to have my tampons on display?

[ElleGrace]

Hi there,
This is actually my first post on here (despite me being an avid mumsnetter for the past 5+ years!) so bare with!
Basically, OH and I have recently moved in to a new place together and are having a ridiculous rather silly debate over whether or not it is socially acceptable to have (unused) tampons on display in the bathroom.
To my way of thinking, anyone who enters our home will be perfectly aware that I, a woman, have a menstrual cycle and therefore use some form of feminine product in my bathroom. The only hidden storage we have in the bathroom is on the opposite side of the room to the toilet, which is an inconvenience to get to. Therefore, I have a glass jar of tampons on the shelf right next to the toilet, alongside many other glass jars filled with cotton buds, cotton pads, candles etc. IMO, there is no difference in seeing a tampon in the bathroom than seeing something like a cotton bud.
On the other hand, my OH argues that although people are aware I use tampons, they don't really need to see proof of it. He compared it to having a jar of condoms in the bathroom.
I understand this is a really ridiculous argument, but it really got me thinking as to whether I should really have to hide my feminine products in my own home, or as to whether I'm simply being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn.
I'd love to hear your opinions on this trivial matter, and I'd also like to know whether your products are hidden from view too.

Egged - I'm lower middle class and my tampons are stacked in a big pile near the back of the loo with all the spare loo rolls left over loo roll inners.

?

twiggy shit like is probably more the zone I'm thinking of than twee come to think of it

got confused about the reference to glittery flogging but never mind. If you have them in just 1 jar surely you have to fish around for the one that's the right size? I prefer my cabinet with all the boxes on a shelf (Ok usually covered with assorted other clutter but I can push the other stuff off) It sounds less convenient to me and I hate dusting

nooka Your DD and your sanitary supplies live in cupboards under the sink? You should probably let the poor girl out now and again.

Another who has them shamelessly on top of the cistern, house full of women! (I have a mooncup, often seen in its baggy next to them )

I have plenty of storage in my bathroom. But my box of tampons sit ON TOP of the bathroom cabinet where my 2.5 year and 5 year old old can't reach them to rip them all open and 'pop' them all out. People can either deal with it or bugger off and not use my bathroom. Can't say I notice when people do or don't have tampons out in their bathrooms.

My downstairs loo has them away, 'cause the kids don't go in that cup board for some reason.

Mine are out and proud!
Although put in a cupboard if his mum pops over..

My DP is a period expert though, he frequently reads the instructions when he's having a poo. Then quizzes me about menstrual facts.

I'm with the minority on here. Don't want them on display, not because I'm embarrassed or denying I get my period, I just don't want to see sanitary bits and pieces on display. I personally don't think it's necessary.
I don't particular enjoy having my period, so don't want to have talons in my fave every time I go to the loo. And yes, just because it's or al for woman to menstruate, doesn't mean I want family or friends to see my unused tampax either.

Mine are in a cupboard next to the loo, to hand as and when I need them.

Talons in my fave = tampons in my face

Quite an autocorrect that was!

Damp, excellent, I love a class traitor on grounds of tampon placement. .

Mind you, I'm from the lower echelons of the working class, and grew up in a household imbued with my mother's odd attitudes to sanitary towels (no tampons). She grew up in a very poor rural household with no toilet, indoor or outdoor, and we only got an indoor loo in our tiny cottage when I was five. It had no bin or storage, so she taught my sisters and me to go to the airing cupboard (off the kitchen), slip the sanitary towel up our sleeves, carry it through the kitchen to the loo, then wrap the used one in toilet paper and conceal it via the same method until we could put it in the outdoor bin. Under no circumstances must my father, grandfather or great-uncle (who lived with us) see anything.

When I asked her as an adult why she didn't put a bin in the loo, or an under-sink cupboard, she said it never occurred to her, and seemed rather baffled at the idea that it had made puberty rather more difficult than it need have been. Which, in fairness, you probably wouldn't if you'd dealt with the onset of your own periods in a field behind the house...

It has never crossed my mind to hide my tampons etc. The sanitary towels are in a bag on the back of the downstairs loo door or on the floor/shelves of the upstairs bathroom in their original packaging. The bag is because there is v little floor space in the downstairs loo. There are at least three boxes of tampons of different sizes/makes in both bathrooms. I genuinely cannot understand why this would be offensive to anyone.

My mum never hid her tampax etc either. I used to read the leaflets on the loo when I was about 8 or 9. It was v instructive.

I don't hide my tampons any more than I hide my make up and body lotion. They are all very easy to find just not gathering dust or needing me to buy special jars for them.

Why do people assume anything not on display is hidden? My clothes are hidden away in a wardrobe is that a sign of prudishness too?

I find it stunning that OP has lurked for 5+ years and finds that the topic to make her blow her silence is where she stores her tampons.

The truth of the matter is that I always felt like I needed children before I posted! I know that's silly as mumsnet is a great place for many, many topics other than parenthood, but I always felt like I'd be a bit of a cheat
My own mum introduced me to it and I've been obsessed ever since

This thread has made me think.

I've always kept my tampons/pads/Mooncup in a cupboard/drawer wherever I've lived, even when I lived on my own.

I don't bat an eyelid if I see a box of tampons or whatever in someone else's bathroom, but I just couldn't leave mine out.

No idea why. Maybe because that's what my mother was like, even with two daughters and no men/boys around?

No problem with talking about periods, buying sanpro etc, but feel weird having them out in the house.

I also thought OP was talking about some sort of display cabinet - I was imagining one of those comparment ones that you see butterflies and the like displayed in.

I have mine in a round box under a knitted dolly with a moustache that says "I want to be in you" everytime I lift the skirt for a tampon.

(Ron Burgundy quote).

In fact, I may just go knit myself one and another that looks like a vampire with 'tea bags' embroidered on the front. Classy.

I'd love a compartment display box. I could arrange number of tampons required each day in each compartment, maybe dip dye the strings and attach a tiny colour co-ordinated pom pom on the end of the string. Kirstie Allsop would wet herself.

My mum used to hide all of that kind of stuff. She found periods quite embarrassing, and that made life awkward sometimes as a teenager.

I just keep my tampons in their box in the bathroom. I don't feel at all ashamed or embarrassed about them. It's normal for women to menstruate and to use sanitary protection, and I want my dd to grow up knowing that. There is nothing particularly personal about a box of unused tampons.

Until recently, I had an unopened box of tampons sitting on top of my freezer, as they got left there when the supermarket shopping was unpacked, and I kept forgetting to take them upstairs. DH didn't bat an eyelid.

I have two menstruating daughters so all sanitary towels/tampons are now with the loo roll in baskets under the sink, clearly visible. This is in the bathroom visitors use. I'd like to think a visiting teen who needed one, could just take one. DH and DS are not only used to tampons in the bathroom but also to a teenage girl coming into the living room and saying "thank god my period arrived before the school trip" or similar.

When we redo our bathroom and add more storage, they may be hidden then as I hope t have lots of cupboards and no baskets.

Before I read the full op and thread I thought oooh that sound quite painful

Fwiw, I keep mine in my wardrobe shelf as I've never felt comfortable having them on show. Maybe this comes from my quite old fashioned late DM privacy attitudes and having 3 brothers who dominated the household.

Why not use an opaque jar for them, then you still have them where you need them and no one else can see inside.

Good idea