Part of my job as a "gappy" is to help in the boarding house. Most of the time I love spending my evenings in there, helping put the girls to bed, listening to their funny stories and doing prayers before the lights are turned out.
One of the not so nice aspects of the job though is the joy of the head check. Yes, you guessed it. Each week when the girls wash their hair a teacher has to comb through it afterwards to check for nits; a pretty important job in a houseful of girls .
So, as usual I am standing in a bathroom with the steam rising around us and a small girl of ten in her dressing gown standing at the sink as I run a nit Comb through her hair. The conversation went like this...
Me: "It doesn't look like you have any nits, thank goodness!"
Her: perusing her own train of thought "Miss Beach, do you think the queen gets nits?"
Me trying hard not to laugh: "I don't really know, I suppose she must have done at some point."
"does she have a nit check each week? Who would do it for her?"
fighting back the smiles: "I would guess her lady in waiting. But you know that nits come from being close to people and I think the queen doesn't get close enough for nits to jump onto her hair, she justs shakes hands, she doesn't give lots of hugs like we may do."
"but what if her husband has nits. They are close together?"
"I'm not really sure how much hair prince phillip has!"
"oh, but what about Kate middleton, she has lots of hair. Could the queen get nits from her?"
Needless to be said the head check was finished swiftly so I could go outside and roar with laughter at the idea of having "royal nits!"
Oh the joys of small children and their inquisitve minds!
16 comments:
Great story,Abi....a perfect example of how little children think!!
Oh Abi, so funny! I've had a couple of incidents with small people and "unauthorised pets" - some personal experience with them too (scratch, scratch...). No fun spending hours combing through looong hair, covered in sticky conditioner... "I'm gonna wash those bugs right outta your hair..." (she howls...).
Lovely story, as always - you really should keep lots of notes and publish a book!
The funny things little ones say do make us smile. Love your story.
What a wonderful story. I don't know how you managed not to laugh out loud while you were combing her hair. I think the Queen might enjoy this one. She has a good sense of humour! Thanks for a bowlful of cheer this gloomy afternoon.
This really made me laugh Abi! You'll have enough anecdotes for a book before long:)
This is a great story Abi (and a great photo!). I love a story which sparks off another story - in my case one about a certain school whose teachers used to sing "The Hills are alive" about a certain family and what they brought with them to school..
Thanks for giving us a giggle this Storytelling Sunday Abi. It's always a pleasure to see you here
A great story and my head itched the whole time I was reading it lol!
This has made me smile - lovely story!
My head itched too - so glad I don't have that job any more :phew:
I was wondering where this tale was leading, my goodness, it is funny what little people conjure up! A great story Abi!
LOVE this story!
This is such a great story, it really made me laugh
Brilliant! Lovely to read others' school stories, it's just perfect!
LOL. That was funny.
What a fab story! It's lovely to read stories like this that make me giggle :)
Royal nits? Off with their heads!
Great story.
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