Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to not have 'guest' sanitary protection in bathroom?

999 replies

EasyCube · 29/05/2014 18:16

Long story short, a relatively new friend and teenage daughter visited I later received a text

'Thank you for having us, unfortunately you have caused xxx embarrassment as she could not find the guest tampons and had to come home with toilet paper in her underwear'

Confused

Is this a thing? I have never once thought before that I should have pads/tampons in the bathroom, easily accessed by guests

My mum was great and I loved her a lot but we never talked about periods (I bought my own stuff from pocket money/paper round money) and now I'm wondering if this is just another thing I was never told about and feel a bit stupid to be honest Sad

Does everyone else have things available in the bathroom for guests? I'm thinking about other bathrooms I've been in and can't say I've noticed this before?

OP posts:
TheRealAmandaClarke · 29/05/2014 20:06

How ridiculous.
What prevented someonefrom asking?

saintlyjimjams · 29/05/2014 20:06

What a bizarre text.

Don't care if people help themselves, or ask me if they are taken by surprise, but I would be dumbfounded by that text. You should not be the one feeling stupid OP!

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 29/05/2014 20:06

I have a stack of pads in the downstairs loo for my use, guests can use them if they need too.

I dont have a special box full of products for them.

What an idiot.

SarahAndFuck · 29/05/2014 20:06

They have learned a valuable lesson in being prepared. If the daughter is young and newly started on her periods then she can be forgiven for being caught without spare protection, but her Mum could carry spares.

And if she's confident enough to tell her Mum about toilet paper in her underwear then she's confident enough to ask her mum for spares. Even if she texted her mum from the other end of the sofa because she didn't want to ask out loud in front of you and her Mum smuggled her something from her bag. I bet they both remembered their phones.

There's no such thing as 'guest sanitary protection' anyway. Never invite this woman and her DH to spent the night OP, she'll be demanding 'guest contraception' as well Grin

When I buy a new packet of sanitary towels I tend to store them in my bedroom dressing table drawers, because the bathroom cupboard is quite small and the packets are bulky.

Then when I need them, I will open the packet and put a few towels in a waterproof make-up back that I keep under the sink. And restock it if it runs low before the end of my period.

If someone wants to use one, and there are actually some there to be used, then fine, I don't mind if a guest takes one when they need to. But if there weren't any there I would be very surprised to get a text like that. Surely it's more embarrassing to tell you that than to just leave it and be more prepared next time.

FidelineandFumblin · 29/05/2014 20:07

It would never in a million years occur to me that I could open a cupboard in somebody else's house and help myself to something inside without prior permission - unless it was loo roll.

Can someone please explain the difference to me? They are both non personalised disposable products we use on our nether regions.

Hulababy · 29/05/2014 20:07

I have never had guest sanitary protection openly ready for anyone who chooses to use it.

Since DD started her periods the main bathroom does have her stash of protection They are not out on view though as she prefers to keep them in a box, along with wipes, toilet sacks, etc. I guess someone could find them quick enough if they went looking though.

My stuff is kept in my ensuite which people don't tend to use. And the downstairs toilet doesn't have anything like that in at all.

I would have no issue with providing someone with them if they got caught short; but would expect them to ask one of us.

wowfudge · 29/05/2014 20:07

Are you sure it's the mother who texted, not the DD who was peed off?

starfishmummy · 29/05/2014 20:11

At least there was some soft look roll. When I was a teen (back in the dark ages) a lot of loos - especially at school - only had izal....

FidelineandFumblin · 29/05/2014 20:11

yes but, Fdeline, not that sanitary products need to be hidden per say, they don't but if , like in my case, your bathroom cupboard contains as well as sanitary products a lot of other things (including medicine) I would rather someone asked rather than rummaging through.

Well admittedly the fact that I have an UNLOCKED GLASS cupboard in the DOWNSTAIRS loo sort of signals its public 'help yourself' nature and my friends tend to have glass cabinets or open shelves and we all have downstairs loos.

I'm a bit bemused by the idea of keeping san pro in bedrooms TBH.

AllMimsyWereTheBorogroves · 29/05/2014 20:13

Fideline, it's not just sanpro I wouldn't take without asking. Where would one stop? As a casual visitor I wouldn't expect to be provided with anything other loo roll, water and, ideally, soap and a towel. If I were staying in the house, I'd hope that my host would tell me where everything was and that would imply that I could use the stuff that was pointed out to me. Even then, I'd ask before taking a painkiller or a plaster, so they knew that the supplies might need topping up later.

Cardinal · 29/05/2014 20:13

No sanpro in this house either.

Menopausal me and two DDs on the mini pill.

Madness OP!

noblegiraffe · 29/05/2014 20:14

Wtf is a guest loo

ToysRLuv · 29/05/2014 20:16

Guests are free to rummage in this house if they should wish to do it. I frequestly tell visitors (tends to be people we like, anyway) to treat our place like their own home and to help themselves to anything. Our embarrassing things are quite well hidden, and even then, not that embarrassing (a - broken - vibrator and condoms aren't really very Sodom and Gomorrah, are they..).

PrimalLass · 29/05/2014 20:16

I'd like to cross ref this thread to the bucket and sandpit bunfight from yesterday.

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 29/05/2014 20:16

Oh, my goodness zzzzz - that is hilarious! I might learn to crochet just so I can make one.

Actually, I am now seriously considering buying some emergency pads and tamps for young girl visitors. It had never really occurred to me before. I won't let on they're "guest tampons" though, that would just be so very silly. Seriously considering a basket of "guest woolly jumpers" though- brilliant

(No MrsJayy - not menstrual candles. I was being daft and suggesting a special display) Grin Although I wonder . . . ?

junkfoodaddict · 29/05/2014 20:18

You have acquired a strange friend. Best to 'keep your distance' as I would expect more odd behaviour and expectations from her. I don't keep sanitary protection in the bathroom and I have NEVER had 'guest' sanitary wear or expected it in bathrooms of friends I have visited because most women know when their period is due and carry spare.

Text back with this:

I am sorry to hear that xxx was 'caught out' with her period and felt embarrassed. Women tend to know when their period is due and therefore carry spare sanitary protection with them. Maybe you can teach your daughter this fact so next time she won't be caught out.

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 29/05/2014 20:20

It would never in a million years occur to me that I could open a cupboard in somebody else's house and help myself to something inside without prior permission - unless it was loo roll.

Can someone please explain the difference to me? They are both non personalised disposable products we use on our nether regions.

So is a condom, but I wouldn't provide a guest basket of them

FairPhyllis · 29/05/2014 20:20

Tell her the guest tampons were right next to the guest suppositories, guest pile cream and guest vibrators.

CorusKate · 29/05/2014 20:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pebblyshit · 29/05/2014 20:21

I don't use tampons so my 'old' tampons are now in a little tin on the downstairs loo windowsill and are technically 'guest tampons'. I used to have horrible, flooding periods as a teenager and was caught short a few times at friends houses so I like to have them in. If I used tampons I would keep them in the bedroom/ensuite and expect guests to ask but it seems pointless as guests don't go in there so I keep my guest tampons in a guest tin in the guest loo.

FidelineandFumblin · 29/05/2014 20:21

Fideline, it's not just sanpro I wouldn't take without asking. Where would one stop? As a casual visitor I wouldn't expect to be provided with anything other loo roll, water and, ideally, soap and a towel.

Erm. One would stop after san pro and maybe hand cream?

schokolade · 29/05/2014 20:23

Just a thought OP, is your guest (or her parents) from another country? Only I'm in Switzerland and have noticed bowels of tampons in some houses I've visited...

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 29/05/2014 20:23

The menstrual candles thing is a reference to this thread, wherein I reassure myself that I haven't been spending my whole life so far being dangerously lax on the feminine hygiene front.

Aah-okay, now I understand.Thx Smile

ToysRLuv · 29/05/2014 20:23

Junkfood: I wouldn't blame the dd, or her fecklessness, for this episode. Many one of us have been caught out one time or another. It's the mother who obviously is unreasonable one. Poor girl didn't want to bother anyone with her problem or she would have asked (or made her mum ask).

happyyonisleepyyoni · 29/05/2014 20:25

Bowels of tampons? That's a whole other can of tuna!