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

[EasyCube]

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?

Curious how the none Guest Tampon providers are taking this light heatedly and having a laugh about it whereas the pro Guest Tampon posters seem to be getting very irritated about it all.

Maybe try being less uptight?

Time of the month, I expect, Coumarin.

Limited ewww definitely unused. He shaped lovely long nails at one end then painted the nails black and the finger part green. They looked great. When I took them to school my male teacher thought they were wonderful. When he asked 10 year old me what they were made from and I said "My mum's Tampax tubes" he nearly passed out! Well it was the early '60s - don't think men talked about such things back then.

Seems to be a lot of investment in being the perfect hostess (not sure why that's a gendered role, especially as male only households are also expected to provide). I have no particular investment in being perfect personally. My dd invites hordes of teenage girls over, if they are all desperate for tampons/pads I expect her to sort them out. The adults can generally take care of themselves or if in a spot of bother ask.

Pretty much all women from 13 to 50 or so menstruate, asking for a spare pad/tampon from another woman shouldn't be that difficult should it?

Limited my husband wore a burgundy velvet suit and a white frilled shirt for our wedding (mid 70s).

Mimsy

I am flabbergasted and in awe of your dad Openupyoureyes. Fantastic. You are well-named.

Did tampons exist back then? I know they did, but my mum was a bit worried about me using them in the late 70s. She didn't say anything much; just let me get on with it.

I have memories of slightly earlier '70s weddings than yours as a small bridesmaid. The fashions were perfectly acceptable and the black and white photos are wonderful.

But a mid-90s groom wearing purple velvet? No.

My favourite dress in the mid 90's was purple velvet. A nice mini skater number.

Memories flooding back ... at my kids' grammar school, once a year they had a 'fancy dress day. It was understood that anything, however outageous, could be worn, so long as each dressed up kid paid a quid (all went to charity).

One bright lad went as a tampon. He had an elaborate costume involving massive quantities of sheets of cotton wool swathed round him from chin down to ankles, a sort of long cylindrical white cardboard helmet mask over his head (with eye holes) to represent the applicator, and a plaited white string wick coming from the top. My children said it was brilliant. The boy got expelled.

oldgrandma: That tampon costume sounds fab, but even these days it would be a bit of a risky move, I reckon..

My son went as a 'Flasher'. Grubby old raincoat, trouser legs that only went from his knees to his feet (cut off from proper trousers, obviously) held in place with elastic bands round knees. Then nothing apart from (very decent) underpants, some elastic round his waist with, hanging over his crotch, the cut out front part of a cardboard 'Flash' packet (the floor cleaner stuff). He looked brilliant and wasn't expelled!
These days, that wouldn't be considered the least bit funny, of course.

It is irrelevant how long toilet paper would or would not last based on different remember their menstrual flow at age 16, because only the individual knows this fact.

Thank you for that, KatieKaye.
Now maybe everyone blathering on about how the teen girl should have used a wad of TP and got on with her life will kindly remember your wise words?

If this DD and her mother are making a fuss about lack of sanpro then maybe we can assume a wad of TP didn't cut it for her?

time is irrelevant when considering what constitutes a guest. It is the act of inviting someone into your home that makes them a guest.

And I agree with this comment too.
What I disagree with is the notion that being a good hostess (note -- not 'perfect hostess') involves only catering for the basic needs of some of the guests who might need to use your bathroom.

oldgrandma:

Where is the OP?! I want to know her response :o

FWIW I don't have 'guest tampons' but visitors are free to rummage through the bathroom cabinet or ask if they need one.

If someone is prone to heavy periods or flooding then they'd almost always have a supply of tampons or whatever with them. Speaking from experience. It's something you learn very quickly.

So heavy periods, she'd have her own. Light or more regular periods, a wad of tissue would suffice.

When I used to live in a shared house, one of my housemates was forever asking for tampons. I still don't understand why she never had a box in - it's not like they go off, so I tend to stock up when I see a box is getting low, even if it's another month before I need them. It's not like she was on a really low salary and simply couldn't afford it, either.

No, we can't assume the bog roll didn't work. That simply does not follow because there are many other alternatives: e.g. DD might just have resented the fact that OP didn't have any tampons (where she could find them).
It is not logical to assume because we only know that the girl did not have her own tampons and chose not to ask either OP or her mother for sanpro. It was her decision to use the loo paper rather than ask for a tampon. Nobody forced her.
Like all women, DD needs to take responsibility for her own body and not rely upon others.
If you want to stock up on tampons for "some of the guests who might need to use your bathroom" (notice the qualifier and conditional tense you used there? these indicate you know this is a very small subset of people you are talking about) then I'm sure you will also stock incontinence pads and spare pants too. You don't want to force anyone to use loo roll in their pants, do you?

While on this subject, does anyone else remember those horrible Nikini garments, with press-studs for the towels? Blasted thing was like a bondage kit and frankly even wodged up loo roll would be better than those

www.mum.org/nikini.htm

... hanging over his crotch, the cut out front part of a cardboard 'Flash' packet

Now that's clever

Reminds me of a pal's OH who walked into his own fancy dress party in a smart suit. Of course everyone jeered, at least until he turned around; the seat of the trousers had been cut out to halfway down the legs, revealing a very tiny pair of lacy knicks, stocking tops and suspenders

You had to be there ...

How much extra expense or trouble are we really talking about here with the pads or tampons? How grateful might a guest be in an emergency to find you have been thoughtful?

It's a case of intermittent need vs constant need. Everyone who needs incontinence pads needs them all the time and wouldn't leave home without them. Sanpro is needed once a month on average, but not everyone can predict exactly when they will need it. When it is needed however, everything else is a very poor substitute. Why not accept that your female guests aged 8 to 55ish may need a pad or tampon on an emergency basis and make their lives a little easier? Does it bother people that they might send a guest out worrying she would be wearing stained clothes by the time she got home? Or would you like to have a guest bleed through a wad of TP into your upholstery?

limited back in the seventies boxes of tampax were plain blue with their little daisies on them. The bits that said what they were was printed on a cellophane wrapper which would be removed so no one knew what was in the box!!

and how much trouble is it for said guest to ask if they are in need. Are periods really so shameful that talking about them is so very embarrassing?

If you have irregular periods, you often don't know from month to month when you might start... So it makes sense to ensure you have sanpro to hand at all times. If you are regular, you know roughly when you're due to start, so you carry sanpro at those times. Problem solved.