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Original poster

do kids at private school catch nits?

83 replies

dirtygertiefromnumber30 · 02/02/2008 10:22

my ds attends the local state primary and great though it is, he constantly is infested with nits.

Anyway, about a year ago a friend of mine moved her ds from the same school to a private one and is always droning on about how great it is.

The latest oneupmanship is that her ds never gets nits now and continued to say they she bets it's a state school epidemic.

i told her that was crap. It is, isnt it?

OP posts:
horseshoe · 06/02/2008 11:38

Nits dont like greesy hair do they??. Tell her to give em a bath more often!!

rantinghousewife · 06/02/2008 11:42

Lol at Desi being so hard that she can't catch nits!
I do actually know someone who baldly stated at a post natal group that she was sending her dc to private school so that she wouldn't catch nits. This led to much mirth and merriment, as you can imagine.

seeker · 06/02/2008 11:48

Private school children probably get nits less often because they sit in nice neat straight rows of desks and taught not to interact with each other in preparation for their lives as members of the uptight English upper middle classes!

[joke - just in case anyone doesnt't realize]

Bink · 06/02/2008 11:48

The only difference that there might be is a different level of fuss over nits - not that any parents don't bother about them I hope - but that, in my experience, the intensity of nit-paranoia at private schools is on a whole other level, and that may have the effect of keeping the epidemics down.

Eg, my dd, along with her whole class, has Formal Nit Check, by a parent according to a spreadsheeted rota, every single Monday morning. If anything at all is found, emails alerts shoot round. This is obviously good (as things get caught early) but it takes a sort of commitment that I imagine is a bit private-school-specific.

seeker · 06/02/2008 11:49

5 have a friend who believes her children won't get nits because they haven't been vaccinated and therefore their systems are so strong that they can overcome nits without any other intervention.

MrsMattie · 06/02/2008 11:49

Oh FFS. Are you sure you want to be friend with this woman?

rantinghousewife · 06/02/2008 11:51

You mean like a kind of super immune system?
Tah dah dah...I'm mighty immune, I kill off measles, nits and norovirus, all with a wave of my immune might!
Bit like batfink!

frogs · 06/02/2008 11:52

We go on holiday every summer with my cousin's privately-educated children.

Over the years, my dc have caught nits, ringworm, threadworms, chickenpox and impetigo off said children.

To cap it all, the parents are both GPs.

[slightly forced ]

seeker · 06/02/2008 11:55

She also believes that wounds don't need stitching because calendula will draw the edges together and heal it in days. (I have to say she hasn't ever had to practice this on her own children - she just told me that I shouldn't have had the gash in my head stitched!)

WiiMii · 06/02/2008 11:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bozza · 06/02/2008 12:02

Neither of mine have had nits - they have been in nursery since being months old and DS is now in Y2. I realise this is just luck although also DD was quite slow about getting hair anyway. My nephew started nursery and was infested in the first month.

jumpingbeans · 06/02/2008 12:03

only read the op, too busy pmsl to read any more

onebatmother · 06/02/2008 12:13

the privately-educated nit-head

The mother had to write the lines.

InLoveWithSweenyTodd · 06/02/2008 12:23

of course they catch nits, but the said nits come from oxbridge, speak 3 languages, and can write short pieces for the cello

ifnotwhynot · 06/02/2008 13:13

My dd wants to go to a dance school. I hear that the nits there have to audition and are only allowed if their tap dancing is up to scratch....

MrsPhilipGlenister · 06/02/2008 13:18

lol Frogs - I knew you'd post on this thread

seeker · 06/02/2008 13:21

..up to scratch....boom boom!

My daughter goes to an very up-itself grammar school and the letter we got home saying there were nits in year 7 was a masterpiece of combined self abasement and self justification. It was 1.5 A4 sides long and it was nearly at the bottom of the first page before they could bring themselves to mention what the letter was about. You need to have passed the 11+ to grasped the meaning at all!

FioFio · 06/02/2008 13:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

seeker · 06/02/2008 13:31

I know treating them is a pain, but they don't actually do any harm - and there would be a lot of children out of school a lot of the time. Including my ds, who is a nit magnet!

frogs · 06/02/2008 16:30

Mrs PG -- mine never got nits much in 'Ackney, weirdly. Must be some truth in the myth that they prefer clean hair...

What's with you and Mr PG again?

Rantsalot · 06/02/2008 16:34

Only the much superior kind of nit attends I private school, though. No common nits allowed.

FGS!

MrsPhilipGlenister · 06/02/2008 17:53

oh frogs, this term has been - literally - lousy!!

Mr PG is back on the telly this week so I just thought I'd remind everyone how much I think of him. Phwoar.

(I do hope the real MrsPG isn't a mumsnetter .)

2sugars · 06/02/2008 17:57

Of course they do. Have just spent a lovely arvo with my dear friend, who pays more than is imaginable for her daughter's education. xx

Iota · 06/02/2008 18:00

has no-one linked to PPH's recent thread?

Blu · 06/02/2008 18:12

Bink - can I must get this clear?

Parents have to agree to go regularly into the school and rootle through the hair of all the children in the class looking for small parasitic insects, with your bare hands?

And you pay for this privilege?

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