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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to be so naive - embarrassing question!!!!

339 replies

loveyouradvice · 31/05/2017 14:49

Almost too embarrassed to ask... so simple, so ignorant....

Im a long-term Lillets user... occasionally I buy Tampax as desperate and nowt else to buy....

So much stuff... Lillets, everything flushes down the loo....

Tampax - nice little paper wrapper AND double tube thing.... At home, where do you put these? Presumably neither flush....

I've spent last 3 days, carefully wrapping in loo paper and putting in bathroom bin... feel a bit ridiculous... but they feel too revealing just lying there for all to see in the bin.....

Guessing Im missing something really obvious....

OP posts:
clairedunphy · 31/05/2017 21:26

Sorry to hijack, but picklemepopcorn do you know the name of the cup you mentioned? There's one on Amazon for 1.98 called Chinatera, does that ring a bell?

I tried a mooncup but found the material too stiff and want to try something softer without spending too much.

Agree by the way that we should be complaining about the cultural attitude towards menstruation and the lack of effort by manufacturers to make more eco friendly products, NOT having a go at other women about their personal choices, or even about their ignorance of the effects of flushing.

picklemepopcorn · 31/05/2017 21:30

I only heard on here, a couple of years ago. Haven't read the box or leaflet for thirty plus years. I've used washable pads and a mooncup for a fair while.

I'm not sure how you'd know if you don't read the box? I assumed you use the sanbin in public loos, but flushed where there wasn't one.

JustHereForThePooStories · 31/05/2017 21:31

In this day and age, how does a grown woman not know that sanitary items should not be flushed?

Sheer ignorance and stupidity.

TheBusThatCouldntSlowDown · 31/05/2017 21:36

Dorkmaiden there's a knack to getting the mooncup out. Try squatting down fully in the shower like a frog, that brings the mooncup into an easier position and you can squeeze it, or hook it with your fingers. Once you've mastered that then it gets easier to do when sat on the loo. Don't give up - it's really worth it!

Covfefe · 31/05/2017 21:45

Clairedun, Meluna cups are a bit softer than mooncups.

RestlessTravellerTheSequel · 31/05/2017 21:45

youaredeulded Fuck of and read the fucking thread. I can't use a mooncup, what would you have me do?

clairedunphy · 31/05/2017 21:52

Thanks Covfefe, maybe I'll try that then. The Amazon one is so cheap though that perhaps it's worth a try first anyway!

glueandstick · 31/05/2017 21:56

Why would anyone flush pads?!! Have they never got a bit of the sticky side caught on skin?! Surely that alone suggests the cling is too great.

Farfromtheusual · 31/05/2017 22:10

Jesus Christ have a fucking day off some of you... 'stupid' 'irresponsible' 'selfish' 'ignorant' Hmm

PrinceAli · 31/05/2017 22:18

"In this day and age, how does a grown woman not know that sanitary items should not be flushed?Sheer ignorance and stupidity."

Shh. There was a time when you didn't know. So stop being such a dick.

Anyway as for everyone being a selfish bastard for not using a mooncup, like with binning sanipro not everyone has even ever heard of them. Or they think it's some niche hippy bollocks. Why aren't there adverts? Why isn't it normal? "Whooho mooncup for you" etc

YoloSwaggins · 31/05/2017 22:24

Shh. There was a time when you didn't know.

Nope, there wasn't. Just by looking you can tell a tampon is not going to decompose like loo roll! Can't believe that there have to be bloody campaigns for people to work this out.

TattyCat · 31/05/2017 22:30

Shh. There was a time when you didn't know.

Nope, there wasn't. Just by looking you can tell a tampon is not going to decompose like loo roll! Can't believe that there have to be bloody campaigns for people to work this out.

Calm down. The impact on the environment wasn't such a (known) big deal in the 70s/80s I'm afraid. **Awareness of decomposition rates wasn't so much on the main stream agenda, nor was 'climate' change or impact. How many 12/13/14/15/16 year olds were spending the 70s/80s questioning the decomposing rates of anything, let alone bloody (ha!) tampons?!

** Well it wasn't where I lived.

Farfromtheusual · 31/05/2017 22:31

Yeah it's so fucking obvious isn't it...everyone knows! It's absolutely un-bloody-believable that not every single woman in the whole world knows you're not meant to flush fucking tampons.

Know it alls or what Hmm

TheFirstMrsDV · 31/05/2017 22:31

That's some rant
Ironic @ChardonnaysPrettySister that you would accuse me of 'ranting' before you go off on one about something I didn't say about something I certainly didn't condone.
Why don't you pop back and read my response to deluded's post?

My 'rant' (nice try and dismissing my valid points tho) was regarding a woman telling other women how selfish they were for not using her choice of sanitary protection.

HTH

YoloSwaggins · 31/05/2017 22:34

Calm down. The impact on the environment wasn't such a (known) big deal in the 70s/80s I'm afraid. Awareness of decomposition rates wasn't so much on the main stream agenda, nor was 'climate' change or impact. How many 12/13/14/15/16 year olds were spending the 70s/80s questioning the decomposing rates of anything, let alone bloody (ha!) tampons?!

Forget the environment - a tampon LOOKS like it will block a drain. It is a solid lump of cotton. It's like chucking loads of bits of t-shirt down the loo.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 31/05/2017 22:36

I certainly didn't rant.

The only ranting in my posting in where I'm quoting you.

HTH.

PrinceAli · 31/05/2017 22:38

It absolutely looks like it would dissolve to me. My knowledge of soluble matter might be lacking but it doesn't make me stupid. And more than likely yes, at some point you were told or read the package with the updated info. Because that's how people learn things. You get the fuck over yourself though. For real. People would not voluntarily destroy their drains if the knew otherwise that would be stupid.

PrinceAli · 31/05/2017 22:39

Well I saw that you read her point wrong as well Chardonnay.

Hth.

PrinceAli · 31/05/2017 22:40

Quoting someone out of context isn't really quoting them. Mrs devere was not saying what you said she said. That's Daily Mail quoting

BubbleBed · 31/05/2017 22:43

I started my periods in 1993. My mother told me to tear my sanitary pads into pieces and flush them down the toilet. So I did. Then when I moved onto tampons, I pulled them out and dropped them straight down the loo. Cardboard applicators went in the loo too. I never read the box after that, and was completely clueless about not flushing any of it.

I only stopped when a. I joined mumsnet and read a thread and b. Started using a mooncup before c. My periods stopped completely.

It not ignorant to not know.

TattyCat · 31/05/2017 22:43

Forget the environment - a tampon LOOKS like it will block a drain. It is a solid lump of cotton. It's like chucking loads of bits of t-shirt down the loo.

Yes, and in previous decades, no-one had THE INTERNET to find out how the sewage system really worked. If someone had asked me then, I'd have assumed that they were 'caught', fished out by some mechanism and ... I don't know ... burned in a massive ICI type incinerator!! I was young; I didn't question the packaging that told me to flush it!!

TheFirstMrsDV · 31/05/2017 22:45

Chardonnay you responded to a post that didn't exist i.e. the one where I defended flushing tampons.

How is having to bin something instead of flushing it preventing you? I've been managing OK for years and I doubt it's an unique achievement

Where in my post did I say I didn't and others shouldn't use a bin?
Where in my post did I even mention flushing?

My post had nothing to do with it. You misread it and for some reason are unable to admit it.

meh

TattyCat · 31/05/2017 22:45

And yes, the packaging said to flush it. I know this. I was an odd teenager and would spend a LOT of time reading the leaflets on everything, just because. I didn't read it just once when I started - I continued to read it periodically (pardon the pun!) since, albeit not every week!

BubbleBed · 31/05/2017 22:47

Tbh I never really thought about what happened to used tampons. I guess I thought they degraded like toilet roll did. when you're told that's how you deal with your sanitary wear when you're an 11 year old girl, by your parent, and the person doing the Tampax talk at school, you don't really question it. It wasn't the first thing I exactly googled when I got the net in 1999 either.

PrinceAli · 31/05/2017 22:52

yes, the packaging said to flush it. I know this. I was an odd teenager and would spend a LOT of time reading the leaflets on everything, just because. I didn't read it just once when I started - I continued to read it periodically (pardon the pun!) since, albeit not every week!

Not odd.. it's what we all used to do before we had phones and time to kill in the toilet. I used to enjoy a fat shampoo bottle myself Grin