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Original poster

Utterly mortified by DD yesterday, i've got to go and face the same people today

75 replies

WalkingDAway · 07/02/2019 08:14

In the mobile phone fixing place. Three men sat around and me and DD 3. I was handing my phone in to be fixed and ticking errands off the list with DD at the same time.

"Right DD so thats the phone done, next we have to go to Tesco and do the shopping ok"

"And we have to wash your sheets mummy 'cause they've got blood EVERYWHERE" (surprise period 2 days early and DD had seen the sheets that morning)

You could have heard a fucking pin drop. I've got to go back and pick my phone up today, genuinely considering just buying a new one ffs

OP posts:

explodingkitten · 07/02/2019 09:30

There is nothing embarrassing about periods. Half of the population either have them, had them or will have them. The other half all have mothers who had them. Don't treat it like it's an embarrassing thing.

Italiangreyhound · 07/02/2019 09:33

You should have said 'those bloody horse's heads make so much mess!'

AnotherPidgey · 07/02/2019 09:35

I was in a supermarket toilet and ended up with my 3yo comparing his willy to noticing my absence of one. I came out to wash my hands, and someone I knew was in there!

Don't stress it! Young children embarass us all at some point.

MorrisZapp · 07/02/2019 09:36

It's a blissful revelation when you realise that nobody remembers anything about other people. I wore the same dress to my work Christmas do two years in a row and absolutely nobody noticed or cared. Bash on, you've got a free pass.

burrobirra · 07/02/2019 09:41

Honestly, most people are too preoccupied with their own lives to worry about what happens in yours. You can relax OP!

AngelaHodgeson · 07/02/2019 09:41

You won’t believe the juicy secrets children announce in class discussions!

Not just small children either! Teaching PSHE at secondary age is enlightening. Often during the alcohol topic on recommended units "my mum drinks that much every friday and saturday", "my dad said alcohol doesn't count when sport is on" etc.

Cuntforthebutter · 07/02/2019 09:52

We were expecting my dad to arrive any second when I needed the loo urgently (stomach bug). Doorbell rang just as got on the loo. Asked DD(4) to open it (thinking it was my dad) but it was actually the Amazon delivery driver. DD regularly chats to him so I hid while she told him all about my really smelly runny poos

MrsMcW · 07/02/2019 09:57

It could be worse. DM still cringes about the time she had to make a swift exit from a cafe with my brother as he screamed top of his lungs that he wanted her to buy him some of the pink sweeties from the machine in the men's loo.

fairydustandpixies · 07/02/2019 09:58

Hahaha! Enjoy these glorious moments and know that in a very few short years you'll be taking pleasure in mortifying your DD when she's a teenager!

When I went to pick up my eldest DS, then aged 3, from nursery, I got pulled aside by the nusery manager who 'wanted a word'. Apparently, DS had been telling everyone that 'Mummy meets men for money'...(just to clarify I had my own web design business at the time and yes, met men to earn money but not in the way it was translated!!)

I got my own back 12 years later, dropping him off at secondary school one rainy day, by hooting the horn several times as he walked from the car, winding down the window and yelling, 'bye bye, DS,' remember Mummy loves you!'.

Lovemusic33 · 07/02/2019 10:07

Kids are great aren’t they? 😁

I wouldn’t worry, once you have your phone back you don’t ever have to see these people again.

Bryjam · 07/02/2019 10:09

I’m not sure what the issue is?

MargoLovebutter · 07/02/2019 10:12

FWIW, I would have wanted the ground to swallow me up too.

Yes, I know periods aren't embarrassing and they're a normal part of life and we can all chat about them openly with everyone we meet!!!!!! Really? Just like we chat out loud about our sex lives with telephone shop workers or that nasty absess we have somewhere.

However, this is a head up and pretend it happened to someone else moment. My favourite quote for this kind of shit is:

"We wouldn't worry nearly so much about what others thought of us, if we recognised how seldom they do." Paulo Coelho

InMyOwnParticularIdiom · 07/02/2019 10:16

Whenever we go to the loo at a particular church playgroup, DD 2.5 announces loudly, 'mum, you've got a hairy bottom!' She never comments on this anywhere else.

Also, when we are on the bus, she sometimes says some of the older ladies are trying to grow beards. They aren't hairy ladies. I think it might be how she sees double chins...?

Bryjam · 07/02/2019 10:17

know periods aren't embarrassing and they're a normal part of life and we can all chat about them openly with everyone we meet!!!!!! Really? Just like we chat out loud about our sex lives with telephone shop workers

This is key to explaining g why so many people seem to find the subject of periods embarrassing. You have made a connection that a bodily function is in the same category as sex. It's not. We need to get away from this.

CinnamonToaster · 07/02/2019 10:20

We all have stories about embarrassing stuff our toddler's have come out with. But how many times do you remember when other people's toddler's have said embarrassing stuff in your earshot? They do, all the time, but we either don't listen or it doesn't stick in our brains because we're not the ones being embarrassed.

The embarrassment is searing this indelibly on your brain forever, but the staff in the shop will soon forget it. Maybe not by the time you go to collect! But I agree with PPs, I bet the silence was because, out of context, it sounds like there was a horrible injury or a murder!

Drogosnextwife · 07/02/2019 10:21

One of the kids I look after keeps shouting "look a little man" and pointing at every man he walks by. I find it pretty hilarious. Kids can be pretty embarrassing but I wouldn't worry OP. I'm sure they won't care.

Drogosnextwife · 07/02/2019 10:22

Oh and everytime we go to the toilet they like to question me on what exactly I'm going to the toilet for, and always have to ask if it's a poo 😂

Butchyrestingface · 07/02/2019 10:24

A sanitary towel (unwrapped) fell out of my bag at the orthodontist's last week and a very helpful young man in his early 20s picked it up for me and handed it over.

"Thank you very much", sez I. Nae fucks given.

MargoLovebutter · 07/02/2019 10:29

Burping, farting, shitting, weeing - they're all bodily functions too and I'd have been equally mortified if my DC had announced to an entire shop that I'd pissed myself on the way back from the gym. Equally I wouldn't be mentioning the fact that DS shat himself when he followed through on a big fart in the car. I don't want to share that stuff with complete strangers and the same goes for periods.

Bryjam · 07/02/2019 10:32

margo

My point was about the sex and period connection.

It literally had nothing to do with the embarrassment of pissing yourself on the way back from the gym.

In some countries the way girls and women are treated because of periods is horrific. And it all stems from the sex connection, which is why I commented that we need to get away from that.

MargoLovebutter · 07/02/2019 10:35

I get that Bryjam but I was making the point that it is ok to feel embarrassed because your DC has announced to a whole bunch of strangers that you bled all over your sheets last night!

I know periods are normal, just like I know every other bodily function I have is normal (including sex) - but it doesn't mean I want it announced to all and sundry in a shop.

It astonished me that people can't make the distinction between not being embarrassed by the fact that you have a period and being embarrassed because your DC has just divulged information you would rather have kept private!

LuYu · 07/02/2019 10:37

I was in a toilet stall with DD (2 or 3) and she said, very loudly and clearly, 'there's POO in your pants, mum!'. There were a group of schoolgirls at the mirror outside the stall and they absolutely died laughing. Nobody, including DD, listened while I explained it was dark menstrual blood and every month a woman blah blah... no.

The worst thing, though, was when I came out the stall, absolutely determined to be matter-of-fact. I was expecting them to keep laughing, but they all stopped and avoided eye contact, very kindly trying not to embarrass the poor woman who'd shit her pants.

llangennith · 07/02/2019 10:44

It astonishes me that people can't make the distinction between not being embarrassed by the fact that you have a period and being embarrassed because your DC has just divulged information you would rather have kept private!

This

DontCallMeCharlotte · 07/02/2019 10:47

My colleague's small son announced to his male teacher that "Mummy put rockets up her bottom".

LuYu · 07/02/2019 10:49

Also, completely agree that periods shouldn't be a source of shame or a remotely taboo subject, but kids also need to learn that there are social norms regarding when and where we mention bodily functions. If DD5 told a complete stranger I was on my period, I wouldn't be furious with her or make a huge deal of it, but afterwards I would remind her that people's bodies are private, and that we don't just chat about them everywhere and with anybody.

Without this, she'd still be making personal comments about other people's bodies ('look at that big nose') and telling everyone about the poo that didn't flush. Complete social innocence and unselfconsciousness is nice in toddlers but less appropriate as they grow up.

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