Got Flow?
One of the greatest gifts my mother ever gave me was a good attitude about my period. It was never a curse or even a nuisance in my house. It just was. In fact, getting it the first time was cause for celebration. Not cake and ice cream celebration–but definitely a rite of passage. On the day of my first period, I called my mother at work to tell her the news. Thrilled, she ran out and bought an entire grocery bag full of options. (Picture a big brown kraft paper block, not one of the flimsy plastic bags we use today.) Pads, liners, wings. It was all in there. Even— EVEN tampons. But, oh, no, I wasn’t going to use those. No way.
Until… I got invited to a swimming party. What are the odds on there will be a swimming party on the second day of your very first period? This is the kind of charmed life I lead.
Mom didn’t blink. Without embarrassment or delay, she showed me how to use a tampon. Oh, the good fortune. I’ve been bowling, mountain climbing, and horseback riding on the beach ever since.
And now, as my daughter approaches the age of menarche, I’m excited about the book Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation. If it had been around in 1982, I’m sure my mother would have picked up a copy. Catch authors Elissa Stein and Susan Kim on The View tomorrow.
I am a participant in a Mom Central campaign for ABC Daytime and will receive a tote bag or other The View branded items to facilitate my review.
by Lela Davidson on March 8, 2010
in It's All About Me, motherhood
oh let me tell you about swimming and first periods!
I was what one might call a hard core swimmer, so much so that I was working out so much, my body just didn’t care if it “matured” or not, so I got my period the summer before I turned 14 – about 4 years later than all my friends. It was the Friday before state championships … and I was slated to win big.
I remember thinking oh S! my mother’s gonna freak out… she was not real “involved” and by that I mean she liked a splash of margarita mix with her tequilla – especially on a Friday before a weekend that would not be all about her.
So I devised a plan to bring her another drink and slyly mention that I might have possibly started my period but there was no reason to worry, I’d already called my father.
Doing just that, she said “good, because I’m not quite sure how those tampon things work, and you still better win your meet this weekend because I’m not traveling across the state to come home a loser.”
Emabarrasment of all emabarrasments, my father volunteered to discuss the engineering and architecture of tampons with me – I figured the rest out for myself …
and I kicked butt at state!
That’s my girl
Oh, Gracie, we need to have a cocktail and discuss~
HAHA I won’t even get into the details of my first tampon experience, but I will tell you that I didn’t know the applicator was, in fact, supposed to come back out ;D
My friend and I gave our daughters a goddess ceremony when they started last year. I did a happy dance after my uterus was removed and I didn’t have a period anymore. Okay, like three weeks after because right after it hurt to wear pants, much less dance.
Another great book — Period Pieces: Stories for Girls. My 11 year old loved it.
Wow, I’ll bet I’m your only male comment on this spot. I’ll just say this. A period is God’s way of telling you you’re not pregnant. Sometimes that can make you feel pretty good.