Instead of telling my Mum as I walked through the door, I ran upstair,s got changed and cleaned myself up as best I could. After spending a few minutes plucking up the courage to go back downstairs, I finally presented my Mum with my bloody sock. I told her that I think my sock needs washing, and she had an immediate panic about what injuries my poor foot could have. After looking at my feet and seeing no blood or injuries, she asked me what happened and I told her I had been sitting on it.
The look of confusion lasted only a few seconds. As realisation set in, she gave me a smile and told me to follow her. She showed me everything I would need, and how to use them. My Mum was honestly brilliant. Luckily, she had previously told me about periods and I had learned enough from school to not need any further explaining. But she made sure I knew I could talk to her about them, openly and honestly. Always asking me questions throughout my first bleed, and checking in on how I was and supplying me with endless amounts of chocolate. It made me question why on earth I didn’t just tell my Nana that day and ring my Mum straight away.
But then, for a whole day afterwards my sister flat out refused to look at me. She’s not a fan of change, and thought I would be completely different now I was a ‘becoming a young woman’. When my Dad found out, he briefly said “So you’re a young woman now then”, did a short awkward laugh and then walked away.
Then I remembered why I hadn’t said anything straight away.
Not that I’m criticising my sister or Dad’s reaction – my sister was 11 at the time and still learning about periods and my Dad was… well my Dad. Who likes discussing bloody vaginas with their Dad? I bet you cringed there, didn’t you? My sister and I became very comfortable talking about our periods with each other, our mum and even our friends, never viewing them as a shameful thing. In fact, oftentimes it would become an unspoken competition between us about who could reveal the most ‘gross’ information about their current period. We held nothing back.
Which is how it should be. Periods should be spoken about, and people should feel comfortable talking about them.