menstruation taboo... strong as ever?

[harpsichordcarrier]

Just wondering what you thought about this one, as I have been mulling over it (I have two dds).
In the last few weeks I have had a couple of conversations that made me think that the taboo about menstruation - that it mustn't be mentioned, that it is dirty and shameful - is still as strong as ever.

1. I have a lillet in my car, just in case, and my friend got into the car and said 'oh, good job J (her 10 year old son) isn't here!'

1. second friend expressed surprise that I leave my mooncup box (either empty, or the mooncup is in a little cloth bag) on a shelf in the bathroom. 'What if your father in law came round?' We then went on to discuss what we had told our children. Both my friends (one with 5 and 7 yo dss, one with 4 yo dd and 7 yo ds) said they would not let their children know that they were menstruating, they have always locked them out of the bathroom so they don't see. My friend with two ds's said one of her sons noticed some blood in the toilet once, and she did not tell him what it was. They both felt that telling their children about menstruation would be 'too disturbing' and 'upsetting' and 'scary'.

I was really surprised by this - I thought perhaps attitudes had changed but, judging by more small circle of friends, maybe not. Every few weeks we have a 'YUK! Mooncups! How revolting!' thread on here.

Why in the 21st Century is menstruation STILL such a dirty guilty secret among women?

no i don't think so really, i opened my bag at work and a tampon fell out and i just put it back in. i leave boxes around too.

though saying that neither of my sons have asked what they are :S

My son is 7, he has had periods explained to him. I politely asked him to bugger of out the bathroom the other day, to which he replied do I need to "stick my cup up my bum" , I replied I was emptying to which he went "ick" and vacated .

He thinks nothing of periods except that girls have them and boys don't.

do you think that's because they KNOW what they are?
would you tell them?
I am interested maybe this is because I am from a family of girls and have 2 dds, maybe I have a skewed opinion.
my friend with sons said 'why do they need to know?'

it ain't a dirty secret in my house

or in anyone else's I know

perhaps you just have weird and uptight friends ?

maybe, though they don't SEEM uptight generally.
what about those mooncup threads, though?
When everyone goes eeeeeeewwwwww about a little blood...

sorry, that sounds snippy, not meant to be

no-one I know treats menstruation as taboo...not even my FIL and he is pretty uptight

I don't read the mooncup threads

I don't use 'em and had never heard of 'em before I read MN

no offence taken
periods are still HUGELY taboo in the secondary school where I work too

they're all over the place in my house

school ?

well yeah, schools are full of immature people, aren't they ?

or do you mean the staff ?

Both.
we just moved to a unisex toilet situation and there was a lot of FRANTIC WHISPERING about CHANGING and TIMES OF THE MONTH

I am imagining custy's house with tampax scattered everywhere

My DSs (10 & 8) know about periods (mostly as i've been ill (flooded) in the past)...but i do know of other mothers of sons who won't talk about it, including one who had a hysterectomy and wouldn't tell her teenage sons what op she had had. I thought that was barmy.

think it is still taboo unfortunately, though not with my DSS who is 14 and very upfront about all matters bodily.

we don't really talk about periods in our house and i keep my mooncup tidied away rather than on open display but i don't think it's taboo, i was told very early but brought up not to talk much about menstruation or about bowel movements and i'm not really one to discuss pubic hair removal, not because it's taboo but because it's private.

i don't tell my office mates when i have my period. but i also don't tell them when i've had a shit or off to have one. both very natural but not really nice topics of conversation.

In our house periods aren't a taboo subject but a private subject.

exactly, some things can be private without us announcing it just to be open

i had placenta previa and my son thought for ages that you bleed like mad when you go into labour. i did explain that

anyhow children aren't thick generally, they understand without us explaining it all in depth

It's a thorny one in my house. Have discussed with DS and he's very matter of fact about it.

I appear to have married a complete dinosaur though. No sanitary products on show anywhere, no visible wings in bed, and he won't even pick up a shopping bag if they're in it

His attitude is fucking ridiculous and I've often told him so but he won't change

ah that's where I disagree with you SEA. I think children are generally clueless about these things unless they are explained.
I have heard several examples of young girls starting their periods without knowing in advance.
including a friend of mine who thought she had cut herself on a barbed wire fence

i had three older sisters and not one of those told me about periods either, i just sort of knew, school had two lessons maybe i understood from them. when i got my first period my mum said 'oh you;ve started then' and that was that

but if you'd had a brother, would he have known?
and would it have mattered?

maybe the reason we keep things 'private' might be related to the fact that periods are taboo.
we don't keep the fact of blowing our noses private.
we don't keep toilet paper hidden away.
for example

i do say i have period pain loudly quite alot. maybe i should try at work would be interesting. though we only have about four blokes in my department

SOmething happened to my post. Damn.

I have never felt there to be a taboo.

It's not something I ever have any desire to chat about but maybe because my periods don't trouble me that much.

I hide away sanitary products ion teh same way I hide away spare toilet roll, kitchen roll or soap.

I don't find this familiar either. My kids know what periods are.

When I have my period the tampons are handy just by the toilet. They just soak up body waste. Seems akin to keeping the toilet roll by the toilet.