Schools Providing Sanitary Products

[Sansastark45]

Don't get me wrong periods aren't nice at the best of time but don't our schools have enough on their plates without now having to take on this??

Am i being unreasonable to think that if you have a daughter you should be having the conversation with her?? Basic own brand sanitary products are cheap enough to buy - our schools shouldn't be left to deal with this too!

Your daughters are lucky that you will provide sanitary products for them. What about those girls whose parents wont or cant do that?

Sanitary protection can be cheap -
....if you have access to a shop that sells it cheaply
....if you have access to any money at all
....if your parent accepts you need it and buys for you

Schools already provide toilet paper. What's the difference? Both are needed for hygiene whilst using the toilet.

Period poverty aside (which is a real thing), any girl of school age is likely to have irregular periods and be caught out, so even if they can afford the products that doesn't mean they'll always have them available - kids forget to put things in school bags, they may run out during the day after an unexpectedly heavy period etc. It's a basic need to have those things available so girls aren't embarrassed/caught out whilst at school where their focus should be on learning.

@coffeeandpyjamas

Sadly how true and needs saying. It is probably the case that not many of those 100% affected are on MN

Of course schools shouldn't have to. However while there's shit like UC going on, girls will be missing school due to period poverty , I know they're like less than a pound for the basics, what if that's your last pound and you also need milk?

I often donate to food banks and will often give nappies and sanitary products as well.

It may come as a surprise to you OP that people in theUK today can't afford to buy sanitary products - not even the cheapest Lidl own brand! That's an issue with our society! Period poverty is utterly miserable imagine trying to pad yourself out with toilet roll and old socks (if you can afford toilet roll).

I think it's more of a cultural than a poverty thing. If you can afford adidas tracksuits and xboxes and carling you can afford 23p sanitary towels.
If you're using food banks they provide toiletries inc pads. Otherwise it's one of the minor expenses.
Like in the trans thing they can't say the real reason for fear of being unwoke. (Influx of children from Africa and Asia who are not bought these due to stigma.) There are many african teenagers who have very recently come through italy / austria/ germany in high schools in UK. First generation immigration and they need attention, but that can never be mentioned! Same for anti fgm initiatives.

Also, periods are notoriously irregular when girls start getting them. You can't expect an 11-year-old in year 6, for example, to be tracking her very irregular cycle. I was caught off-guard so many times in school, massively unprepared for my periods which came every 2-3 months.

Your initial post has me judging you hard, OP. Your heart must look like a raisin.

Yes, you’re being completely unreasonable.

not even the cheapest Lidl own brand! That's an issue with our society

....and the assumption that everyone even has a lidl/aldi/poundland on their doorstep, or the facility to get there. I drive 15 min to my nearest Aldi. If I was reliant on the nearest available shops it would be a corner shop, co-op or waitrose which are not the cheapest options.

Schools have always had spares in first aid offices for emergencies but not universally provided them.

Exactly @skinnychip - anyone saying that should be made to do their weekly shop in Spar - do people have no idea how expensive local shops are - and busses and taxi's when people have to get to the supermarket.

Empathy seems very scarce these days - even if you can afford to make sure your children have everything they need is it so difficult to imagine some people can't - through no fault of their own and certainly no fault of their children

Exactly skinny a big issue in many areas with high levels of poverty is that the only real choice for shopping is the likes of co-op which aren’t known for being reasonably priced but they are in walking distance when nothing else is

Goodness me, there's an empathy bypass here today.

Yes, clearly it's totally fair for the girl to suffer humiliation because her carer is poor / shit / abusive / thoughtless. Let's let the children suffer.

You set of horrible judgmental people.

My DM was dead and DF wasn’t always around so it would have been useful for me

It’s about time this schools were funded for this.

We donate to the locals school

Not just pads but new knickers wipes and plastic bags tights etc

Maybe you should too?

One of my school friends lived with her widowed father who was too embarrassed to even consider the fact that his daughter might need sanitary protection. She relied on the goodwill of friends, friend's mums, and the school secretary.

I have 4 daughters and I'm far from rich but sanitary protection is cheap, and they've never gone without.

Do you have to use a food bank? Do you have to make a choice between feeding your family or paying for electricity?

Would’ve been useful to me too, my Nan didn’t care I’d started my periods and grown to an A-Cup by the time I’d turned 9yo, she didn’t buy me any sanitary products, didn’t educate me on what periods are (thank goodness for my elder cousin who explained it to me) and refused to buy me any bras, as a result I was bullied relentlessly - it was a horrible and it has taken several years (well two decades really) to not view my periods as something to be ashamed about. My Nan could afford them, she just chose not to get them for me - so for that reason I think this is a great idea.

And yes, if this is unacceptable to some, why is that not the case for loo roll or paper towels? Surely children could take a packet of Andrex and a hand towel to school so they can wipe their bums and dry their hands.

It’s not just girls from poor households. Teenagers do not always have regular periods and may not have protection with them. Or may actually start their first period at school.

It’s good actually. I remember my mum being skint and having to save my pocket money to buy STs and then working out in my head how often I could ‘afford’ to change. Not fun.

How is this being administered in the schools? Will pupils have to ask for them? I would never have asked and would just use loo roll.

We've been supplying them for years - and no, it's not all free, with 1500 kids, we would run out of the year's funded supplies by the end of the Autumn term had we not bought more. I wasn't going to quiz a girl on why she needed one (or two, or five - if they needed to take some home for their Mum, I didn't give a monkey's, as there was a woman that needed them but didn't have them).

I think their sums on how many will need them are wrong (not enough by far), but anything that helps them not dread a perfectly natural part of being a woman, to not dread the feeling of being unclean, smelling, leaking or otherwise hate being female purely due to menstruating and being poor or risking sepsis/TSS, is a result.