Is this still how we talk/educate girls?

[ComeOnBabyPopMyBubble]

DD is not quite at puberty stage , but definitely on the way there. We talk about it quite a lot(and we have talked about bodies,periods etc since she was little) but I thought I'd get some books too that we can either read together or she can read by herself.

Luckily I read through them before giving them to her.

One of them in particular is focused on looks, repeated gorgeous,fabulous ,babe comments, matching knickers and how jeans will fit much better once you grow.

They call breasts boobs, who knows why.

AIBU that 9yos (the age they claim most girls start puberty) don't and shouldn't care about matching knickers, skin care routines or how their jeans are filled.

It's called The little book of growing up.
A friend gave it to me. To my shame , it seems to have been published in 2007 so quite old , but still available on ebay and amazon in paperback and kindle format and a few other book sites.

So I jumped the gun slightly with my "in this day and age " outrage.

People are still buying it though going by amazon reviews, sadly quite a lot of them being positive.

My youngest dd is 22 so probably her era that was published but I think i got her some factual leaflets for girls and there was no mention of plain girls or handsome young men. What a load of tosh I'm sure you can find something a bit more factual for her.

nobody below the age of 50 prefers the word breasts.

Have only used boobs in jest but have no problem with the word. It's a funny word to me though 🤷🏽‍♀️

OP YANBU The first sentence made me cringe and I managed to suffer through the whole lot. Reading that made me feel like I was listening to someone dragging nails through a chalkboard!

Not sure what they were trying to do...perhaps in with the times or something....but no, just no! That was jaw-droppingly awful!

Never wanted to burn a book before seeing this

What a load of tosh I'm sure you can find something a bit more factual for her.

I definitely will, plus I'm quite able to explain things to her myself from my experience and doing PHSE with the children at school.

I just wanted a few books as well. One of my friends gave me this one because we were talking about it.

Bloody hell, was it written in 1970?
In all honesty I would be contacting the publisher to ask how they feel that such views are appropriate in the 21st century.

That almost makes me want to puke.

Who wrote that shit?

Urghh yuck! What an awful book. We dod the Usborne puberty book, much more factual!

That is awful, OP.

I don't have a "womanly" shape but I'm still beautiful and a woman. If I'd read this when I was 9/10 and had no breasts I'd have felt shit, and with the (U.K. size) AA cup breasts I grew at 14 and had until my twenties when they grew to a full A cup size. Still slim hipped at 40!

UUUURGH foul. I don’t care about the word boobs, loads of people say boobs, but the rest is truly fucking awful.

Whatever floats people's boat in regard to boobs, but in my opinion when it's in a book about growing up,puberty, bodies and body changes the correct word should be used which is breasts.

Just like a vagina wouldn't be referred to as a minnie,flower, fanny and the vulva the same or lips or flaps or bits.

Grim.

But I'm well under 50 and call them breasts (as do most women I know) so I don't exist according to a pp so my opinion doesn't count

That's really awful and quite sad, what about the girls who don't fill out, don't they get to be fabulous?

That is disgusting.

and for @HelenBrown40 using the word 'boobs' has got nothing to do with age. Please try and think before you generalise. There are lots of factors that influence the words we do and do not use and age is not the major one.

Ugh!

My Mum used to say I would 'shape up'. It still makes me cringe even now. It's probably the worst thing you could say to an awkward 13 year old.

YANBU although I've read much worse.

Mine are younger but I bought them 'the big bag of worries' which is apparently taught in schools as well. Utter shite. The very first worry is that she is getting fat. My DC looked at me in confusion and asked if they should worry about that too and there's literally no resolution. A stranger, an old lady, throws the worries away but she doesn't address them or why they might have them or how to deal with worries. It doesn't give any practical solutions.

Sorry for the derail, OP. I feel better now I've got it off my, eh, titties.

Ewww, why it's so focused on looks?

so old fashioned

and for @HelenBrown40 using the word 'boobs' has got nothing to do with age. Please try and think before you generalise. There are lots of factors that influence the words we do and do not use and age is not the major one.

This.

StopTheWorld I'm very familiar with that book, including the aftermath of everything being a worry and the confusion of real ones not going away just because you told someone,wrote it on paper,fed it to the worry monster or whatever.

When I was looking for books on puberty for DD, I found Amazon reviews really useful - both to sift out crap like this one and to avoid ones that weren't appropriate for DD's age.

I think I got that book for one of my DDs in about 2010. It had good reviews. It’s only about ten years old. I remember being taken aback my some of the content.

There is a page I didn't take a pic of where it refers to said "boobs" as either "small and perky" or "big and bouncy".

I find the whole language ... quite disturbing.

"You will develop a fabulous womanly shape."

Not all girls will though - I certainly didn't. I resembled a string bean with an almost completely flat chest, and straight up and down body, hardly any waist, and no hips to speak of either. I was horribly self-conscious and reading something like that could well have tipped me over the edge into thinking I was abnormal and a freak.

There's not enough buckets in the world to contain how much that book makes me want to 🤮