Bad Hair Day

Middle Child was crying yesterday in the car on the ride to school because she had hair trauma. She wanted her bangs to lay flat on her head while the sides and back had a mildly bouffant retro look. Except that she kept sticking the bobby pins at the back of her head which caused the hair on top to pouf rather than lay smooth. There was whining accompanied by tears. I tried to help by doing exactly what she asked, but then she undid it. There was a good twenty minute period of time devoted to the child's bobby pin drama. I, rather unhelpfully, offered to shave her head. My patience exhausted, I sent the tearful child to the car with her hair less-than-perfect and then shouted at her to "Just get in already!" when she dragged her feet along the way. It was something of a relief to drop the big kids curbside at Pleasant Suburban Middle School with the hope that they would walk quickly enough to reach their classrooms on time.
The irony of the early-morning hair issues really struck home a couple of hours later. The middle school nurse phoned to inform us (again) of Pleasant Suburb ISD's policy on lice. This was necessary information since our daughter's entirely uncooperative hair was very mildly infested. (Like there's any difference in the amount of washing, combing, and fumigating involved with a single critter vs. a zillion of the nasty little creatures?!) Needless to say, Miss Katie's bad hair day did end up causing her to miss class. And I was doubly tempted to shave her head. Except that I suspect she'd look like one of those mildly disturbing hairless cats.