*Ladies only*What nice things did your Mum do when you started your periods?

suzyp1982

gabyjane wrote: »

Oh god..im reading this feeling like the worlds worst mother right now..I havent spoken to dd as yet but it has been on the cards for the last few days as keep thinking about it..i saw this and thought i will deff speak to her now. She is 11 btw so prob not far off.
When i started my dad was at home, his g/f was in the other room and everyone was asleep..i woke him to tell him and he sent me straight to her! i was given tampax which prob wasnt the best thing and sat in the bathroom for ages! i felt really grown up yet scared! I bought some pads myself the next day with a friend and went form there!
We have no pads in the house so must get some. Any ideas on the best way to bring it up with her..im useless with things like these..Thanks

I havent got children, but if i were you i would buy a few different varieties of tampons and towels, stick them in a carrier bag with perhaps a booklet explaining how the menstrual cycle works. When she is in her room go in with said supplies and ask her if she knows anything about them and how to use them? see what she says and pick up from there? if she says "yes mum know it all" as though please mum go away! id still stay and say the basics - ie it happens for a week every month you'll need to use a few pads every day or more if necessary and that its nothing to worry about its just a part of growing up! Id leave it then and just say ask any questions you like whenever you want...

Dumbledore55

My mum told me nothing - it was all a total surprise and even when I told her I needed sanitary towels - she just showed me what drawer they were kept in and said nothing else.

I tried to be totally involved with my daughter but she just told me that she didn't want to discuss it and although I bought her a very enlightening book - she refused to discuss it.

My step daughter is far more open and we've been able to share some quite intimate conversations and I've been able to help her with the changes in her life without her having to face any embarrassment with her dad.

dieselhead

These stories are make great reading I've been giggling away at some stories and mortified for some.

I was quite a late starter and as my mother had started quite early I was given a book and 'starter pack' at around the age of 12/13 which I studied on a regular basis, but I didn't actually start till I was 14. I remember having a odd feeling tummy and sort of an idea of what it might be, it was the evening. My mum gave me some towels, horrid big things and was very reassuring. But I do remember her saying (probably without thinking and I know she didn't mean it as it sounds) 'well at least your normal' (I think she had been worried as she was such an early starter) then she said 'well done' and I remember thinking, but I haven't actually done anything!

I used the horrid big towels for a bit and discovered that if I wore my school gym knickers over the top they were tight enough to hold everything in place better. I soon discovered the lighter towels (although still wore my big gym knickers), and I just put them in the shopping trolley every month no questions asked, (probably as my mum read the look on my embarrassed face).

I was desperate to work out how to use tampons though, it was all in the books and my mum had given me some in the 'starter pack' she had given me with the book, but it took me quite a few periods to work them out. This is far TMI sorry but I hadn't realised just how far up there they needed to go!! I was so chuffed when I mastered them though!

The only think I wish I hadn't been so embarrassed about though was period pain, my mother was lovely bless her and would ask me on a regular basis if I was OK and were my periods painful. At first they weren't but as time went on I would have a bit of a tummy ache on the first day and would sneak some calpol, when really I should have just asked and should would have quite happily bought me some of my own supply or maybe some grown up painkillers.

I'm sure my dad knew and even if he didn't he found out when my period arrived on a day when it was just him and me (to this day I'm that scatty that my period arrives and I think to my self 'oh yeah I suppose it is about 4 weeks since the last one :rotfl:' Anyway I had to tell my dad that I needed to go back to the car where my bag and my tampax were and then go to the loo and 'sort myself out'. He kept casting a concerned eye over me all day, and I just wanted the ground to swallow me up!

Filey

redd evil - tell me you're joking about the belts [/QUOTE]

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No she's not joking.

In the olden days you had an elasticated belt thingy with a plastic hook arrangement fore and aft to attach the loops on the pad and keep it in place.

But just think, what did women do in even older days before the advent of elasticated belts and pads? A lot of washing I suppose of old towels and other absorbent materials. (Cold salted water is said to be the soaking agent of choice, even today)

Contrast with my grand daughter, (who lives with me) and is 11, and small for her age, many of her class mates have already started their periods. She knows what to expect, and somewhere in the depths of her school bag is a slim discrete little packet ready for if she should start.

BitterAndTwisted

It's the chunky ones who start early. Alas I was a skinny little whippet and didn't start mine until a year after my younger sister. Oh, the humiliation!

jennihen

DD1 and I saw an american programme a while back about and the new rage for 'period parties'! DD1 took one look at me and said "If you had done that I'd have gone to live with Dad!!"
DD2 is 11 but still very girly in my eyes so I'm not expecting anything for a while. She's had some sex ed in year 6 and sweetly told me that things have probably changed since I was young and if I needed to know anything I could just ask her!!!

snapping_crocodile

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

It's the chunky ones who start early. Alas I was a skinny little whippet and didn't start mine until a year after my younger sister. Oh, the humiliation!

I was skinny and i was only 11 when i started

and :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: to jennihen....at least you know who to ask if there is something your mum forgot to tell you

jackieb

I started when I was 10. I used to pinch my mum and sisters pads because I was too embarrassed to tell my mum i'd started. She found out though when she found some knickers i'd hidden under the bed. She told me she hadn't spoken to me about it becaue she thought I was too young to start my periods yet. I started crying because I was mortified about marking my pants. She said I should've told her. My sister is 6 years older than me and we shared a room. I knew they had pads but I didn't know what they were for.

My daughter started hers when she was 9. She knew what to expect though.

jackieb

My sister only has boys but they knew about periods from an early age. If she was grumpy they would say 'oh, you must be on your period'.

When her youngest was about 2 years old he used to go into the bathroom with her. One day she was having her period and he said 'aw mammy, you're bweedin, me get you a pwaster' :rotfl:

IWish

A friend who was 2 years older than me told me when I was about 10 - I didn't believe her and told my Mum about the 'silly' story she had told me. When Mum confirmed it was true I just cried - I couldn't understand why something so 'gross' would happen to anyone! Mum then showed me where she kept her towels and I cried again when I saw the size of them.

When I eventually asked for tampons I was told that only married women could use them :rotfl: