How were you told about the onset of periods

My Dad had to explain it all and provide money for sanitary stuff. My mum thought everything was gross, breastfeeding (I had to leave the room in my own house), my stomach pregnant and I definitely did not get the sex talk

I wasn’t.
I started at school, and only the intervention of a down to earth headmistress stopped me from total meltdown.

We were issued with a booklet at my Catholic convent girl's high school telling us that even Mary had periods and they were God's gift to women or some such nonsense. Prior to that I had had "the talk" from my mother - a sort of no questions asked matter of fact statement type lecture. I learnt everything worth knowing in the playground from other girls who had less buttoned up parents and older sisters.

I had no idea about periods. I came home from school telling my mum I must have cut myself. She shot me into the bedroom away from my brother's and gave me big looped sanitary towels and a belt telling me this happens every month of your life. I was 11 years old.
One of my friends was given towels and told them to wear them every month when she got a headache. She had a headache on a train and promptly put the towel over her head putting the loops over her ears !!
I talked my daughters through the whole process.

I wasn't. Even though I had a sister who was 8 years older than me.

I learnt everything from my best friend who fortunately had a mother who talked about these things.

I was the youngest in my class at school, so friends started before me. So I asked my mum and she explained- it was just nature's way, she explained, to make sure my nest was ready for when I wanted children- it was to keep it clean. I just accepted it- quite a good explanation actually. She bought my STs and a belt and told me to put them in my draw so I would be ready.

She was keen to tell me, as she thought she was dying when she started and didn't tell anyone- using face-cloth and cutting up a towel.

I started my periods about 13. Mum had bought stuff for me to be ready. The weird bit was when she told me never to go behind the garages with boys. I hadn't a clue! I thought she meant I could no longer play football with the boys and was desolate.

My mother told me, but I’d have known anyway because of the endless talk about such things at my all-girls school. I had great prestige because I was the first in my form to start periods. I was eleven and 3 months.

I have a friend whose mother told her nothing, and when her periods started at the age of 13 she thought she was dying. She can’t have heard any playground gossip.

My mother didn't tell me anything and was totally unprepared when I started. I had been given a book about the facts of life but it didn't explain much at all. The following year we had a film at school but it was a bit late then. Most of what I found out came from friends.

We had quite a good education at school (Catholic), and my parents had a set of books on our bookshelf regarding puberty and sex education. I don't specifically remember getting a 'talk' from mum, but I remember my older sister getting upset when she started hers, and already being aware what she was going through.

I fondly remember my father calling me his young lady the afternoon that my period started, so obviously Mum had told him. Mine started during Sunday mass. Nothing embarrassing happened thankfully!

My mother asked my neighbour, who was about 10 years older than me, to explain it all. By the time my daughter started her periods, she knew it all. There was no need for me to explain anything to her.?

My mother told me what to expect as she didn’t want me to suffer as she had done. Her mother hadn’t prepared herfor her first period and she feared she would bleed to death!

I was told nothing despite having 3 older sisters. Eventually my Mum realised I’d started and gave a belt and pads I’ve no idea why no one explained things to me.

The girls in my Sports class were given booklets explaining such things at age 11. I fear it was too late for some of the girls and I hope education is available at an earlier age now.
I don’t remember my mum telling me although I may have forgotten.

I was living with my grandma and auntie. When I was just 13, I started to bleed at school. I was scared, thought there was something seriously wrong with me. When I got home, told my auntie, she bought a sanitary belt and sanitary towels, showed me how to use them, said this will happen once a month until you`re 45, and keep away from boys. Until I was about 17, that was all I knew!

I was told nothing either. Looking back so very unfair. I muddled through with cotton wool and tissues for a couple of months until my mother realised and bought me Dr Whites. I made sure my two daughters were fully prepared and that they understood what was going on and why.

Me: 'Mom I'm bleeding'
Mom: 'All girls of your age get that.
Put one of these on'.
That was it.

I was 13 and had been told nothing. I discovered i was bleeding when i was going to bed and called Mammy. She sent my dad up to me. He must have been mortified!

Then my Mam called my aunt to examine me to check where the bleeding was coming from - oh the embarrassment of it all.

When I was about 10 my Mum gave me a booklet to read then it was a case of ‘any questions’. She also tucked a pack of STs etc in my chest of drawers where they remained for future use although I did have a few practice runs trying to work out the strange belt contraption! At school -a convent boarding school - we had a talk from the headmistress, who was pretty ancient, who informed us that if 2 bicycles were kept in a shed a load of tricycles did not appear. However, if a male & female rabbit were in the shed, then lots of fluffy bunnies were to be expected. . OMG.

My father gave me a booklet explaining everything. I didn’t tell him I’d discovered it ages before hidden in a cupboard. I was horrified. When my periods started I told mum and dad. I think they were reading the Sunday papers in bed. They were really pleased and dad said that I was now a woman. But weren’t Dr Whites awful! Someone at school told me about tampons.

Unexpected visitors arrived at our home when I was about eight. I was sent to the chemist with a note and money. I came back swinging the packet of Dr Whites and asking what they were - in front of the visitors!

My mother was 11 when she was sent home from school, totally hysterical when she started bleeding. Her much older sister threw some rags at her and told her it was the curse! Not very helpful!

I was nearly 15 about to leave school. I was given ripped sheets initially and told to keep away from boys. I was shy that was the last thing on my mind! Even though I had three elder sisters I was none the wiser. My mum gave me money for Dr Whites and a sanitary belt.

How grateful am I to have had a midwife mother who told me at around 10 what to expect. A calm explanation of the passage from puberty to adulthood and the likely journey to the wonders of pregnancy and childbirth and all that entailed. She regarded every baby she delivered as a miracle to be celebrated, and thought the process by which each was created equally wonderful. So funny that fellow pupils still believed all the myths and folklore and dismissed my inside knowledge. I can remember the excitement when my first period appeared, that in later months faded to annoyance at the bother of them!

Forgot to say mum wasn't a fan of tampons for young girls starting out, she thought the risk of forgetting one was a bit too high having witnessed toxic shock syndrome more than once, so it was bulky Kotex for me to begin with. I think she relented after a year.