To not want to change tampons etc in front of my kids?

[cadburyegg]

I’m pretty chilled for the most part but my periods have recently returned (had 2 years without them due to pregnancy/miscarriage/pregnancy/breastfeeding). And I’m suddenly finding the prospect of changing tampons etc, embarrassing and uncomfortable, in front of DS1 who is now 4.

I don’t know if it’s because he’s a boy but I really don’t want him, as a teenager/adult, remembering his mother on her period!

How do I get around this? At home it’s easy enough to do my business without an audience, but in a public toilet not so much.

AIBU? Surely there are many women with this problem?!

Not many posters saying they remember their mum doing it and it was a beautiful thing

Yes assuming the child is not batting an eyelid but not knowing that the child is hating every second....

Then why do they not stay facing the wall when I tell them to do so (and presumably they would if they were traumatised/horrified) but instead turn around and ask me very reasonable, untraumatised questions about the process?

I repeat, I am one of those who saw my mother do it and had/have zero issues about it whatsoever.

I can pretty much red hot guarantee that there won't be a kid alive, squished in a cubicle with their mum, silently wishing they could teleport themselves anywhere but there.

Look. Needs must. I mean, I guess needs must (they never have for me in ten years). But your kids won't be loving it. Rest assured.

And really good point that surely at some point it does become massively inappropriate. Might be worth reflecting that it was inappropriate for your DC the very first time they were forced to watch. Not some random age that you decide.

I wonder if Prince Charles watched his mum change her tampons..

No, because the Queen is respectable.

To be accurate, it probably had more to do with the fact that he spent most of his time with a nanny. And presumably when the nanny was dealing with her periods, there were under-nannies or maids around to take over.

Taking it a little too literally there, I think.

For me, the age when you stop is when you can safely have them outside and not in the cubicle. I still disagree with posters on here that most 2 year olds are ok to be alone in public toilets. I went shopping today with my 3 year old. I was interested in testing the theory that a 2/3 year old couldn’t possibly open the doors. Mine could easily open the door from the supermarket to the toilets and the internal door into the loos. I’d hope that over the next year, I could trust her to wait for me but for now, the risk of losing my toddler outweighs any long term psychological trauma she might suffer from catching a glimpse of sanitary protection used discreetly.