Camp and Lice and Horses, oh my

I had to rearrange my weekend because of her camp drop-off time.  But I did it because, well, as a parent that’s what you do – that’s what is done.  Plus, Indigo was looking forward to going back to this camp – 3rd year at the camp itself, 2nd year doing the horse program at it.  She was excited.

Mapping out the route to this camp, I discovered it was about an hour long trip.  We left with time to spare – enough time to get some coffee for the drive, then made our way to the camp – Indigo chattering excitedly the entire way.  I was happy too because it turns out that the last half of the trip contained some fun windy roads to drive – so it wasn’t all lost.

We got there with plenty of time to spare.  She pointed out her horse to me from last year.  She was excited – we were third in line to check in.

“Over there is the glitter check,” the counselor told us – then directed us that way.

Glitter check – the politically correct way of saying “lice check”.

“Odd,” I thought, “I don’t recall them ever doing a check like this in the past.”

She sat down – and next thing I knew the head of camp was being waved over.  They found a single nit.  “Go home and treat it – heat all of her clothes for at least 20 minutes in the dryer – then come back and we’ll recheck.”

She then looks at Indigo and says “don’t worry – we’ll make something up for why you are late.”

Like that mattered much given this all took place in front of everyone else checking in.

Indigo was crushed.  She tried to put forth a brave face, but her voice was shaking and her eyes were filled with tears as she is trying to look at it positively.  I was annoyed.  While I understand the concern, the fact they could find no other evidence outside of this single nit made me as mom upset for her.

An hour back to the house, I dropped her off to put her clothes in the dryer while I went out to get the shampoo and such.  And during that ride to the store, I was a bit panicked.  I did not want her to go through this a second time.  If they found that one – would I be able to find it and get rid of it?  Indigo’s hair is insanely thick – and not easy to go through with a lice comb……my fear of missing something was real.

Back home, we started the fun treatment.  Soap in dry hair, wait 10 minutes, wash it out – then comb fun began.

With lots of shrieks and cries of ouch…..ugh.

An hour later – yes, an hour because she has that thick of hair and I was trying to be a thorough as possible, I thought we were done.  I had found no bugs.  Maybe a couple of nits – maybe – it was really hard to say.  I was happy Derek came home because his experiencing teaching preschoolers meant he knew the lice drill.  And I wanted a second set of eyes.  He took about 15 minutes to go through her hair – and declared her fine.

Back in the car we went for an hour back to camp. Indigo was definitely nervous.  We arrived – she got checked again – and it was declared that she passed this check.

“Good thing we caught it early,” the woman commented to me like that was going to make this better.

I told Indigo good-bye – and off they went.

I was halfway back home when I got a message from G.

“DJ is sick of being at this event with me – there is still 3 hours left.  Can you come get her?”

I got to the point where I could cut over to get her – then couldn’t find a parking spot.  Around in circles I went until I finally got ahold of one of them – so I could tell her where I was so she could jump into the car.  “Hurry up,” I told them, “I’m starving.”  Yeah, I had spent so much time dealing with Indigo’s situation that I had not eaten all day – only had a coffee.   It was almost 3pm by this point.

After grabbing an upset DJ, I headed home but realized quickly I needed food more than just to get home.  DJ was feeling bad that the event had overwhelmed her to the point she had to leave – leaving G there alone.  I talked her down as I assessed my food options between where they were and home.  I stopped at the neighborhood pub figuring I more than deserved a beer – and could just get some appetizers to share with her.  A shirley temple, tots and hummus later – DJ was better.  Food was making me feel better.  The beer made me realize how much I had been wound up until that point.  I came home and took a short nap……that really wanted to be a long nap.

Parenting is definitely not for the faint of heart.

And days like today – well, it was definitely more a trial than I had expected it to be.  I’m just glad it turned out well in the end.

Now I just need a day to recover.

Ugh.

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