Dad Let His Daughter's Friend Use Sanitary Pads In His House, Gets Called A Creep

If there was an ultimate parents' guide to surviving teen years, it would be a bestseller. But the anticipated time of upheaval is so much more complex than that.

The child who’s going through it is experiencing dramatic changes both physically and emotionally, and one such thing for every woman is getting one's first menstrual period. And this is the moment where parents’ support and guidance is crucial.

No wonder many parents struggle to find the right time to talk about periods with their kids. But it seemed like this separated dad who this story is about has it all figured out. “I grew up with 3 sisters and am very aware of the monthly period,” he wrote in a post on r/AITA.

So he prepared his daughter for the day, “went out and bought a ton of products that she can choose from,” as well as “sent her a few videos to watch as well to avoid any issues.” It really helped for the daughter when she got her first period, but turned into a very unpleasant situation when the same happened to her friend who was staying over.

Read on for the full story below and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.

Most girls get their period between ages 10 and 15 years, but every girl’s body has its own schedule. With women and girls, as well as some trans men and non-binary people menstruating, the fact is obvious—the majority of our population menstruates every month. Incredibly, in many places in our society, the period topic is still a sensitive one, and even considered a taboo.

According to Karen Pickering, the co-author with Jane Bennett of “About Bloody Time: the Menstrual Revolution We Have to Have,” there is genuine disgust, shame and stigma attached to menstruation and menopause, where women and girls feel shamed for first having periods at all, and then a different kind of stigma when menstruation ends. Karen believes that “this is a kind of flawed cultural logic, where we are all asked to participate in a falsehood.” The common societal response is to simply shut down the discussion altogether and make it into a safe space.

The authors also ran an eye-opening survey on 3500 women and found that shockingly, “girls felt they couldn’t talk to their fathers about periods, or even in some cases, that their close relationships changed after they started menstruating, with one respondent describing how she used to love sitting on her dad’s lap and how after her periods started, that never happened again.”

This likely has to do with the fact that traditionally, our society has preferred parents of each gender to be in charge of discussing their respective area of biological expertise. Today, more and more parents are aware of the fact that having different anatomy is not a reason to disqualify them from engaging in discussion with children about their bodies, although there’s still a long way to go.