The Tick

Parenting

by Lamar Tyler | on April 8th, 2009 | 11 comments

Alright this story is about the tick but it’s the real tick not the cartoon and comic book character shown above. Over the weekend one breached the comfort of our home riding piggy back on our 7 year olds body.

Ronnie yelled for me to come downstairs (which is nothing new) so I didn’t know what to expect. Chores? Instructions on putting something together? A lifetime movie I’m supposed to find intereting? Nah… she wanted me to look behind our daughters ear and see if that was a tick.

Daddy daycare took control of the situation and Ronnie jetted upstairs. There was a little black mark on the floor from her non-skid rubber soles. Lol. After a few minutes of yelling up to Ronnie that it was a scab and not a tick I realized oh snap… it was a tick.

Now I live in the suburbs but it’s not the country so I’ve never seen one plus I don’t do dogs. All of these old wives tales of what to do starting going through my mind. Turn in clockwise? What was I supposed to put on it, Vaseline? Somebody said something about lighting a match. Instead of conjuring up any of these solutions I just got a napkin and pulled it out. It tried to put up a fight but finally gave in.

After it was done I looked up some info on the net and was surprised to see that every site I went onto said not to do all of the things I’ve heard before. No burning, no Vaseline, etc… They instruct you to just pull it out. So who would have known I was doing the right thing.

BMWK family, did you know that stuff was the wrong things to do? What wives tales have you found out to be ill advised? Should my wife had stayed with us to check on her baby girl instead of jetting upsairs…lol?

About the author

Lamar and Ronnie Tyler are the creators of the award-winning blog BlackandMarriedWithKids.com . They also are behind the Amazon.com bestselling DVDs Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, You Saved Me and Men Ain’t Boys that explores manhood in the African American community. The Tylers are also the proud parents of four children.

jcm

A good site for medical info (including ticks) is http://www.mayoclinic.com/
http://www.thebottomofheaven.com Claudia

Ack! I’m always afraid of stuff like this happening. And LOL at Ronnie jetting upstairs!

Claudias last blog post..One of the Best Things About HBO’s “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”…
http://stellarsassysocial.blogspot.com .elle denise.

I’ve never heard of the Vaseline theory… My aunt use to burn them off the dogs, back in the day. I’d imagine pulling at it would leave leave “traces” of the tick in the skin, which could cause an even bigger problem (infection, etc)

.elle denise.s last blog post..Morgan’s Learning Center: Future Women HIV/AIDS Leaders
http://theyoungmommylife.com Tara Pringle Jefferson

Would’ve been clueless. I guess I would have pulled it out too.

And I’m not mad at Ronnie for running upstairs. I think I would’ve been gone too…

Tara Pringle Jeffersons last blog post..Oh, I’m so fly!
Harriet

*cringing*

i’m not even scared of bugs, but i saw a stupid movie when i was 5 called “the parasite.” so bugs that stick freak me out.

never knew how to treat them…i wouldn’t have run, but i would have googled the mess out of the computer until i found out.
FCG

Well I guess I over reacted a few years ago when my 9 month old had one on her ear. I was already out of my house when I noticed it, so I went straight to the doctor’s office. At the time, Lyme disease, caused by tick bites, was all over the news and I didn’t want to take any chances. The nurse removed the tick with tweezers, treated the area and we were done. But I am sure my husband would have come up with something from his GA roots involving turpentine, moonshine or tobacco, lol!
http://blackandmarriedwithkids.com TheDad

@elle – you’re supposed to pull it out with tweezers but from the head not the body and if anything is left you need to get that out too. I was surprised that this was the recommended way, at least everywhere I looked.

TheDads last blog post..The Tick
Aisha

I don’t want to scare you but do you know what kind of tick it was? Some ticks carry lyme disease so it may not be a bad idea for you to take your daughter to a doctor…
http://loridjohnson.blogspot.com Lori

What a cute and funny story (smile). Growing up, my Dad and brother used to always go off fishing somewhere and come back home bearing ticks. My Dad used to pull them out with tweezers, but he grew up in the country and was used to such. Now, if my own son came home with a tick, I’m pretty sure we’d end up hospitalizing my husband (LOL). Just about any kind of bug, freaks him out.

Loris last blog post..
http://Funkidivagirl.com Funkidivagirl

Last year I went on a field trip with my son’s class “camping” (inside sleeping in beds) for 4 days. It was cold and I always had on at least 3 long-sleeved layers and showered every day. A few days home after the trip I got out the shower, looked in the mirror, saw a black spot on my upper rib cage and said, “huh, I don’t remember a mole there.” When I looked closer and saw that it was a tick, I threw some clothes on, grabbed my kids and went straight to an urgent care center. I’m not afraid of bugs, but I didn’t know how long the tick had been there and was afraid to take it out myself for fear of leaving part of it inside. And I was correct to go there because the tick was embedded pretty well and it took the doctor a long time to remove the tick using special tweezers…and it hurt!
http://Funkidivagirl.com Funkidivagirl

By the way, The Tick is one of my favorite cartoons!

The Tick

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