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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Sanitary products in library

217 replies

dogsdinnerlady · 15/03/2019 12:55

On the back of the loo door in my library this morning is a poster offering free sanitary products for anyone who needs them. Just ask at the desk, it says. Really? Who is going to do that? I see schools are going to provide free pads and tampons for all pupils soon. With libraries closing to save money and schools having to ask parents to pay for books, it seems the budget can accommodate free sanitary products for millions of women.
I am probably in the minority in thinking this is taking the welfare state too far.

OP posts:
winniestone37 · 16/03/2019 18:13

Rest assured women do and you're awful.

katseyes7 · 16/03/2019 18:16

l wasn't aware of the Red Box Project, but this thread has made me look it up. My local library supports it, so l'm going to buy some pads and tampons and drop them off. l'm fortunate in that l'm post menopausal so don't need them now, but it isn't a choice, is it? Last year l was in a situation where on more than one occasion l didn't have enough money to buy a loaf. l could do without bread, but sanitary protection isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. l don't think there are many of us who haven't been caught without something unexpectedly. When l was working, we all kept a small stash in our desk drawer just in case. As previous posters have said, you can buy a pack for £1 - would most of us really notice that on a grocery shop? lt's just common decency - if l was in a public toilet and someone asked me if l had a pad or a tampon, and l had, l'd gladly help them out. People have done it for me when l've needed it.

canadianbanana · 16/03/2019 18:19

Providing free sanitary products to women who need them? What is wrong with helping out people with a most basic need? Come on, I’m sure you are a kind human being and don’t see helping these women out as a bad thing. Do you object to free loo roll as the ‘welfare state being taken too far’?

Sarahrellyboo1987 · 16/03/2019 18:21

what a privileged attitude you have.

DontDribbleOnTheCarpet · 16/03/2019 18:26

It makes me feel hopeful to think that women who are experiencing difficulty (or at worst, humiliation) are being treated with compassion and that there are people willing to help. I think it's actually a really beautiful thing.
Obviously there are other things that need to be done and other groups of people who also need help, but this is huge progress both in terms of the individual women and girls who are helped and in terms of women's natural bodily functions not being treated as secret and disgusting.

jade9390 · 16/03/2019 18:27

Women on welfare do not get extra to pay for these products. You need to have more empathy and do some research. Unemployment, sickness and even disability is not a free for all, I was refused essential thyroid medication, so had to spend £40 a month buying it from abroad just to function and get back to work. This will not be the welfare state, it will be charitable. Good for them, as a teen studying, this could have been helpful when unprepared so not always about poverty. I no longer have a medical problem which needed extra protection, so just gave 4 boxes of pads to the food bank. You could do the same.

SauvignonBlanche · 16/03/2019 18:38

I am probably in the minority in thinking this is taking the welfare state too far.

I sincerely hope you are though I fear you will not be. Sad

ToftyAC · 16/03/2019 18:41

It is a fabulous idea! There have been times when I have been so poor I couldn’t afford sanitary products and had to use wadded up loo roll from work. Now I’m in a better position I always chuck a few sani products in the Foodbank box at our local supermarket. As such, I think your question as to whether this is “taking the welfare state too far” is completely unreasonable and makes you seem pretty clueless as to period poverty.

DarlingNikita · 16/03/2019 18:42

Resenting the idea of people having access to sanitary items when they can't afford them themselves is pretty low.

But if it exercises you so, you could ask in the library where the money is coming from. As pps have suggested, it might be from somewhere other than the library's central funding.

YesQueen · 16/03/2019 18:47

I work for a luxury/prestige car brand and I supply pads/tampons in the toilets for customers and staff. The people spending £100,000 on a car can no doubt afford them but it doesn't stop someone getting caught out and we have no machines with them or shops close by. They get used, I replace them < shrug >
Would rather spend £1 every couple of weeks than someone be embarrassed or in need

Vivianebrezilletbrooks · 16/03/2019 18:55

You are joking aren't you OP?

YABVVVVU.

I think it's a good thing. I'm sure that there are many who need such a service under a Tory government designed to kill off the poorest and make the richest richer.

I can't honestly believe you have this opinion OP if you're not joking.Assuming it's from the budget of the library...how do you know it's not the staff using their own money or locals actually donating?
FFS Angry

YoniHuman · 16/03/2019 19:10

YABU - I've worked in a public library for the last 14 years. You'd be surprised at some of the things I’ve been asked for/seen.
I think it's a great idea.

marshmallowkittycat · 16/03/2019 19:19

I don't really see how this is the welfare state gone too far. Most of the sanitary items provided will be donations. In schools they're not just handing every girl a free pack of pads every month, but those who need them can. School and library budgets are in a mess, true, but that's down to a government who are running down public services.

No one loses here. And I don't know a single woman who hasn't needed an emergency tampon or pad in their lives. So win-win for me.

JustOneShadeOfGrey · 16/03/2019 20:00

That would have been a godsend when I was at school.

I remember seeing some in a basket in the toilets of a posh restaurant years ago and feeling relieved. I was so irregular and heavy, it was good to know it was there if you needed it.

I’ve heard people say that if men had periods, sanitary protection would always have been free. It’s actually a good point!

It’s time to stop thinking it’s a taboo subject. It’s a natural process and, although I would have been embarrassed when I was a teenager (a long time ago when NOBODY talked about menstruation) I wouldn’t care who I asked now for a tampon.

Excellent idea and good PR for libraries.

JustOneShadeOfGrey · 16/03/2019 20:02

PS I think sanitary companies would be keen to provide free samples for the publicity?

Audun · 16/03/2019 20:21

Not only is this a godsend to those already mentioned. It is years since I stopped menstruating but had a fall, and suddenly had a bleed. If such a scheme had been available then it would have been marvellous. I had no sanpro in my bag. I managed to get home and was in a panic, my daughter in law rushed to the corner shop for supplies. I was ok, but since then have always carried a couple of pads. It s a wonderful scheme and should not be grudged.

Arnoldthecat · 16/03/2019 20:22

How come we didnt hear of period poverty say 2 or 3 years ago? is it a new thing? When i was a kid growing up in real poverty i never heard of it.

PhilomenaButterfly · 16/03/2019 20:31

10 years ago I was cutting up tea towels to use as sanitary towels.

RedPanda2 · 16/03/2019 20:58

This is fantastic, I'm going to ask my city library if they do this and donate.
Thanks for bringing my attention to it

RedPanda2 · 16/03/2019 21:00

Btw, please Google Beauty Banks if you wamt to donate to schemes like this.

WrongKindOfFace · 16/03/2019 21:28

How come we didnt hear of period poverty say 2 or 3 years ago? is it a new thing? When i was a kid growing up in real poverty i never heard of it.

Shame and embarrassment? It’s good that people aren’t afraid to talk about it now.

Omzlas · 16/03/2019 21:42

This sounds amazing and I wonder if it's offered in our area. I know some people who can't afford much use their library as a place to get away from their home (also it's warm which their house may not be) and this would be welcome due to a shortage of funds. YABU.

DwayneDibbly · 16/03/2019 22:07

I definitely experienced period poverty in the early 90s. Buying sp from the corner shop; couldn't afford the better brands so buying the enormous ones that sat in your knickers like a brick. Constantly bleeding through underwear and, on occasion, my jeans. Period poverty isn't new, it's just we're sick of it and prepared to speak up about it more.

Also, did I misread or did OP say she worked for CAB? Imagine plucking up the courage to make an appointment, jumping through the hoops of the appointment system, only to be faced with OP and her bollocks about Sky TV and the unreasonable generosity of the welfare state. Hmm

sunshinemode · 16/03/2019 22:42

I work with young people and started a box there. Initially people argued that people would just take them all. However I insisted that they should be available without kids having to ask as young girls can often be shy about this. Guess what... after 4 months no one has made off with the lot. The idea was that the should take a pack but mostly people have taken a few towels away in the bags we provide.

DarkAtEndOfTunnel · 16/03/2019 22:47

Good grief. I hardly think people are going to go to ask at the library just to scam some free Sanpro. To ask, you’d probably have to really need it.

I'm a bit late to this party, but you'd be surprised, evidently. Youngsters sometimes do come into libraries deliberately to annoy staff. Libraries have been targeted by antisocial behaviour, I've known one be burnt down. Books get stolen and taken to the 2nd hand bookshop to sell. I know a 2nd hand bookseller who was forced out of business because people nicked their stock so much. If we have a toilet for the public, at some point it will get poo smeared all over it, or be used for smoking drugs. And if we leave free san-pro out, someone will clear it out either for their own use, to flog on the streets, or to tear up and throw around outside, just because they can. I'm glad we have it available for those who need it, but some middle class people really do live in a bubble, there are plenty of plain malicious people around.