It all started when my wife found a small, oval, white object. At first, she didn't think it was a head lice egg.
A few days later, she found another… even more this time.
Then another.
Two weeks later, my wife found a baby head lice.
Just when we thought it was all over, an adult head lice emerged.
From then on, my wife's new routine began: every morning as my daughter got ready for school and every evening after my wife got home from work.
She searched my daughter's head for lice and their eggs.
Both with her hands and with an ultra-fine lice comb.
In the mornings, while combing and braiding our daughter's hair, my wife would carefully examine her hair and head.
She checked carefully, worried that she might have missed a head lice.
Sometimes she even used an ultra-fine lice comb to comb my daughter's hair before braiding it.
As she did this, I sometimes thought my wife was more experienced than wildlife researchers when it came to finding head lice. Sometimes, if she had free time in the afternoon, she would also embark on her search mission.
Watching them, I remembered my experience when I was in elementary school.
To be honest, I had lice too.
Hmmm... more precisely, I only found lice eggs on my head.
Every afternoon, my mother would look for lice eggs on my head and squeeze them between her thumbs.
"Pluk"... that's the sound you hear when you squeeze a lice egg.
However, it's not uncommon to find empty lice egg that don't make a sound when you squeeze them.
Maybe they've already hatched; who knows.
What's clear is that I only remember finding adult lice on my head once.
The funny thing is, thirty years later, elementary school kids still seem to have exactly the same problem.
What I'm curious about to this day is:
Why do almost all elementary school kids have lice?
Is it because they play together so often?
Or is it because they often sit close together or share hats?
The good news is that we're slowly getting rid of them.
The bad news?
Every time we think we've won, another tiny egg shows up the next day like it's mocking us.
Maybe this is just another unofficial elementary school tradition that somehow survives every generation.
Did you ever have head lice when you were a kid?
Or is this one of those childhood memories you'd rather forget?
