Classroom Confidential: The Unshakable Embarrassment of Getting Called Out For Head Lice

Everything hurts more when you’re young and naïve.

Your first heart break, your first failure; your first injury, your first humiliating incident at school, all tied together in an intricate web of memories.

You may be able to look back and laugh at it now—the time you joined Battle of the Bands only to get booed off stage, or the time you were voted “Most Likely to End Up In Jail” because of your crazy shenanigans.

In fact, all that ruckus around your run-in with head liceprobably doesn’t seem like that big a deal today. Deep down,however, we all knowthat the only thing worse than growing pains is being ostracizedfor having an embarrassing condition at school.

The Power of Social Stigma

The older you get, the more you realize that identity is something that others cannot define for you.

Unfortunately, it takes countless experiences of pain in some shape or formfor a person to shed a layer of skin and adapt to their environment.

Pain teaches us that we’re incrediblyresilient—that we’re capable of reinventing ourselves if we have the will and inclination to do so.

Some people have a greater threshold for pain than others, but there’s no denying that most of it stems from fearin our minds.

When children as old as 10 (or younger) are called out in the classroom for anything other than a pat on the back, you can bet they’re going to remember that moment for the rest of their lives.

Head lice may not seem like a serious condition—especially since we now have the technology to eliminate it safely and effectively—but the social stigma of contracting it can cause children to experience intense humiliation that affects their confidence and self-esteem.

Overcoming Embarrassment

Whether you’re a parent, teacher or guardian, you probably know already that children are extremely sensitive.

This means that anything even remotely embarrassing can cause them to question their own capabilities—in turn, disrupting their social and academic performance at school.

In order for anything to be truly embarrassing, however, you need an audience who can witness a particular action in motion.

Head lice are dangerously contagious, and in order to treat an infestation, it’s important to talk about it openly and raise awareness.

At the same time, however, it’s important to be mindful of the effects of singling someone out in public—which, in this case, means isolating a child from his or her natural surroundings.

This is why we promote pesticide free in-homelice removal treatments, which maintain your child’s privacy while giving them all the information they need to avoid another episode.

With salons in Orlando and Winter Park, we’re just a phone-call away from alice-free existence. Call us at 800-748-9451 and save your child the embarrassment!