"There are plenty of parenting moments I'm ashamed of. None of them involve head lice."

Parenting. It’s really an exercise in humility, isn’t it?

From the crushing realisation that looking after a squealing baby 24-7 is every bit as difficult as everyone told you it was, through to the time when a teenager rolls their eyes over your lack of understanding of SnapBook, one of the fundamental learnings of this parenting “journey” is:  “Who needs an inner critic when you have a child?”.

Being a parent is humbling. Grounding. And sometimes, downright embarrassing.

There are some rite-of-passage parenthood moments, however, that are nowhere near as embarrassing as you've been led to believe. For example, by the time your kids go to school, you will have already worked yourself up about the very idea of them getting head lice (and people, they will probably get head lice, they love our kids' nice clean hair).

Some of you, like one of my excellent friends, will have publicly pledged that you'll start shaving heads at the very first sighting of a dreaded nit. But really, by the time you're well and truly embedded in Kindy, head lice may be as common as uneaten lunches, and once you've got your own treatment system down pat, you'll very quickly move past any imagined shame to just deal with the "little buggers" - as my son enjoys calling them - and move on.

Not so, some of these moments. These are the actual memories that still see my face glow read whenever I think about them - the most humiliating parenting moments I've survived.

1. That time when your kid swears in public for the first time - in a silent library.

Picture the scene. It's pre-schoolers' story time at the local. You have brought your delightful second-born along because it's raining, his sister's at school and it's your day off. How civilised. How improving. Yes. Until an elderly woman over in Permaculture drops a book and your darling child jumps a foot in the air and lets out a very loud F-WORD. All heads turn, including, of course, the ones sitting in the reading circle right alongside you. You are stunned. You don't know what to do. You grab your child and hiss, "I can't believe you said that! What did you just say?" And they look you in the eye and say it again, louder. Obviously, at that point you have to leave and never return to Books For Bubs. Your kid will later tell you that's exactly what you said when you dropped a saucepan on your foot last week. This is no comfort.

My little library swearer. Image: Supplied.

2. That time when your daughter drew all over the tablecloth and it wasn't one of those paper ones.

You know the drill. You only take your small child to non-fancy places. Places where there's plenty of room to spread out the colouring books, no-one minds if your kids start arguing about chip distribution mid-meal and where sometimes food comes in a box, not on a plate. But not today. Today you thought it was a great idea to try to attend your work colleague's baby-shower brunch even though there was no-one to mind your then-four-year-old daughter. Mid-bellini, one of your friends tells you that your daughter has drawn a house with a sprawling unicorn garden on the crisp, white tablecloth in indelible marker and you LAUGH. "Oh, she always draws on table cloths. They just thrown them away, right?" And a table-full of soon-to-be-mums and a couple of grandmas - whose children were doubtless better behaved than yours will ever be - judge you so harshly you can actually feel the sensation burning any exposed body parts. "Oh my God, it's not paper, is it?" You choke, before grabbing your daughter and fleeing to a never-before-mentioned urgent family gathering.

3. That time when your son called his teacher "Old".

And she's not old. She's about 25 and gets about in floaty maxi-dresses and the kind of calm positivity they should bottle and sell before family Christmas gatherings. But when your son asked her if she was alive when the dinosaurs walked the earth because she's "got lines on her face like a T-Rex", the beatific smile cracked and you have a sneaking suspicion your boy won't be getting to go and collect the tuck-shop orders (the most coveted job in the school) any time soon. In fact, he's unlikely to EVER get out of her class now.

4. That time when a "tree wee" at the local park turned into something altogether more...

Yes, that happened. And it was the day that you had run out of wipes and hadn't made it to the shops. Of course. Shudder.

So, yes, there are many parenting experiences worth being embarrassed about, and many moments to wonder how the hell you got here. But head lice are not one them.

We know how to make the head lice MOOV. Image: Supplied.

Dealing with head lice is easy, people. I learned that after I wrote a story about discovering I'd taken my son's head lice on holiday with us and had to endure my sister-in-law combing them out for me. But in recounting that tale, a gift recommendation came my way from a This Glorious Mess listener, and now I'm passing it on to you: MOOV Head Lice.

Yes, MOOV Head Lice. Get your bum down to the chemist and get yourselves a family bottle of the green, see-through stuff that smells like eucalyptus and clean houses. You put the MOOV Head Lice Solution or Shampoo on, leave it in for the stated time, comb it through and wash it out. And, as long as you follow up with treatments, that's all you have to do. I use the MOOV Head Lice Defence spray (which I also use on my hair to help avoid catching my kids’ head lice) to help ward off the little buggers.

Nothing to be embarrassed about, right?

Not like swearing at library-going old ladies, that's for sure.

Always read the label and use only as directed. If symptoms persist, consult your healthcare professional.

What's been your experience with head lice?

This content was brought to you with thanks by our brand partner, MOOV Head Lice.