Don't Panic, Mom. Your Tween is Covered...Period.

I vividly remember getting my first period back in the 80’s in eighth grade. I was rocking my totally rad feathered hair, my second round of braces and my white and teal striped jumpsuit with awesome shoulder pads.  Unfortunately for me, my two-colored jumpsuit soon became three as “Aunt Flo” paid her first visit between my second and third classes…ugh! I remember not having a clue what to do and also a very awkward conversation with my mom later that day.

At age 12, my own daughter’s pediatrician told me her period would likely start within the next year. I decided to be an A+ mom and start having conversations with her about the “changes” her body would be experiencing. Insert tweenager eye roll here. My stellar advice was to “fold up a bunch of toilet paper and stick it in your underwear if it happens at school for the first time.”  Hey, don’t judge.  It’s what we all do when we find ourselves in an “emergency” situation, right?

Flash forward a few months as I tidied up and returned a plethora of dirty socks, hair ties, retainers and a phone charger to my daughter’s room after she’d left for school. I stopped in my tracks at her bathroom door when I realized I had come across the scene of….a bloody murder???

And there it was…everywhere. Her first period. I started to panic. Why hadn’t she told me before she left? Was she leaking all over school? Memories of my own middle school menstrual meltdown came flooding…uhhh…flowing back. 

Thankfully my daughter was much more composed about the situation than I was. When she returned home from school I whispered “Did you get your period? Are you OKAY?!” She calmly said, “Mom, don’t freak out. I’m fine.” I whisked her upstairs to get her a pad and she responded, “No, Mom…I think I’ll just keep using toilet paper.” Ummm…yeah…probably not the best plan.