The Best of Intentions=Strawberry Swirl

So I'm really, really, REALLY not a happy bunny.

I came home soaked to my eyeballs last night......at near 11pm.
It was my latenight with the kiddos.....a night I cherish dearly cuz I get to play with them all night long!

And last night....I was playing in the shower.
Well, not exactly 'playing'.

I was 'playing' with a kiddo who is all of 16 years old, has a full scale IQ of 77 and is just cute as a bug's ear.
She came to us as a hateful, aggressive kiddo who simply wouldn't manage herself out in the community.....fight after fight after fight....and a history of 'using' longer than my arm. Needless to say....We were prepared to handle a whole lot of aggression from the kiddo.
That's never materialized.

One only needs to take a look at her to realize she's a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome kiddo. And with her IQ so affected, her answer to coping with the taunting and teasing was to put up her fists. Better to way-lay someone--and spare yourself the putdowns and chastisizing.

We treated her as a FAS child--and gosh golly.......absolutely no aggression from her whatsoever.

And that's why I was in the shower with her last evening.
That and 'the best of intention' folks decided to help her with her hair.....which she'd had woven and braided for six months.....which she'd not washed the entire time it had been woven and braided.......which is just a reflection of her IQ and her overall level of functioning.

So--the braids/weave got taken out, the head got scrubbed (all fine and dandy.....had to be done!) by a 'friend of a staff member who's a haircare professional'.
And then, that 'friend of a staff member who's a haircare professional' decided, on top of all that---to give put chemicals in her hair to straighten her hair.
And this was now four days ago.

Last night she told me her head was 'tight'.
So last night I opted to put my fingers in her hair and massage her poor little head--TRYing to stimulate the scalp cuz I BET it was hurtin'....and as I worked my way down from the crown......
"It's crunchy down there, Ms. Mel....."

.....oh boy was she wrong......
OH boy did those well intended folks totally mess up that kiddo's head......
Chemical burns--which she decided it would be impolite to mention, let alone complain about (cuz those well intended folks came to help her)--had oozed and dried and cemented her hair to her head. She wasn't even close to being right. It wasn't 'crunchy'. It was cemented to her head and she couldn't move her head without it hurting her.

For an hour, with her in the swimsuit with a t-shirt atop, she sat patiently whilest I let the shower spray her hair, softening it up to free the hair from her scalp--which revealed the chemical burns and their subsequent attempts at healing, which resulted in the cemented hair.

I bought time.
I joked with her and she joked back.
We giggled and got wet together--and BOY did I get wet....LOL

And then, when it was all said and done, I pulled aside the supervisor who was working with me last night and said very quietly.....very privately.....

"If those well intended folks offer to come back again........you thank them ever so much and you tell them whatever you need to tell them to KEEP THEM THE HELL AWAY FROM MY KIDDOS!"

And I meant it.

Himself asked about my watersoaked self when I finally managed to get home last night.

"I played in water!"

Right.

"And I'll get to play in water again today!"

Right.

I did tell him that I didn't kill anyone.......yet......
He suggested ice cream for the young woman.

I'll be picking up a half gallon on the way to the office this morning....."strawberry swirl, please", she told the nightstaff when I called in to ask.