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

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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'

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

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?

littleprincessinGOLDrocks

why on earth would you be miffed if someone helped themself to a tampon?!

do you get annoyed when people help themselves to loo roll without asking first?

do you get annoyed when people help themselves to loo roll without asking first?

I'm beginning to think some people get annoyed with exactly that lil

Seems mad! I can't believe there are seven pages on this topic too
Fwiw, I keep my sanpro in the bathroom so it's there if someone went rooting, but not a great selection. Various sized tesco tampons, no pads unless maternity ones are required or applicator tampons. So not a great 'guest' selection!

Do feel a bit sorry for the teenager though. I've been there caught short hoping and praying a quick rummage will turn up a solitary tampon

You are so lucky to find out so early on that your new friend is a loon.

Surely it's basic manners not to go rootling around in other peoples houses? For whatever reason. You ask before you open a bathroom cabinet.
I had horrendous periods, to the extent I was anaemic (massive fibroids) and I would never have assumed I could look for sanpro, even in an emergency, you get some loo roll, and then go ask your hostess. It's just courteous. Ask before you take.

I think the level of annoyance at it would depend on where things are stored. I know that I am more likely to use toilet roll so it is just very visibly stored at the top of my bathroom cupboard (outside of it)and I would find it totally normal for any guest to help themselves. Sanitary towels are inside the bathroom cupboard which also happens to contain messpersonal stuff that I would not want a guest (one that is recent friend staying for couple of hours, according to OP) to rummage through it. If my sanitary towels were also outside the cupboard I would not have a problem with someone helping themselves with it.

I do have guest tampons and pads, but only because I have a teenage dd and a friend who travels long distance with hand luggage to visit me.

I don't mind people seeing inside my messy cupboards. If they care that my towels aren't stacked very neatly or that my cleaning stuff is basically just a higgledy piggledy jumble, then they aren't fantastic friends material anyway..

No WAY anyone would text this unless they were drunk, or on crack or something . Thanks for the laugh though, OP .

Fideline - you have a houseful of girls, so sanpro stashed everywhere conceivable is going to be normal for you. There's just me, two boys and DH, in this house. As it happens, I unashamedly keep all my tampons and towels in plain sight on the windowsill of our one bathroom, not even in a pretty basket. Once I no longer need them, they'll not be re-stocked, though. (but I might still have a hidden stash of the smelly panty liners i bought by accident, a couple of months ago)

YANBU. She should have asked either your dd or you for some sanpro. Silly girl.

Very rude of the mother to text you like that.

Umm, helloo, OP?

Fideline - you have a houseful of girls, so sanpro stashed everywhere conceivable is going to be normal for you.

Yes maybe that's a large part of it.

The conscious decision that tampons lived with loo rolls (i.e. visibly, accessibly, where they are used) was made pre-DC though but it's a great way to raise girls

I was raised by an arch prude and I didn't want that for my girls.

It probably wasn't the dd anyway, but this (very) rude woman! What teenager would tell her mum that?
Oh, and YADNBU obviously.

(but I might still have a hidden stash of the smelly panty liners i bought by accident, a couple of months ago)

I did the same! What is it with whiffy pantliners?

Maybe the business plan is based on the idea we'll all buy once by mistake and never again but they'll have made half a million anyway?

What a weirdo! My tampons etc are in a drawer in our en-suite not in a bathroom guests would use. If a guest needed one they can ask me. If the girl was too embarrassed to ask you (although it is MUCH more embarrassing having mum send that text!) she could have asked her mum to ask you. Plus if I ran out of tampons I wouldn't rush out to buy more just in case a guest needed one if my next period wasn't imminent. Plus I've been there with toilet paper in my underwear when caught off-guard until you can get a tampon - it's not that bad!

Oh, I have the odd packet of olde stylee plasticky surface always ultra (they give me an even wotse itch than scented pads), and a pack of maternity mattresses (useless, as they didn't have wings for some reason). Oh, and a packet or two of medium flow tampons, which I will have used one out of and then remembered why I prefer pads..

Your friend sounds bonkers and her text is massively rude.

However. I've noticed on a couple of blogs from America, the idea of providing 'welcome packs' for guests with supplies of all kinds of things travellers might need. They get quite elaborate. Presumably because their providers don't have jobs and have to fill their days folding towels and writing blog posts about them.

Whilst I don't run to hotel standards (and don't encourage my guests to think of my house as one, either) the basic idea struck me as quite a nice one.

Which is why I keep a few towels, tampons and liners in a basket in a reasonably obvious place in my bathrooms. They aren't tied up in ribbon or anything, they are just what I use myself, but anyone caught out wouldn't have to look too hard for them. So I suppose I provide 'guest tampons', although I wouldn't have said that this was a Thing- just that it might be appreciated one day.

I keep my tampons and towels on a shelf in my bathroom. They're not 'guest' tampons but I leave them there so that if someone gets caught short there's something available to use.

To, me "visitors" just visit for a short time, "guests" stay for longer. Also a visitor might be someone like the meter reader, so you don't even necessarily offer them a drink, whereas to me, guests are to be taken care of and catered to to the best of my ability. Customer would fit business use, but they want to use the word "guest" to sound more caring and personal.

please text back-

oh, did she not see the guest mooncups I provided?

Again, in my brain, "people staying" would be like your student brother, who spends most of the time out of the house, staying at you place for a few nights, or someone else you didn't particularly have to cater to (to the extent of the slightly more formal "guests").

"Resident" would be someone whoives in the house, like me, DS and DH.