YANBU! My toddlers knew a toddler friendly version of what periods were (Mummy has a baby house that grows in her tummy every month, just in case a baby comes to grow in my belly. Because there is no baby, the baby house comes away onto Mummy’s pad, so a new house could be made). I would have had seriously freaked out children otherwise, as they were forever following me into the loo to show me their drawing/ sing me a song/ help pass me the loo roll!
My ds knew about sex and the facts of life aged 6. He is autistic and at that age was obsessed with David Attenborough documentaries, he asked why animals made babies via sexual intercourse but humans made babies through a seed growing. Luckily I had been waiting for this moment and was pre prepared with an age appropriate book. I asked him not to tell his little sister (who was 4 at that point), the little monkey waited until he was 8 to tell me he had told her, so she was given the same book as her brother, we read through it together. There was no embarrassment, as they didn’t think to be embarrassed, it was just part of life.
Dd looked to be showing signs of early development and ds started puberty age 9 (which I am so glad he was prepared for, being autistic he really struggles with change but he was able to tell me he had started growing ‘hair’ there and he and dh looked at the boys book I had bought specifically for this reason) so I sat dd down and read a book for girls I had purchased and I bought her the lil-lets teens starter pack and explained pads and tampons, showed her how to put a pad on her pants, (told her she was too little for the tampons which she agreed!) then made a little bag with fresh pants that she keeps in her school bag. She also has a special box in her room with different types of pads as well as several different books she can read on her own, or with me if she wants to know any more about puberty. The American girl - the care and keeping of you is one of them op (we love that range and have almost the whole collection).
She knows that it likely won’t happen until she is much older, but she knows what is happening if it does happen and she has the tools to take care of it. She won’t think she is dying if she starts her period early like my Mother did.
By all accounts, puberty can start from age 8 up, that is the only sad thing, that our childrens bodies are changing earlier. I was a late developer and sincerely hope that dd will be too. Unfortunately I suspect not, her hormones are all over the place and she has recently had to start using deodorant. I would much rather my children had the actual facts, instead of hearing drips and drabs in the playground and relying on school teaching them. Both of my children are very open with asking us questions now, well asking me questions, dh is from a more conservative household where that sort of thing was never discussed. He is really working on being approachable though, as ds is needing him to answer questions that he would rather not discuss with me