To have confronted family who tried to shame me at school performance? (period related)

[Detest]

Went to DS recital at school tonight. Wearing new linen trousers with, as I now realise, have shallow pockets. Had been running round on hospital runs and other errands all day so had put 2 non-applicator tampons in my pocket.
Sitting in bleacher type seating watching school performance and heard giggling and chatter from family behind me (mother, father, 2 kids). They were Polish so probably thought I wouldn't understand, but were laughing as one of the tampons had fallen out of my pocket.
I waited until the end of the performance and told them it was extremely rude to talk through a child's performance but I'd make sure I did the same when their daughters turn came (obviously I wouldn't do that) then questioned how they'd feel if someone tried to humiliate their daughter in the same way as she's obviously going to start her periods soon if she hasn't already. They were mortified and left.
DP thinks IABU but I think I shouldn't be shamed for carrying sanitary products.

For the record, I understood the basics of what they said because eldest DD has a Polish BF.

I’m 100% with the op here.

Playing Devil’s advocate OP, were you not playing into their hands by essentially accepting that a tampon is something that it is possible to be shamed over?

They were clearly out of order talking during the performance. I’d have given them a very pointed shush for that. But I’d also just have picked up the tampon and shoved it back in my pocket in a way that showed it was no more worthy of comment than if I’d dropped a pen or a receipt.

How does your DD having a Polish friend mean you can understand Polish? Presumably she speaks English when conversing with your DD?

My daughter's had a Polish best friend for 7 years. I'm very good at picking up languages. There is no chance at all that this happened.

This a thousand times.

Wow Polish is such a hard language to learn even living in Poland and listening to everyone speaking it everyday.

So did they miss their DD recital that you threatened to spoil because your little speech scared them off then?

Laughing isn't shaming you ffs they didn't stand up and point you out. You have no idea what they were saying.

If this ever happened.

It's possible they were shaming you but it seems unlikely. Maybe one said that woman's tampon has fallen out and hilarity ensued!

8/10 for a well-structured, original piece of creative writing. It had everything normally required for a solid, indignant MN response.

1/10 for believability.

Good luck with your next one, just don’t try so hard.

@ChinnyTroubles, is that you, Joey Bettany?

Chinny reckon is about the best answer to this, but assuming it's vaguely true, I'd have just given them a Look. I might possibly have said "shh", if I'd been feeling really brave.

Just going to file this in "shit that never happened"

I was once working in a cafe and standing on a still behind the bar to write something on the board. I heard a Spanish family say 'talle quatorce' and laugh. That means size 14 and the label was sticking out of the back of my trousers. I didn't have a clever response prepared so I just repeated it back to them so they knew I understood.
I however do speak Spanish 😁

Unless you already speak a Slav language, not a cat in hell’s chance would you have understood what the Polish family were saying. Even gist.

What a load of bollocks!

If this even happened it’s most likely you were embarrassed and took it out on a family speaking a different who just happened to be having a laugh.

you felt ashamed at having a tampon fall out and took it out on them. Well done you!

Even if this happened it's not shaming or humiliating, it was just awkward. Awkward things happen and people laugh about it.

They were behind her so how could she see what their body language was?

op I think you’ve projected here a bit

what type of toothpaste do you use? @Hatsoff5

@Slamflunk any whitening toothpaste from Superdrug or Boots. Nothing expensive.

Well done for confronting them- I bet they were shocked you had understood !! I hope they were ashamed of themselves

What’s Polish for tampon?

That happened…

I thought she meant one of her kids Biological Father was Polish and that's why she knows some of the language.

I

I'll take things that didn't happen for 10 please Bob.

Hmm….I speak a couple of languages pretty well through formal study plus living and working in those countries - well enough to use those languages for work, everyday living and conversations with friends…I would still really, really struggle to follow chatter of native language speakers, especially if they were behind me so I couldn’t see them.

I can’t imagine how this could be true but even if it is, it was a massive over reaction.