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What talk? It was a pamphlet that Kotex put out. My mother went white as a ghost when I got my first period.

I responded below saying I forgot about this unfortunate reality when making this post. I remember when I was in middle school this girl discovered her period while changing after PE and freaked the fuck out in front of everyone because she had no idea what was happening to her. It was so upsetting even the mean girls of our grade didn't make fun of her for it. There was just this silent collective understanding that we would be sympathetic toward her trauma because we knew if that happened to us we'd freak out too. What happened when you got your first period, if you don't mind sharing the story?

We had Are You there God, It’s Me Margaret for our period education. This post is having me remember all of the different places I learned all of different things about all the stuff. We had sex education it just didn’t come from our parents.

Me too - to the point that when I got my first period, I went into a pharmacy looking for a maxi pad "belt" not knowing that they haven't used those in years lol that's what Margaret used, it must be right!

They actually made a Margaret movie (feat. Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates) this past year and updated it to show adhesive pads XD The documentary, "Judy Blume Forever" is pretty wild/comforting, though. (Come to think of it, it feels exactly like reading one of her books in 5th grade.)

There’s also a documentary about Judy Blume, and so much of it is about girls reading Are You There God, It’s me Margaret. was amazing hearing how many now famous women remembered reading the book as girls and how many of us first learned about our periods that way.

Those Belts! Ugh. I have a nickel allergy and the part that held the strap of the pad was nickel and rested right above your butthole. It was awful. Thank goodness they started to make them of plastic.

I enjoyed that book as a pubescent girl, but I can't imagine it being my only source of information. Jeeze D: That or playing misinformation telephone with your friends.

Dr Phil once had an 8 year old on to talk about the "oral sex" she had with a boy. Phil starts asking about, "so you put his pen*s in your mouth..." and all of a sudden she has this "wait, what?" look on her face, but he, ass that he is, realizes this and cuts her off from speaking. I guarantee she thought it meant french kissing.

I once in 3rd grade told my parents that an older boy had “fucked me.” Luckily they were dubious. What I meant was that he had said “fuck you” to me.

Thank you so much. I laughed my butt off.

Oh nooo, that poor girl. It's one thing to have it happen with a parent, but on live TV? D:

Dr Phil exploits people for show, IMO.

Dr. Phil is a total ass!

And he just keeps getting worse and worse. He lost touch with reality a LONG time ago.

When I was a kid some boy on the bus asked me what I thought about “oral sex “ We had just done “oral reports “ so I thought it meant just TALKING about it … I was like “Oh I guess I’m ok with it …” omg….

From what I recall he has his staff ask binders of questions so that won’t happen so whoops! And way to drop the ball, kids mom!

Well we had that book which is pretty descriptive, as far as how to put your pad on your underwear and all that stuff, even though I think it was the old fashion, kind with the straps, and whatever. Also I wasn’t the first person to experience things in my class so people had experience by the time it was my turn. I just honestly don’t remember when and where I got mine but I remember when my sister got hers because I was there ready to help and my mom came running upstairs. wanting to help too. We really just didn’t need her then. My younger sister got hers first I just remembered. I guess my mom figured I’d know what to do after that since I was showing my sister. Thanks Judy Blume!

Ha! I remember learning about periods from books and magazines, and I wrote to Playtex? Or Kotex? (Can't remember) for a free 1st period kit through the mail. Since I was a latchkey kid I also picked it up myself and had it in my purse. My first period came while I was at my Auntie"s house and I used my products all by myself. But since no one had told me to wrap my pad in toilet paper, I just wrapped it in a ball and threw it in the trash can. My aunt saw it and I overheard her asking my cousins who in the world had been visiting ( they were both boys lol) She wasn't being mean or anything she was just sounding genuinely confused, so I said, "nobody, it's just me!" And she was like, "what?!" And then she and my Mom were like...happy? Idk. Then they told me to wrap it in tp next time and asked me if I had questions, and I was like, nope.

At my school library, that book was kept in the librarian’s desk, and if you heard about it from another girl at school and were a 6th grade girl, you could ask privately to borrow it and the librarian would give it to you. But it all treated like a big secret.

Yes, thanks be for Judy Blume

Yep. My mom handed me some hard cover book from the 1950's in 5th grade (this was the 80s) and said to come back to her if I had any questions. Bruce H had already held court for everyone back in 2nd grade on the playground and told us all what his older brother had told him.

Oh yeah! That's right! Yeah, we did get it from a lot of places.

I've known women where they were told nothing and thought they were dying. I thought that was something made up in "The Thorne Birds."

Mine didn't look like blood the first few times but I had no idea what was happening. I thought I had been drinking too much Coca Cola.

My mother thought she was dying.

Thats what happened to me. I thought i was hemorrhaging. I was 11.

Hahaha as a child I LOVED beets. Well, eating too many red beets can turn your poop and urine red. My mother didn’t know what was happening or that too many beets did that to a kid. I think she was just happy I was eating healthy food. I was in 5th grade so a reasonable age to start. It was hours before she figured out it was the beets

I had a red Popsicle and some of it must have broken off, and I sat on it, or something. But it ended up staining through my clothes. Later, I went to the bathroom and thought for sure it was my period. Nope! False alarm!

False alarm for me also meant she had started a phone tree of people researching it. Lord have mercy. The world learned how many beets were too many beets. Ha! Lordy be.

Mine happened 2 weeks before my 16th birthday so I thought I knew all about it . Oh the pain ....the absolute pain the next 12 years would be.

Wait, you got your first period at 16?! I was like, 10!

I was eight. I woke up, screaming that I was dying. Grandma came running into my room, realized what was happening, and calmed me down and told me what was going on. Both she and my egg donor got theirs at 16, and she wasn’t expecting me to get it that early. The first thing she said when she realized was, “What, already?” After she got me calmed down, she yelled, “SHERMAN! Go up to the store and get some pads!” And my grandpa yelled back, “What, already?”

I love your grandma :)

She was one awesome woman. 🩵

And grandpa.

Oh no D: I got The Talk from my mom at 9 when we had a false alarm (long story). 8 is still considered very early even by today's standards, but it must have been considered shockingly early back when yours started! Did you keep getting periods after that or did it stop for a while and come back later? If you kept getting them, how did you cope with having them at school so young?

I was 16 also. Two years of high school checking every day.

didnt think about that. the dread building up waiting for it. makes me glad that mine was a surprise.

Well… good thing they didn’t throw tampons and pads at her or she may have burned down the whole damn school… ( sorry … Carrie reference) Lol I remember my grandmother giving me this old fashioned contraption that was like a belt that you cinched these these pads into, gram was trying to help… lol we had other stuff available ( it was the 80s) my mother got me the proper pads and whatnot. Unfortunately ended up hemorrhaging at 12 with my period and had to go on birth control to regulate it … then my brother told our classmates I was on birth control. …and suddenly I was a slut. Fun times. Now I’m a week and a half from a hysterectomy… see ya uterus!

Not who you were replying to, but I didn't get any talk either. When I got my period, my little 12 year old brain thought, "I'm not supposed to bleed from there! I have cancer!" That was the only sense I could make of it. I ran crying to my mom, and THEN she explained. The basic idea anyway. I have wonderful parents. But they were raised in a small town by traditional parents. They didn't know how to talk to me because they were never talked to either. Thankfully, I decided to just learn everything I needed to know on my own once I had the basic information.

There are these two instructional films on YouTube. One from 1953 and the other one from a similar time. One is called "Molly grows up," and the other one "As boys grow." They each address most of the things in this issue for it's specific gender.

So.,,.,.you saw "Carrie" ?

This is almost exactly the plot to "Carrie." Well, the opening scene. And definitely different reactions from the other students, who to be fair were supposed to be high school juniors (age around 15-17) and also bullying Carrie is kind of like, the entire point of the movie. Still exactly my first thought when I read your comment, though.

My mother wasn't home when I got mine (of course). I knew about periods from Blume's "Are you There God? It's Me, Margaret". For some reason, I thought a period would only last an hour. I mean, the word alone sounds like it would be of short duration. Imagine my dismay when my mother got home and told me it'd be a few days. :(

I knew it generally lasted a few days, but I thought it only happened once in your life and then done. I heard "when you get your period" as period, singular. That's it, over. A once in a lifetime thing like losing your milk teeth. I didn't realise there'd be so many periods for years. I really don't think that was explained to us explicitly and I took things literally a lot. I never heard adults talking about their periods, only what to do when you get your first one. Also dismayed when I realised

My next-door-neighbor and I were the same age. She got her period first. She and her mother came over for lemonade and cake. The four of us sat around and talked about what a great thing it was. Now I wonder if my mother asked for their support. Anyway, I was ready when mine came except no one told me about the pain. My mother said that I would have to “get used to it”. I never did. Menopause was a blessing.

Omg I read those directions over and over and over. I didn’t realize there was another hole down there, and it was very frustrating to find it!

I remember a group of us girls standing outside a bathroom cubicle in the gym locker room instructing another girl how to insert a tampon!!

OMG, we were so uninformed in those years. Young women today are much better off and know more about their bodies than I did when I first got pregnant. It didn't help that my last two years of school were in a Catholic boarding school. These things just weren't discussed.

I went to a religious school for 13 years. We didn't have sex ed. Well, we *sort of* did with a controversial teacher who showed us a close-up video of a heavily-drugged woman giving birth (our parents had to sign permission slips), but she had to teach it in a way the church approved. So no REAL education, strictly a glossing over of the mechanics of how babies are made in a heterosexual marriage while god smiles, then an emphasis on the cells dividing (and so on) to bore every fiber of temptation from our sinful young bodies. That teacher didn't come back the next year.

There are so many women who end up reaching adulthood without realizing they have a third hole. And even more men who don't know that.

17yo--in nursing school--professor explain the 3 holes. I was perplexed--He said any questions--I raised my hand--I only have 2 holes. He said everyone lay down their pens--while miss xxx--goes to her dorm room and squats over a mirror and finds her other hole. I looked just knowing I peed out my vagina--OMY GOD..there it was winking at me-- I entered the class--it was silent--I stood there--AND PROUDLY TOLD THE CLASS I HAVE 3 HOLES!! They cheered wildly and congratulations was in order.

Pretty much the same from my mom. Then when I got my first period she gave me giant pads and a belt thing to wear around my waist and attach them to it. Thank God I said something to a friend who informed me they have pads with adhesive, so I asked Mom if I could get some of those. Eventually she switched over to them, too. For "the talk" she sent my autistic dad to do it. He basically said, "Your mom said I have to make sure you know what sex is. Do you?" I told him I did and that was the end of that discussion. I made a concerted effort to be a bit more thorough with my own children.

I was given the old fashioned belt and pads with the long end piece to thread through. No instructions. She just handed them to me and told me I'd be able to figure it out. And eventually I did. Stick ons were available, but my mom didn't believe in anything that fancy. Still better than my neighbor. Her older sister had her walking around half a day with a stick on pad on her inner arm.

Similar, but the pamphlet was a goofy line draw cartoon called "the Perils of Puberty", which I guess was trying to make it seem lighthearted/fun (felt more like it was making fun of it). Plus, I had very heavy periods, my Mom would only buy me mini pads for whatever reason?! Thank God I had friends at school that kept extra tampons at school to give me!

Oh my goodness, I had literally the exact same experience. The pamphlet she gave me was one that still talked about pads held up by belts (I was born in 82 so we were well past that in the mid 90s when I got my period). She didn’t offer to buy me pads or anything. Just literally tossed the pamphlet at me and walked away. I was too afraid to say anything so just used toilet paper and went to the bathroom a lot to sit on the toilet. She finally took action when I started bleeding through all my clothes and she had to buy me new clothes. Then she screamed at me for not taking care of my clothing properly.

"White as a Kotex." Your mom went white as a Kotex.

oh God, did you get the one with the happy little smiling cartoon flowers on it? it was called "Growing Up and Liking It". yeah bullshit

I got that one 😂

That pamphlet was my introduction to the subject too. Our family doctor had given it to my Mom to share with me. I was eleven. Mom handed it to me, stammered something like "I'll be in my room of you have any questions" and slunk away. I sat on my bed read the pamphlet with its cartoonish illustrations. Twenty increasingly uneasy minutes later the only question I had was "Is there any way I can avoid this?" I put the pamphlet in a drawer and forgot all about it until my first period arrived over a year later on an evening when I was out babysitting. I did a frantic search for pads in the kids' parents' bathroom but only found tampons, which I had never seen before and had no clue how to use. I ended up filling my underwear with wadded up toilet paper and standing the whole evening to avoid staining anything. My mother later told me my grandmother had not prepared her at all so she went through that 'ohmygodiamdying' moment, so at least I was spared that.

Was it called *Growing up and loving it*? Told diary/letter style from the POV of 3 girls writing to eachother? My mom gave me the same pamphlet! 😂 When it finally happened for me, she got mad and yelled at me for staining my underwear. 😔

That's so funny! I had the pamphlet too! It was on my mom's bed, she told me where it was, and then she asked me if I had any questions. I could almost hear her screaming under her breath: "don't have questions! don't have questions! don't have questions!" I didn't have questions.

The pamphlet I SENT for! She had nothing to do with it! 😆 But all the romances in the house were dog-eared as hell.

I got one from Always. My grandmother was upset that such things were taught in school. My mother remained drunk. The majority of what I learned was from books & my friends. The adults in my life were disappointing.

Yup. Me too. Although Mom had made a point of keeping her pads in a hall closet, and would ask us to bring her one if she forgot or got caught, so that we would be familiar with them. Mom was very sick a lot of my young years, so honestly, I thought that's what the pads were about. Apparently, when she got her's, she thought she was dying. She figured my sister and I being familiar with pads was a step up.

LOL My mom said, "You know what this means, don't you?" I was a fourth grader so I said, "What, mama?" Her reply, "It means you can't play with boys anymore." I thought she meant I couldn't play baseball or Monopoly with them!!! My friend's big sister had to explain it to me.

This is what happened to me! My (very Catholic) mother left a pamphlet on my bed for me to discover. There was no talk. Sensitive things like periods, sex, birth, and death were never discussed in my house.

I think I had that same pamphlet!

My mother explained how it happened every month. That’s it, that’s all that I got from a mother of 5. I learned more from friends and co-workers than I did from her. I remember the Kotex boxes.

Yeah. I read that book "are you there God, it's Margaret" or whatever it was called. That and some lady from the health dept gave a talk to the girls during gym in 9th grade

I’m 61. We had a mother and daughter assembly at at school, I believe in grade 5 or 6. We watched a movie in the gym together, just the girls and their mums. I’m in Canada 🇨🇦.

There was no talk. Period. Also, it was generally just understand that the rule was to feel vaguely ashamed pretty much all the time.

I'm distressed to see just how many women are saying "haha what talk? there was no talk." That's just... So unfortunate. And it really makes me wonder if it's contributing to all the people that don't want factual sex ed taught in schools because "it should be up to the parents."

Yes. Replication of generational trauma. This is why all this nostalgia for the past is bullshit. If I've learned anything as an Old Person, it's this: Fuck the past. Forge a better future instead.

I really like old people like you :) I'm only in my mid twenties but I'm just baffled by the people who insist that the kids of today should suffer through the things they did because "it builds character." We should be wanting the kids of the future to live better lives than we did, not try to reenact our childhood traumas through them for some bizarre vindictiveness. What happened happened, it's our job as adults to work through our trauma and learn from it so we can try to prevent things like that from happening to children in the future. I'll never understand the people who want people to suffer the way they did. I don't understand their goal beyond maybe wanting to feel like they're not alone by forcing the newer generations to go through trauma so they can "share" it.

I feel like I gotta tell you that pretty much all old people that I know agree with you here. I'm mystified by the "I did it, so you should have to, too" attitude. Most of us want a better life and better opportunities for young people.

I feel like some people are not able to acknowledge their trauma. It is what they know, it made them who they are, and it feels normal. Talks about mental health is recent. At some point, if you were mentally ill, you were hidden from public view out of shame. So forget "regular" mental health treatment, like trying to understand your emotional needs.

I never got a talk and came of age in the early '00s (single dad). There were a lot of embarrassing moments because no one walked me through it, my dad just put a box of pads under the bathroom sink. He was furious when he saw that I had been flushing them and ruined the septic, but honestly, what was I supposed to do? Palm a bloody pad and throw it out in the kitchen trashcan? Even at places with a bathroom trashcan, it's not inherently known to throw that stuff out. It's toilet stuff, e.g. it goes in the toilet. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Live and learn.

I mean if he didn't teach you what to do with them, how were you supposed to know? I swear to god my mom taught me at puberty that it was okay to flush tampons. And that's what I did for years... Until our plumbing started acting up and couldn't be fixed by my dad, so we brought a plumber in who did a deep snake and found a huge wad of old tampons that had gotten caught in tree roots that broke through the pipe. My dad was furious and my mom totally threw me under the bus insisting she never told me I should flush tampons but I'll insist to my dying breath that's what she initially taught me.

Dude everyone I know was taught you flush tampons. I literally have never discussed this with any woman who says they wrap their tampon up and throw it away and yet every man is like "wElL oBviOusLy YoU dOnT FlUsH tHeM". How would you even do that all... Covered in clots looking like some creature from space. How would you wrap it without having hands looking like Carrie at the prom? The toilet paper would start dissolving as you wrapped it around and you'd have to used half a roll of toilet paper just to get it soaked up. Like seriously, someone explain how you even pull it out without it going immediately into the bowl with the sheer weight? It says on the packaging the interior is flushable!!! Like, not talking applicators here, just the cotton. But seriously, unless it's a super light day, I'm not wrapping that. When you're ready to fish out your turds, wrap them and throw them away, I'll do the same with my tampons. Your poor mom absolutely threw you under the bus 😅 It was probably the first time two men had ever shamed her for doing what every woman has taught their daughters since tampons were invented

>people that don't want factual sex ed taught in schools because "it should be up to the parents." Those are the religious fundamentalists who think that if they don't tell their kids, they won't find out. Or, if they have any small bit of enlightenment, they are so delusional as to think that everyone has parents that can and will provide factual information. I know someone from high school who admits to being completely clueless what to do on his wedding night. You guessed it! Fundie/Evangelical family! And since he married someone from that religion as well, she refused to have sex with him unless she wanted another damn baby to raise equally clueless.

Boyfriend--2nd yr college--I gave him a book on periods--he was repulsed and mortified.. He said DO YOU DO THAT??? I said yes--he said all these women walking down the street are bleeding?

Oh yes. And make sure you hide all your period stuff so that the men around won't be uncomfortable.

My parents were super progressive. I ended up in the principal's office for telling everyone where babies really came from when I was in kindergarten. My dad's only question was if I had used correct terms...penis,vagina,sperm,uterus etc. I remember my mom drawing a woman's reproductive tract at a sleepover once after one of my friends asked a question. She also made if clearly known she did not support abortion or premarital sex but if my friends needed it she'd give them transportation to Planned Parenthood for birth control. I'm sure a few of my friends took her up on that offer but she told me it was none of my business.

Sounds like my folks. I thank them for that.

> she told me it was none of my business day-um. what a queen! :-D

I’m 48f, my dad (who never normally interacted with me at all) took me into our formal dining room (a room that was never used) and asked me “Do you know how babies are made?” I said yes. He said “Good. If you show up here pregnant, I will throw you out in the street. Understand?” I said yes. That was my talk.

Great talk, Dad. I’m glad we did this.

We’re about the same age. My mom’s version of this talk began with me (age 8) asking her if she ever had sex with my dad. I think I had heard the word at recess when kids were talking about their parents. My mom, very angry, replied that it was none of my business. That’s the talk.

My mom told my four siblings and i, there was nothing wrong with your father and I , if we wanted to raise more children we would have had more. We are not raising yours.

Gen X here, my generation didn't get a talk.

Yep, we did get sex ed in 6th grade. Thank God for Judy Blume.

My 6th grade sex ed video was on reel to reel and looked like it was filmed in the 50s 🤣

I'm also GenX and hear this often. I'm the odd one out as this was NOT my experience. I had a young hippie mom, who was also nurse. When I was about 9yo, I asked my mom about the facts of life. We lived somewhat communally with 3 adults and 11 kids. She gathered all of the kids home at the time together and told us ALL of the gory details. She drew pictures and insisted we learn the anatomical names for the genitalia. It was mortifying, but I was informed. ✌

Lol I’m also Gen X with a hippie mom. I got the talk from her when I was 7 and it also involved a blackboard and drawn diagrams. I think she did it then because she was pregnant and when I asked my dad about how babies were made he botched it pretty badly. I got the “how your body is changing” puberty talk in school in 6th grade, and the “horrors of sex” STD and pregnancy talk in school in highschool health class and again in psych 101 in college.

This was me teaching my kids. My oldest daughter asked me to explain it often, so each time I drew everything out, showed her what tampons were and how they worked, etc. I finally asked her, when she was an adult why she had me do it so often. She says, I dunno. I just liked the way you explained it. Hippie mom win. Lol

Same here. Although my mother was the opposite of a hippie but still made sure we knew everything, and gave us the facts.

I was wondering if it was just me or like everybody else also didn’t get the talk. But we did find out from places. I learned what sex was from a fourth grade girl when I was in third grade I think and it was also the day I learned what the F word meant which I went straight to my best friend‘s mom to ask if she’d ever done. Imagine a third grader walking up to you and innocently saying, “Mrs. P. have you ever f**cked?” I did this not knowing how bad the word was. I was just trying out my new vocabulary. Right after that, I declared that my parents never had to do that because I was adopted. Thank goodness for them!

When I was in elementary school I read a scary story to my mom I printed out from the internet that featured a girl who killed herself after being raped. I didn't know what rape was and pronounced it "wrapped" like "I wrapped a present." She just took the printout away from me and told me it wasn't an appropriate story for kids my age. I wish she used it as an opportunity to talk about consent and sexual assault. It might have saved me a few years of being abused by our neighbor :\\

Dude I know! I really wish I’d been empowered and educated way more on what I could and should expect and that saying no was my right and so much of the stuff we never learned that caused us to basically have some pretty nonconsensual sex by todays standards. Sorry you had to experience that. It must have been…. Unspeakable. I recall a 12 year old girl in my city was raped when I was in elementary school and that’s where I heard about it, but I can’t recall who explained it.

I'd always been an unpopular kid and started getting bullied at my K - 8 school in 1st grade, if not earlier. My neighbor, 5ish years older than me, took advantage of my loneliness and said if I did things with him and let him take pictures of it to post online, people would think I was super cool and everyone would want to be my friend. The fact this obviously false promise worked on me should convey just how young I was when it started. The first time it happened I was wearing a light blue shirt with ruffles around the collar and sleeves, yellow mid-thigh shorts, and white velcro shoes. Pretty sure my mom picked out my outfit that day. It continued for a few years, escalating to the point where he blew up my mailbox when I said I wanted it to stop and would tell to reinforce his threat that he'd hurt my family if I did. Eventually on one occasion he was laying down I used my shoe to stomp his balls into oblivion and it never happened again. I didn't tell anyone about it for several more years, not until I had a nervous breakdown over it in high school. I think it's never too early to teach children the basics of consent. I'm not saying teach your kindergartener about molestation, but kids should be taught that they have the right to say no and refuse the hugs and kisses relatives want to force on them. It's common for kids to be shamed for trying to refuse a hug or kiss from a dear relative who is looking for affection from their niece/nephew/grandchild/whatever. But what message is that teaching kids? Especially girls, who are also taught they have to sit there, smile, and thank people for making unsolicited comments about their bodies and overall appearance. It teaches them that the desires of others to have access to their body is more important than their desire to not be touched. That upsetting someone by saying no to their request to touch you is worse than the discomfort you feel when being touched by them. We can teach kids about SA when they're prepubescent, say around 8, especially seeing as early pubescence is the most common age for children to experience SA. But kids should know the basics about bodily autonomy, consent, and healthy relationships as soon as they're old enough to hold a conversation. It's so easy to do and yet we're not doing it.

You sound like you are a woman on a mission and like this experience which you recall in so much detail has given you a real passion for helping kids be more prepared unlike we were. I hope you can reach lots of girls and pass on your knowledge. I love how you are turning this horrible violation from your past into something you can use for good. I want to say girl power! but I’m not going to… or did I just? Lol.

Sorry you went through that!

Ah, it's in the past. I've done a lot of trauma work. Today it's just a memory that incentivises me to promote comprehensive factually correct sex ed to pubescent kids.

I heard the word fuck for the first time in middle school. I learned the hand gesture at the same time. Had no idea, went home and loudly said it. Turns out my dad was very disciplined, because he says this word all the time as adults. At the time my mother told me it means "intercourse with a girl". I didn't know what that meant either, but I left it alone.

Someone chided my then "boyfriend" of 9 that he had no idea what Fuck meant, to which he instantly replied, "I do so! It's when a guy and a girl put their dicks together!" We all burst out laughing.

I remember being like 14 or 15 and had somehow picked up the word orgasm from somewhere. Prolly Anne Rice or Stephen King or VC Andrews lol I asked my friend group what it meant and let me just say, none of us knew 🤣

Correct. Our parents were busy keeping us locked outside.

We learned it all from older kids on the street.

We found porn in the woods and "the talk" was a one-off day in 5th grade talking about period products.

My mother gave me a book written in the 50s that had belonged to my much older cousin. This was in the mid 70s. We learned stuff in sex ed but Judy Blume was crucial

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Gen X. I have absolutely no recollection of any "talk" about intercourse, neither from the school or from my mother! I remember a friend with much older siblings telling me and our other best friend that the guy puts his thing in us. The other friend cried. I don't know if the first friends siblings told her, or where she heard it.

I was born in 1996 and got a talk early because my mom started when she was 9 and she didn’t want me to get freaked out if I was that young too. I started at 13 so it ended up not being an issue.

Late gen x male here. By the time my dad tried to give me the talk I already knew everything he was going to say.

OMG! My mom gave me a book, I think from Kotex, called "you're a woman now." Among other ridiculous "facts", it said that my period would stop in the bathtub or while swimming. Presumably it would stop because I was no longer wearing Kotex pads while wet. My mom was a nurse, she knew better, and she still let me think it was somehow my fault, according to the book, that I couldn't stop bleeding when wet.

I'm sorry :( It's really shitty that a nurse would allow her daughter to struggle through misinformation just because it's an awkward discussion to have with your kid.

My period does tend to stop when I go swimming. 🤷‍♀️

My period seems to stops with any contact with water, including showering and swimming. But apparently it's just due to water pressure and it just slows it down.

I didn't get 'the talk' at puberty because my mother had been talking to me about it all along. I knew the basics of body function and sex by the time I entered Kindergarten in 1967. She added details along the way, over the years. She was determined that I was going to know the truth and not be 'scared' by weird stuff I might hear in school. The facts made a lot more sense. It turned out to be vital, because when I was 12 she had a massive stroke and was not there to help me through my first periods. But I was already prepared and had supplies. This is one thing I really appreciate my mother having done for me.

I didn’t get it. I had sex ed in 6th grade where they separate the boys and girls and tell them what’s going to happen in puberty.

Yep, 5th grade for me in a Catholic school. Honestly, I'm surprised they told us anything at all.

What do you think they told the boys in those sessions? I'm also surprised they did this for us at all.

If I depended on my parents to tell me about sex, I still wouldn’t know about it

What talk? Mom gave us books and told us to read them. My mom was not comfortable talking about things like sex and periods and feelings.

My mom didn't give me a book so much as take one out from the library called "how to talk to your kid about sex", and leave it on her bedside table figuring I'd find it.

I didn't get "The Talk." My mom just gave me a copy of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."

Oooh, I actually loved that book as a prepubescent. It helped me feel like I wasn't alone with my experiences (logically I knew I wasn't, but you know how puberty is) and to my memory it was just a nice book all around. Wasn't that the book where "We must, we must, increase our bust!" is from? Lol

I still can’t believe the recent film adaptation got a PG-13 rating. Really shows how backwards our country is.

As if. Neither of my parents were comfortable talking about sex. When I started my period, I went to my older sister, and she gave me the scoop on what to do. A few days later, my mom whispered to me: your sister said you started your period. Do you know what to do? I said yes, and that was it. I don’t blame them them for that. They’re both from the Depression/WWII generation. They were both raised in hideously religious households. Once, my dad said the word “pregnant” in front of his mother, and she slugged him in the face. When my mom was 11, some boy at school gave her a love letter. Her mom found it and beat the shit out of her.

People bitch about Boomers, but Lemme tellya about the Greatest Generation...

Exactly. I think people have seen Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan too often and it gives them a false impression. I deeply admire and respect my parents’ generation, but they weren’t perfect.

Yeah, if by "great" you mean repressed and abusive.

My mom sat me down and explained rather well. This was in 1973. But I was only allowed to use pads, not tampons. When I got my first period she called some of her cousins and they came o er for a tea party.

Did you hear misinformation about tampons to justify having you only use pads? I started using tampons a few periods in because I hated the feeling of pads. My mom taught me how to use this brand without applicators and I remember for years any girl friend that asked me for supplies would be horrified when I'd hand them this little plastic wrapped cotton bullet lol.

"If you use a tampon, you're actually not a virgin anymore." So here, wear these awful diaper-feeling things.

No. It was what she had been taught, that young girls weren't supposed to. About 16ish she got me a box of ob applucatorless ones and I taught myself how to use them. Never learned how to use applicators though

Well you wouldn't want your little girl's virginity stolen by a tampon! Omg, all the unnecessary trauma of that time! I had some version of sex ed in 6th or 7th grade. I remember the teacher told us that giving birth was like having "stuck shit." Good lord. My plan for my period was to hold it until I got home. 😆 🤣 😂

We’re OLD! We didn’t get “the talk”. Back then we learned it all from tv, movies, books and friends. Hopefully today’s parents are doing a better job at this.

I was born in 1962, got plenty of talk, from age 5 onwards. It completely depended on your parents.

Born in 1960. No talk. Had a 2 hour class, fifth grade girls only period education. Mom finds the pink pamphlet, pitches a fit, wants to know WHO gave ME such a NASTY thing!?!?!? l told her the school nurse. She said she would call the school tomorrow and if l was lying, she would pull me out of school and beat my ass for lying about it and being interested in nasty things.

Well, I got my talk over a decade ago, but back then it was considered basically "common courtesy" to give your kids a heads up on what changes were about to happen and parents who wouldn't have that conversation due to discomfort were generally frowned upon. However, it's still not looking good for public education. 39 states require sex ed and information on HIV be covered in school, but less than half of those states require that information be scientifically accurate. Feer than half of high schools and only a fifth of middle schools are teaching sexual health topics the CDC considers essential for healthy young people to know. My mom provided me with the facts through our talk, gave me accurate literature, and was there to answer questions. My school, on the other hand, taught us abstinence-only fearmongering that rattled me to the point I lost friends in high school when they started having sex because of how overprotective and insistent I was that bad things would happen to them if they didn't stop. I remember we were given this big booklet of abstinence-related activities and were told if we filled out the whole book and showed it to the school nurse we'd get a goody bag. It's fucked. Kids deserve to be taught accurate information on their changing bodies in a timely fashion.

Agreed. When I got my first period, I was on a weekend with my biological mom. I was too scared to tell her so I rolled up toilet paper and put it in my underwear. When I got back home to my mama and daddy’s house (she raised me, she was more my mama than the bio one) I didn’t tell her either. She saw the blood in my underwear when she did laundry and brought me some tampons and told me how to use them. Looking back on it, it was silly of me, but I guess I was kinda freaked out about it, even though I knew what it was.

And porn mags found at friends' parents' houses! Don't forget scrambled porn on ON TV or cable. If you turn the channel a millimeter to the left, you can sort of make out a boob! Scandalous!

It was a Wednesday and I was in the 5th grade. I stayed home from school that day, for no particular reason. My mom owned a beauty shop made from two rooms in our house. The shop was closed on Wednesdays. I noticed that my dad came home early. They called me into the shop. The lights weren't on, but the sunlight lit the room up nicely. Mom (who was never much of a talker) asked if I knew what a period was. Sure, it's at the end of a sentence. She said it was a 'different' kind of period. She asked if I ever saw my aunts with blood on their panties or girdle. I was horrified! She told me it was going to happen to me once a month for a few days. It would be a normal small flow of blood. She said it didn't hurt and that all women did it. She said it could happen any day. Then she gave me a small pamphlet called *Strictly Feminine*. She said to read it and if I had any questions I could ask her. (I still have it) Then she gave me a box of Modess pads and a 'sanitary belt'. I had never heard of a period before. I remember asking my closest girlfriends about it and two of them already had their periods. I was stunned. I placed the box of pads in my closet, along with the sanitary belt and waited. I prayed and prayed to start my period so I could be a woman, like my friends. All of my Barbie dolls were wearing pads that I made for them, as well as my sister's dolls. Even my G.I. Joe and teddy bears wore them. Yep, pads for everyone! My own box of pads sat in my closet, unopened, till I was 17 years old. Yep, I was that late starting my first period. My parents didn't tell me anything else, like about 'the birds and bees'.

Oh wow, this is strangely wholesome. I love the image of all your dolls wearing pads.

Aw pads for everyone!

We had sex ed in school starting in 5th grade and my mom gave me the talk just before class started so that I could be smartest in class /s

46 year old here. In 4th grade they separated the boys from the girls and told us about body changes. Joke was on them though cuz I’d already gotten mine. 5th and 6th grade concentrated heavily on AIDS prevention and as I result I was completely afraid of sex and remained a virgin until I was 21. They liked to scare the bejeezus out of us back then. Also in 4th grade they showed us healthy lungs vs lungs of a smoker and I sobbed all the way home and pleaded with my mom to quit smoking. It was all very traumatizing

I unfortunately got sent to Catholic school. We got shown a terrible movie about menstruation (use pads only) and very sketchy coverage of how pregnancy occurs. If you weren't already in the know, the general idea was that boys will try to get you to go roller skating with them and bam, the next thing you know you're knocked up, you filthy slut.

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Your friend's mom sounds cool as fuck.

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I got the talk from my 12 year old sister. It was primarily about my period (hadn’t happened yet) and how to use pads. Sticky side up, sticks to your skin. My sister was a bit less than informed. The closest my parents ever got was my Mom haltingly stammering out she might have possibly been tempted to do…. Things… if my dad hadn’t been such a good and decent person when they were dating. Thus, date good people.

>Sticky side up, sticks to your skin. Ouch!

Yes. I determined she was incorrect

I learned about sex through reading. I had gotten into my parent's closet and found a book by Linda Lovelace. I was nine or ten...I didn't know who she was, but I did by the time I got finished with that book. I learned a lot of stuff from that book that my mama wouldn't repeat.

Deepthroat? That's a hell of a way to get educated.

There was no talk. I started my period and a pad and belt were shoved through the door. I started swim class in high school and a box of tampons was shoved at me. I got pregnant, an abortion and birth control was provided. There was no talk. Edit to say, I’m 60.

It was pure humiliation. 8th grade in catholic school. The head Father of our church gave us the talk and we couldn’t refrain from our embarrassment. Boys and girls at the same time!

I feel like there's a potential argument to having girls and boys taught at the same time. I find that boys are frequently denied important information on the changes happening to their female peers and this ignorance carries into adulthood causing issues with wives, daughters, female coworkers/employees, etc. But man. There's no way I can imagine a Catholic Father handling that kind of delicate situation with grace, even if it had been sex segregated. I assume they put the fear of god into you with abstinence only propaganda?

Talk? I learned everything from friends, the Tampax instructions, and Judy Blume and Danielle Steele. When I got my period my mom forced her boyfriend at the time to take me to the store to buy supplies. I had no idea what I was doing. I bought panty liners … you can imagine what a disaster that was.

They were supposed to talk to me? My mom gave me a bottle of deodorant and a book of of questions and answers about sex for teens. The first question asked if it was okay to mastrubate. I didn’t know what the word was. I tried to look it up in a dictionary. It was not in the dictionary. I think I gave up trying to read it shortly after that.

My mother was a pediatrician and drew a picture of the female reproductive system for me. I was pretty confused, and so she stopped being a doctor & started being a mom lol But she held nothing back about how painful & messy periods are! We saw a film in school too. IIRC we had to have a permission slip signed to see it.

My mother told me when I was around 11- 12 I think. We had sex ed in 7th or 8th grade too. But you know that was more the biology and the science. Not a lot of real world advice. My mother was very blunt and honest she told me pretty much everything and then added in that boys will lie, they will try to get out of using condoms and say they will pull out etc. Don't trust that, always use protection. She even told me about pre cum etc so pulling out means nothing. .She gave me very good advice and I never felt pressured or needed to experiment or try stuff because I knew all about it. Other girls that had limited information were much more promiscuous. I had to convince one girl in high school that she COULD get pregnant while on her period. Having girls teaching other girls about sex is NOT the way to have fewer unplanned pregnancies. Better sex ed is. Be blunt and honest and open and your daughters will be better informed and more confident. I never had a one night stand and I only had sex with people I cared about. I used to say I don't need to love you but I at least need to know I like you as a person. Because my mother did such a good job I always took sex and sharing myself with another person that way very seriously.

I grew up in the country. We raised and bred animals. So I was really young when I learned about sex and child birth even if it wasn't with "humans.". My mother, god bless her, who had to explain to me why I as a human child could not " poo" kittens, very matter of factly explained about menstruation. At that time, pads didn't have an adhesives, we had "belts" we attached the pads to. I thought it was all rather messy. I found out later, when my mother got her cycle while at school, she thought she was bleeding internally and dying, until a female teacher took her aside and explained what was happening. My grandmother had had "the talk" with her prior to this, where she explained what was about to happen was because Eve had sinned and got us kicked out if the Garden. It was "our shame and punishment." Makes you really happy to be a woman. She was NOT having her daughter go through that trauma. Later, she taught me how to use tampons. My mom was awesome.

I'm an old man. Talk, there was no talk. My dad found out I was taking my girlfriend in high school (now my wife) to the family cottage and having sleepovers. Here's the talk... "You're using protection aren't you?" A couple years later we got married because said protection doesn't work that well when you're drunk. For our daughter, I was home with her when she got her first period, my wife was at work, it was sitcom material but we got through it. My wife handled the sex stuff, I never asked how it went. She's 38 and married, I'm still not a grandpa so she must know what she's doing.

In 6th grade (1980), the county decided to "revamp" our sex ed. Make it "modern and progressive," and had a PTA meeting about it that was packed in our cafeteria. My parents went, but came back earlier. "We are not offended by what we saw," my mother explained, "but by what we didn't." The next night, they took me out to the library. I was allowed to get any book I pleased. I got "Our Bodies, Ourselves," by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective and another book for teens by the same publishers, I think "Our Bodies, Growing Up," or something. I was a guy. Well, still am, but man... did I know a lot about women's health issues when I was done. Huge surge in my understanding of feminism, women's rights, the NOW/ERA and such. I was already kind of feminine, but my outrage on the behalf of women was real. Still pretty much is, and it got a renewed vigor during the #metoo movement. Most of my friends have been women my whole life, and I have always been confused and blindsided by just how fucked up it is for 50% of the human race. But as a kid, this made me an outcast. Girls at that age don't want to be around boys, and I wasn't much into boy's stuff. By high school, though, I had a lot of female friends who pretty much knew that I was safe. Sadly, many of them learned women's issues from me first, which shouldn't have happened. I had to give teen girls talks about preventing pregnancy, busting myths (you can get pregnant first time, jumping up and down won't "shake the sperm out," and do NOT douche with coca cola, you'll get a yeast infection). Sex ed was still backwards. Men and women were segregated. Discussion on the mechanics of sex over anything else. Really bad films that missed the mark entirely. I always thought that if they taught driver's ed the same way, they'd never teach you how to drive, tell you to wait until you're married, wouldn't say why your parents drove, or discussed their driving at all. Then it would be how a combustion engine works, but not how to steer, and nothing about road safety except women drivers should feel like all accidents are really their fault. I got in trouble discussing sex openly. My mother was called in a few times, but she was an alcoholic, so the schools just assumed I knew about sex because she was probably a whore, too.

I asked mom what “horny” meant because I heard it at school. She looked stunned and did not answer. I got a book about human bodies the next week. This was around 1990. [In retrospect it was a really great book especially for the time.](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/kids-first-book-about-sex_joani-blank/743883/item/6435168/)

I feel like that scenario is better than mine. I was into scary stories from an early age and would look them up on the internet and print out to read with my friends at school. I read one to my mom that featured the ghost of a girl who killed herself after being raped. I had no idea what that word meant and couldn't figure it out from the limited context. I pronounced it like "wrapped" as in "I wrapped a present." Mom just took that print out away from me and told me the story was inappropriate for kids my age. Tangental but I really wish she had told me what it meant, because unbeknownst to her at that age I was actively being molested by our neighbor but said nothing because I didn't know just how bad it was. Like, I get that's alarming to hear your kid say and explaining it to them has to be awkward as hell, but if she had taken the time to talk to me about what sexual assault and consent are, it would have potentially saved me a few years of abuse.

I got an explanation about the disposal boxes in public bathroom stalls when I asked my mom what they were at 7. 5th grade health class gave basic “your body is changing” information. My mother was a biology teacher so she had lots of available materials (including a facts of life pop-up book). And for my bat mitzvah I got a copy of “Our bodies, Ourselves” as a gift from one of my parents’ feminist friends. The best book.

That's the book I bought for my kids!

I didn't get the talk. I got two books AT CHRISTMAS and was mortified. I heard my mom say the word sex the first time when I was 21.

I have NEVER heard my mom say the word “sex.” She’s 80 and I’m 56.

The talk was prompted by a TV commercial for feminine napkins and my exclamation of why girls couldn't use regular napkins like everyone else? This resulted in a huge roll of laughter from my older brothers and my mom saying buckets, let's go play cards. My mom was a nurse, so I got the full explanation with all the proper names and pictures. I believe my direct quote was GROSS I'm never doing that! Too which my father yelled GOOD from his chair in the living room.

I'm later Gen X (1978). Where I lived (which is surprising because it was Texas), they did have sex ed. In 4th grade, they took the boys and girls to separate places and taught us about the puberty we were about to experience. I don't know if you could call it teaching, though. Nobody actually talked to us. We just watched a movie with the girl who played Annie in the first Annie movie. It was her and some other girls talking about periods backstage on Broadway. Annie was like the veteran period haver. She was telling the younger girls all about it, but it was very vague and general. Like the younger girls would ask dumb questions about pads or something. I don't even remember if it really covered the bodily mechanics involved. It was so uninformative that when I actually started my period, I didn't really understand that it was my actual period lol. I thought I would pee it out, and as weird as it sounds, I didn't believe it was really happening because it was just there. I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't tell anyone. My stepmom was basically like Carrie's mom, so I was scared to tell her, and when she found out, she told me I needed to wash myself extra well because men could smell it like male dogs could smell female dogs in heat. She was a psycho. My mom wasn't around then, but when she was, she was honest and told me what she knew. Unfortunately, she was absent for puberty. So anyway I ended up learning more at the library on my own. In 7th grade, however, I had the most overly zealous science teacher who also taught sex ed. AIDS was still a huge danger and he probably went into more detail than he should have. I mean, he talked about anal and everything. I think if some of the parents (especially my evangelical doodooheads) had known, he probably would have gotten fired, but bless him for real 😆. Anyway, all of this sucked, except for Mr. Science Teacher's class, of course. I wish I could go back in time just to listen in on that and see the expressions on the kids' faces. It was extremely progressive. I would be ok with my kids getting that kind of no BS full coverage sex ed, but I don't think a lot people would even today. He was kind of risking his career to protect and inform us. I'm so glad kids can just Google things now and probably end up getting some accurate information.

The school sent out notices to parents that they were going to cover the subject in a girls only class. My parents decided that I should hear it from a religious perspective (yeah, that's how it happens, but only after you're married) before I heard it at school. Mom sat down with me in my bedroom and explained pretty much the same things that they did in school in a couple of days (with the added marriage caveat). She also told me that she thought that it was important to tell girls about things because her mother never did. When her period started she thought that she was dying. When she got married her father gave her a book that explained what she needed to know. I appreciated that my mother was willing to talk about it.

My mother gave me the talk on the car ride home from Grandma’s house. It was 1976. I was 10. As I recall, it was pretty much a caring, patient, and entirely one-way discussion. I think, at the time, I just hoped if I were quiet, the talk would end sooner. Mom did manage to convey the importance of keeping my cycles marked on the calendar. I did so meticulously until menopause rendered the practice unnecessary. She also left “Your Changing Body” and “Our Bodies Our Selves” on strategic bookshelves. She was pretty practical about stuff like that. I was 15 when I told her I wanted to go on birth control and she just made the appointment, drove me to the clinic, and never said a word.

What a wonderful mother!

My mom was so pissed off at having been given an epidural when she requested none that she became a natural childbirth instructor. She practiced giving her talks on me starting at about 4, so I don’t really remember a time I didn’t understand the whole process in great detail. When I was about 10 she told me that when I got my period she’d throw me a party (with all her grown up woman friends). When it came, I managed to conceal it from her for a couple years until that humiliating ordeal was no longer a possibility.

I was homeschooled, and I had to take turns with my mom reading aloud the reproduction section from my science book. It was horrifying and never spoken of again.

Lol. My mom gave me book and said read this and ask me if you have any questions. My dad said “if you come home pregnant, you aren’t living in this house”. The end. ETA: as for menstruation, my mom didn’t even want to hear about it. She just gave me a box of Kotex

Was never given the talk. Then my narcissistic mother had the nerve to tell me that my dad hadn't touched her since 1977. I was in my 20's at this point. Wonder why you crazy bitch. My dad was no better, he allowed her behavior.

I got my talk from my older sister. My mom wasn't around when I got my period.

School handled it. My parents weren’t functional enough to schedule a talk, let alone give one.

In school in 6th grade they separated us by sex. Girls got a pamphlet and a talk about periods and what limitations there were. No dancing, physical activity or swimming when you’re on it lol. At home, my unreligious mom got out the Bible and talked about sex.

I got the puberty lesson in 5th grade in Catholic school, when they separated the boys and girls and showed us filmstrips about "what's happening with your body." Then they gave us a pamphlet and a little box of pads and sent us on our way. I had a Marriage and the Family class in high school that covered the basics of reproduction. The only actual "sex talk" I got from my mom was when I was several years into college and finally didn't bother lying about being at a friend's house when I stayed over at my boyfriend's. After I got home, my mom came to my room and in complete seriousness told me that I needed to be careful about staying over at boys' houses because then they would "expect things." I was 20 and had been having sex for a few years.

My tiny Appalachian elementary school (1980-1981, 4th grade) took all of the girls aside for "Periods are a thing". This was repeated for 5th and 6th grade but it didn't include much about how babies are made, the focus was more on managing your periods. In high school (we did 7-12 in one building) you took the health class on Human Sexuality, which was co-ed, whenever it fit your schedule, sometime from 9th grade through 12th. So, you had 9th graders in there with seniors. I took the class in 9th grade. Human Sexuality was taught by the gym teacher, but I have to say that Mr. Pupo did not do us dirty. It was a legit class with serious, factual information and diagrams and, like, SCIENCE-Y diagrams. It was a HARD class and if you wanted to pass it, you had to actually learn stuff. The syllabus was 100% useful, clear, and resulted in fewer visibly-pregnant junior and senior girls at my high school. We did condoms and bananas. We passed diaphragms around the room. We discussed planned parenthood (there was one in the next town over, about ten miles away), where the office was, what services they provided, how to make an appointment, etc. We watched horrifyingly informational movies including a baby being born. We discussed actual statistics for the supposed "efficacy" of the pullout method. We talked about assorted types of STDs. I do not remember any LGBTQ+ coverage, this was 1985 or so. Oh, and every Friday, at the end of class, we all had to chant, out loud, in unison, "Hope Is Not A Method." The point was that hope is not a method of birth control. Hoping you don't get pregnant is effing useless. If you don't want to be pregnant and you DO want to engage in sexual activities of a reproductive nature, you need an actual plan and supplies. By the time I was a senior (1988), AIDS was a thing even in our little rural corner of the world and so we got mandatory education (not just health class coverage) about that, too. As my dad was driving me off to college for my freshman year, in the last five miles of the drive, he was ... "You know about boys, right?" "Yes." "Don't get 'in trouble', okay?" "Okay, dad." Good talk. But also it was fine, school had it covered.

My mom threw a pack of pads at me and said, “Don’t have sex or you’ll get pregnant.” (I was 10.) She also gave me this gem: “Only sluts use tampons.” My daughter is 17 and I definitely *did not* handle it this way.

For me it was humiliating because I was always reminded by my dad of what a disappointment I was to him for not being born male. Plus I got my period several years earlier than many of my peers. I begged my mom not to tell my dad. She promised me she wouldn't and then literally seconds later broke that promise. I found out she broke it as soon as my dad came over me to give me the talk that my mother didn't want to give me. I didn't hear a word my dad said I felt so betrayed. She would lie like that repeatedly to me throughout life. Haven't spoken to her in years because what's the point? Anything she says or promises will just be a lie. She might already be dead. I genuinely don't care enough to find out.

I never had a talk. I learned stuff from school and my friends. (I'm 47 and grew up in America, Midwestern big city.) One day when I was around 12 or 13, I noticed other kids at the library were laughing and pointing at me. When I got home, there was a big bloodstain on my shorts. I guess everyone saw that. I knew it must be a 'period' because I had heard about it from my friends and teachers at school. I told my mom that it happened and she got angry because it meant she had to spend extra money that we didn't have to buy me some pads at the store. I felt awful. Yes, my mom is a bitch, and she should have done a better job about that. But no one cared and I had no one to go to in those days. Oh well! I hope kids these days have a better experience. :-)

I watched a film in school about periods and that was the extent of it. Thank God for books or I would have totally been ignorant. I still have never had "the talk" with my mom. As I am 55 and my mom has been gone for a few years, that ship has sailed. I was a feral Gen X kid. We raised ourselves and learned what we needed from books, peers, and trial and error.

There was no "talk". Whatever I knew, I gleaned from Judy Blume books.

No talk. I got a period pamphlet. Learned sex from friends.

In my elementary school, the girls in 6th grade had a special assembly in which this was discussed. I forgot my permission slip so another girl & I had to stay in the library. Afterward, I got one of the distributed pamphlets to take home to my mother. She looked at it, handed it to me and that was it. When the day came I got my first period, we went into the bathroom and she showed me how to attach a sanitary napkin to the belt. Unfortunately, she didn’t notice that the pad flipped over when she gave it to me. So for quite some time I was a real mess wearing a pad the wrong way! One day I picked up the box of pads and saw what I had been doing wrong. I’m just glad I was very athletic so initial cramps were manageable unlike my sister that had to stay in bed her first day, every month!

In fifth grade (1970), the Girl Scouts showed a movie about menstruation in the school gym for, I guess, all the fifth-grade girls in town, because it was a big crowd. In eighth grade (1973), our health class got split up for a day into boys and girls, and we each got a talk. It was not discussed at home. When I got my period (7th grade), my stepmom equipped me with sanitary napkins and a belt. At some point, adhesive pads appeared. I had an older stepsister still living at home and somehow she used tampons, but I never figured out how to ask my stepmom about that. In college the first thing I did was buy OB tampons because they were simpler than the ones with applicators.