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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to have my tampons on display?

447 replies

ElleGrace · 20/05/2015 13:45

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.

OP posts:
AtomicDog · 20/05/2015 20:17

I've had to put mine away in the cupboard since DD started flooding the bathroom on a regular basis. Was getting fed-up of throwing away unused ones!

Rikalaily · 20/05/2015 20:20

I keep a basket of various lady things on the window sill behind the toilet, they are there for guests to use too if they should need them. I've had friends/family here a few times and they have asked if I had a tampon/towel/panty liner they could pinch, they don't have to feel awkward asking if they are right there in the loo. They are there all the time and don't just appear when I'm on my period, which I haven't been for months because I'm 27 weeks pregnant, lol. The basket also has baby wipes, antibac wipes and loo fresheners in it.

Egged · 20/05/2015 20:24

This thread is fascinating. I always wondered who the audience was for those tampon ads where the boyfriend -whew! - mistakes the tiny, discreetly-wrapped tampon for a boiled sweet in a wrapper.

Is the 'dislike of clutter'/'my tidy bathroom is very important to me'/'visible tampons are attention-seeking and slightly gross'/'no one needs to know I'm menstruating' position a lower-middle-class 'not nice' thing? And do those people also have those eerily empty show home kitchens with all appliances, apart from possibly the kettle, hidden in drawers, and the counters completely bare apart from a fruit bowl with a single butternut squash in it?

FitzgeraldProtagonist · 20/05/2015 20:29

Egged has just described DMs house. She puts kettle away too. Hmm and hand soap in a cupboard. Bonkers

MaraThonbar · 20/05/2015 20:39

Precisely, Egged. The type of person who would have had a cabinet for their TV once upon a time.

CrohnicallyInflexible · 20/05/2015 20:43

cocolepew: my DDs are kept in a box until they are on their period when they sit out next to the toilet. Attention seeking wee brutes.

I felt really sorry for your DDs when I read that, making your daughters live in a box, and sit next to the toilet when their on their period!

Sparklepup · 20/05/2015 20:49

I think I may be in the minority here... But mine are put away in a drawer - in my bedroom - and never on display. I live on my own also - so it's not for other people not wanting to see them on display - it's because I don't want to see them on display!! Thought I was normal but on reading this thread maybe not!! Hmm

Having said that spare loo roll, soap etc also put away too - so same rules apply....

Cocolepew · 20/05/2015 21:54

I dont do apostrophes Grin

Mousefinkle · 20/05/2015 21:59

A jar of tampons sounds quite arty in my admittedly weird head Grin.

My mum always kept hers by the toilet, come to think of it most people's mum's did growing up as well. I don't really go in other peoples home bathrooms nowadays so can't comment on anything recent mind... Personally I put my pads in a drawer in the bedroom. It's just how I am though, I don't really want them on display but I equally wouldn't judge anyone who does! It's hardly like you've got a framed used one up on the wall or anything, now that would be unreasonable.

KimCarCrashAVan · 20/05/2015 22:04

Egged. That's me Smile I love my house to be clutter free. It makes me happy. My car is a tip though. Wink

propelusagain · 20/05/2015 22:18

egged- I have one of those kitchens which have almost bare surfaces, apart from my kettle, knives and chopping boards. Not because I like the show home look, but because I love to cook. My kitchen gets very messy and dirty, stuff left out on worktops would get messy with sauces, covered in flour, splattered with grease, covered in tiny bits of raw meat if I hack with a cleaver.. Keeping surfaces clear means they are easy to clean. If I make a batch of 20 chapatis I don't want to clean flour off my toaster or blender when I have finished.

I have also worked in a laboratory for many years, good safe practice means keeping surfaces as clear as possible.

My appliances and equipment live in cupboards to make my life easier.

whois · 20/05/2015 22:20

I have a box of tampax on a shelf in the bathroom. I can't believe anyone who visits my house doesn't know that woman have periods, so I don't see why they would be repulsed by a cardboard box with tampax branding on it.

InMySpareTime · 20/05/2015 22:22

This thread reminded me of the Goodness Gracious Me sketch:

Hushabyelullaby · 20/05/2015 22:22

My DH is a tiler and bathroom fitter and has been in more bathrooms than the average person. I asked him what he would think and he said that VERY many people keep tampons in jars/pots on display. He said that in his opinion it looks nicer than a box of them sitting on the shelf. However, it's a fact of life!

We have a bathroom cabinet right by the toilet and I used to keep my tampons in here. I have the coil now, so no periods, however I keep a box of tampons in there in case any one is visiting and is caught short (unopened ones I had left from when I used to have periods).

propelusagain · 20/05/2015 22:28

I can't see tampons as a decorative display in a jar, tampons don't do it for me. I like to look at visually pleasing items if they are to be displayed. If stuff like tampons can be stored away then they are put in a cupboard.
Otherwise they are an eyesore and simply clutter.

FreudiansSlipper · 20/05/2015 22:28

I have never seen jars of tampons

Wonder why Confused am I and my friends not that thoughtful

MaraThonbar · 20/05/2015 22:38

Jar of Tampons is a great name for a riot grrl band.

MrsRossPoldark · 20/05/2015 22:38

FuckyouchrIs...: laughing so loud I would have lost my tampon if I wasnt actually past that stage!

propelusagain · 20/05/2015 22:39

My SIL has an extremely cluttered bathroom and it just feels grubby.
She loves her products too and has 50 or so partly opened bottles of shampoo, shower gel, some with tops missing. She has storage things on the back of the door, little shelves everywhere, every single surface crammed full of tampons, bottles of prescription medicine, hemorrhoid ointment, half empy tubes of tothpaste on the windowsill, tooth picks, dental floss, half used bars of soap and bubble bath on the shelf around the bath, make up, plastic bags of cotton wool, hairbrushes, eye drops. It just feels chaotic and unpleasant.

Sure she has eveything to hand- but not my cup of tea at all.

Floggingmolly · 20/05/2015 22:40

Watch out for the new big thing on Easy - tampon jars. The latest twiggy shit.

Starlightbright1 · 20/05/2015 22:45

I keep mine in a basket with loads of other stuff next to the toilet. I did find an opened tampon out the tube stuffed down a pile of spare toilet rolls...A curious 8 year old boy..

Fatmomma99 · 20/05/2015 22:50

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.

2rebecca · 20/05/2015 22:54

I love my bathroom storage units from IKEA. I do sometimes have a box of tampons out if I can't be bothered to put them away but usually they're in a shelf in a cabinet, more for tidiness/ stop them collecting dust than prudery.

HobnobsandTea · 20/05/2015 23:00

Glittery twiggy shit, even flogging.

And a by the by - I read the other day that there have been an estimated 107 billion people who have ever lived. If roughly half have been female that is nearly 54 billion people who have had tits and periods. Yet a great many of the other sex are still desperate to see the first and very desperate not to see any evidence of the second. Is that weird or what?

nooka · 20/05/2015 23:03

I don't like things in glass jars on display or permanent clutter generally in either bathrooms or kitchens, mainly because they get dusty and require more effort to clean, but also because to me it's slightly twee/Homes and Gardens to decant everything. dd and my sanitary supplies generally live in the cupboards under the sink, but I'm not bothered about seeing packs out. I don't think ds or dh care either way, and both are happy buying them.

My mum was completely weird about sanitary products, which weren't even allowed in the bathroom in case my father saw them. I think with four girls/women in the household it would have been a bit odd if he hadn't known that such things existed. My mother is upper middle class but I'm not sure that's what made her odd, she just has strange attitudes to women's stuff.

If I went into the OP's bathroom I'd probably laugh a bit at the many glass jars, and think the tampons on display were slightly odd, but each to their own :)