Is this weird parenting?

I'd be mortified if my mum had done this, sorry

I think is strange too. As someone said maybe some treats like chocolates as you fo get hungry and craves sweets with your period, hot water bottle. I did not make a fuss, it is just one of those things you have to deal with in life as a woman.

I like rhe idea of a gift. The reddish pink is a bit weird like a blob of period :((
Maybe a shopping trip together and choose something together and make a mither and daughter memory with a piece of jewelry to remember the day together and take her mind off it all, thats a nice idea. But I think being presented with the period necklace is bizarre.

Weird. Just weird and quite disturbing tbh

I think it's very sweet you've thought about it. You seem like a lovely mum. I feel like alot of girls don't like a big fuss over it though. I remember my mum being very OTT with the whole your a woman now spiel and I just wanted the ground to swallow me up anytime she said it.

Wouldn't do it as a mother, wouldn't like it as a daughter. My first period came with cramps, I do remember that because yes, it does mark our transition into womanhood. But it was painful. Every month from beginning to end. I dealt with it, but I don't see it as something that should be celebrated.

Ah yes, your mum buying you a piece of jewellery as a positive celebration of an event in your life is JUST the same as saying you’re a “fucking womb on legs”. 🙄 You’re the one saying menstruation is all about sexual maturity - maybe you need to reexamine your own essentialist assumptions!

Recognising that being female is having a female body and female experiences is not reductive — unless it’s you who reduce it to “sexual maturity” and bring a “womb on legs”. We all have bodies and still manage to have minds. How about it being a recognition of a girl’s feelings about her own changing body and identity? Why should this reduce her to her body, any more than someone buying a new mum a present to celebrate the fact she’s had a baby reduces her to “a womb on legs” either? It’s a very silly argument. Is giving birthday presents reducing someone to their age?

Quite weird and the necklace itself looke like a drop of blood so extra weird.

It’s not embarrassing it’s bizarre. I don’t understand why anyone would want the by-product of a bodily function crafted into a piece of jewellery. What will it be next? Bogey earrings? First poo pendant?

It isn’t anti-female. Quite the opposite.

I personally think it’s incredibly reductive to be told we should celebrate our reproductive body parts. We’re human beings, not a fucking womb on legs. Why is it any more special than any other bodily process? I think rewarding girls for reaching specific physical signs of sexual maturity - which is what puberty is - is really fucking grim. We don’t define boys in that way.

For people saying ‘It’s no different from a bat mitzvah or a quinceañera’ - yes, it is massively different. Those are celebrations of reaching a specific age - like an 18th, 21st, 40th or whatever. They aren’t celebrating a specific and personal change to a child’s body.

My family has always been really open about periods - no shame or embarrassment whatsoever. Even my grandparents, who were born in the 1910s, weren’t at all uptight about that kind of thing. So my view on this is really not about stigma.

Ugh. No. That’s just weird and creepy.

I’d have loved a drop of blood necklace. A menstrual necklace would have been just my bag. But then I grew up in the 90s listening to Tori Amos and reading feminist theory and was very into body positivity. It’s sad to see that times seem to have gone backwards and so many women posting on MN seem to regard periods as so embarrassing to be acknowledged or spoken about.

I was brought up with completely normal attitudes to periods and it was never taboo or anything. But it was never something I discussed with my mum beyond starting my first period, certainly not something I would have wanted to bond over. Felt much happier discussing periods with friends than parents.

I think It’sa lovely idea

Seems way over the top.

I get that people want to make the first period feel special, but a necklace shaped like a drop of blood? That’s a bit much. While it’s important to mark milestones, this feels like an over-the-top way of making something that’s totally normal into some sort of “event.”

a period is a personal experience, and it can mean different things to different people. Some might feel empowered, some might feel awkward, and others might just feel like it’s part of growing up. A necklace shaped like a drop of blood isn’t really something most teenagers would want to wear as a reminder. It’s like turning something natural into a weird keepsake, which just seems unnecessary.

No, that would be a total cringefest. Just leave it be.

This 100 per cent! Sums it up brilliantly!!

Mine did the exact same thing, she chucked some sanitary towels in a brown paper bag and said, “You’ll need these one day” Like you, no explanation, no nothing.

A few years later when I was buying my own, she went mad at me because I’d left a packet on my bed. She yelled at me “You’ll need these can’t leave these out like that, it’s a cardinal sin, what if your dad saw!!!!”

Now in her 80’s, she’s even worse, judgemental and nasty about everything and everybody.

Awww OP some people are being quite harsh. I totally understand the sentiment and she doesn't have to say to people oh my mum git me this necklace for my period when asked. But ridiculous and sarcastic of some posters, they sound miserable. I think though, a cute basket with fresh pjs, a hit water bottle, Slippers, a blanket and some other cute essentials ( a lip balm eyc) will go down better and still give the positive energy that you're wanting!!!

Yes, I think this is weird.

It’s not necessary to commodify everything. Just talking to her genuinely and being supportive would be enough.

If you really want to get her something perhaps a hot water bottle as others have suggested. Though personally I’ve never used one and wouldn’t.

Tampons are one of the greatest inventions in history

I think I'd have liked some nice underwear, or some fun snacks or bath stuff. Definitely not something so on the nose.

I think it’s a lovely thing to do, OP.

If you type "Mentrual necklace" on Etsy, the search brings up Vulva Necklace...
They don't seem to target teenagers though 😂