It might be unfair to blame Lionel’s mother for his actions, however, as his parent, she needed to find a way to help her son adapt to society when he was clearly lacking adequate social skills. Tiffany Eunick would most likely be alive today and Lionel Tate a carefree teenager had she taken her parenting role more seriously. Again, hindsight makes it all seem so easy. Parenting is not easy. To raise a responsible citizen, we must be responsible parents. If our children are creating problems, we must take measures to find solutions for them to better cope with world before they destroy their lives and lives of innocent victims.

If you have boys, you can get away with shaving their heads. Yes, this sounds gruesome but you’ll be forever grateful I gave you permission to goof up your son’s hair if he does manage to bring holocaust into your home. If you have daughters, I’m sorry. My heart goes out to you. You can’t really shave a girl’s head in this day and age, although a family friend who is a doctor from Italy recommended we do just that. I giggled, thinking he was sooo from old school ... I giggle no more! But we didn’t shave our daughters’ heads. We suffered untold hell instead.

Apparently, lice have become immune to various pediculicide treatments on market. There are quite a few brands of pediculicide shampoo, conditioner and room spray, all with weakening power against bolstered immune system lice have developed. I’ve heard that tea tree oil, olive oil and rosemary oil are helpful in nixing little buggers. Hairspray and hair coloring are also good deterrents. Unless you’re ready to dye and spray your kid’s heads, this isn’t an option but you could schedule a dye job early if you color your own hair. Ya know what? I’d color my daughter’s hair. What’s worse? Bathing their little heads in surefire poison? How bad could a bottle of hair dye be compared to insecticide? If it works, count your blessing and wait for it to grow out.

One recommendation from my children’s school is to wash their hair vigorously as soon as they come home if there is an outbreak of lice in their classroom. Sounds reasonable. If they did manage to bring home an unwelcome guest, washing their hair and scalp immediately might remove louse before it has a chance to lay eggs.

By all means, be informed. If you never have this massive nightmare visit your home, you’re ten steps ahead in life of a parent. If you’ve lived it, you’re probably shuddering at thought of another go-around. If you have head lice breeding in your home as you read this, my heart goes out to you. Know that you have millions of understanding parents who pity you, however parents of your child’s classmates will positively hate you if you knowingly send your kid to school with head lice. Don’t even think about it ...