … winter vomiting disease. And … lice. Are you itchy, yet? Is that your hair brushing on your neck or SOMETHING CRAWLING ON YOU?!
So far, I’ve found the British attitude toward these assorted shudder-inducing agents to be reserved (perhaps typically). Basically as if lice … or threadworm … or verrucas … or annual vomiting … are simply par for the course. Just the way things are done. If a child at school has lice it warrants nothing more than “check her head, we found lice in the class today.” Seriously? Seriously. Seriously?
My personal approach is more reminiscent of total global warfare than reserved acceptance. More like:
Call for air support!
January 31st is a national “bug busting” day. Not a celebration destined to be one of my favorites. “The aim of these sessions is to inform children and their parents about the behaviour of head lice and how to detect and remove them. Co-ordinating bug busting days across the country can help to prevent head lice circulating.”
Did you just shudder? I did. I can’t quite stop.
I know this is not a British thing. I know we have lice and vomiting and warts and cooties in the US. Somehow it doesn’t matter. My dream of Camelot does not include anal worms.
I told you to skip this post.
Crumpets in Camelot 
This post made me laugh a lot!
I was one of those lucky children at school that never got headlice. I do remember the letters being sent home to parents informing them that a child in their daughter’s class has headlice, so please check their daughters for headlice, and be vigilant.
These of course led to daily hair checks by my mum, but I was always clean. thankfully. The idea of things crawling in my hair makes me shudder…just thinking about it makes my head itch!
As for worms…just EW.
It’s laugh or just sit there shuddering, so might as well laugh! =) I’m sure it is only a matter of time before one or another child comes home with lice — I’m hoping ridiculously vigilant, OCD-like hand-washing will keep the worms at bay. It makes me a little crazy to hear the (false) statement that ‘clean hair attracts lice’ with the suggestion that if we just don’t wash hair the lice will leave us alone. Only thing worse than being at risk is thinking you’re safe based on a myth.
The very thought of head lice totally weirds me out. I don’t know if they were just particularly uncommon in our area, but I don’t recall ever hearing about any schoolmates with head lice or having lice checks at home or school. We had unconquerable fleas one year and that was bad enough. The best part of living in Wyoming might have been that it was “above the flea line.”
I did not know Wyoming is above the flea line! The state ought to use that in advertising! 😉 Photos of lice, blown up to a zillion times their size, are completely horrible.
I was a biology major as an undergrad which taught me the great defense mechanism of denial. Tiny mites that live at the base of your eyelashes? Don’t have them! They don’t exist!
If I can’t see them, then they don’t!
Oh, no! Now my eyelids are itchy! lol
The elementary school in Gambier, Ohio had at least one kid a year with head lice. We never got them, for which I am still thankful.
Prevention is better than cure … or destruction is better … or total annihilation. Something about bugs crawling in hair makes me shudder. Maybe this is my Indiana Jones snake moment. “Lice. Why’d it have to be lice?”
I have a confession – my head is ALWAYS itchy. Even before we moved here. Since we’ve moved here it’s been more worrisome. lol!
I think I was unprepared — like the UK would have no parasites. lol. Is it safe to completely cover oneself in tea tree oil and … oh, what might work … vinegar? That will *really* help me make friends!!
Clearly your wit and charm will draw them in, no matter what scent you’re wearing. 😉 Just keep the rabies jokes to yourself, and you’ll be fine. haha!
No more rabies jokes. I learned my lesson.
Crying. Seriously, crying with laughter. Read this out loud to the hubs and he’s laughing too. No head lice for us (and I’m scared to ask what verrucas are) but we’ve had our fair share of the oh so common cold…over and over and over. I’m so sick of being sick and very ready for spring! Thanks for the laugh – as I sit here on ANOTHER day stuck indoors with a sick kid!
Everyone tells us the first winter is the worst — by next winter we’ll have filtered everything through our systems (lol) and be ready for action. I hope! A verruca is a wart on the foot, which apparently can be common here because (sometimes) kids go barefoot for indoor PE and so spread the virus around? This is urban legend territory — my kids do wear shoes for PE! — but I just like the word “verruca”.