If you are a Dad reading this and have insight, by all means please respond, but this might be an uncomfortable subject for some of you.

Okay, last night my daughter started her very first period. We have had the discussion of her period, why you have it, what it's like, the whole nine yards so at least we were a little prepared, course I thought I had at least another year being they say daughters usually start their periods around the same time as the Mom.

Well, for a couple of seconds my brain was freaking out, nervous, scared, wondering what protocol was, the whole nine yards. I don't know if this is a normal reaction, but that's how I reacted.

She was nervous and scared so I very quickly composed myself hugged her, and told her that everything was going to be okay. I helped her clean up and because I didn't have any pads (all I had were tampons) and it was very late, I used the old standby and gave her some toilet paper. She laughed and said she felt like she had a diaper on, lol.

I told her she could sleep with me and we ended up talking for 2 hours. I let her ask any questions she had and I answered the best that I could. We discussed this before lots of times but I took this opportunity to reinforce the issue of inappropriate touching, and how important it was to not let anyone touch her without her permission, and that no matter what, she had the right to say no. I also tried to explain to her some of the emotions and feelings she might have with boys and everything that goes along with that.

So here is my question, in your opinion did I handle this right? Has anyone else been through this and is there anything I forgot that I need to tell her?

oops, wrong room

You handled that very well!! Bravo!!

In think you handled that awesome, great job!

very well
also inform her that she has just become a young lady and that she should take more care of herself hygienically than before.

great job

I dated a lady who had a dau(14, shared custody) who was with her father when she started hers. She called her mom that evening and told her. Momm asked her if she had any pads....nope. The Mom turned to me after she hung up and said she had to go to Salt Lake (200 miles). When she told me she had to go to SLC to get her dau some pads, I nearly died. I called her ex and told him the prob. He laughed and said "Hell, I used to buy them for her mom all the time, I'll handle it."

Raised my own dau through that time frame. Thank goodness for grandma and aunts.

You did a great job with your daughter. I have a 14 year old so I remember the day she started and the talk. It is hard to know if you are saying the right thing and helping her through this change..Anyways GREAT job

you handled it very well......heck when i got mine i was freakin out........... becasue............i just started crying dont eve know why...........just know that was my reaaction and my mother hugged me.and most embarrasing there was only...........1 pad luckilly so.........o got it on but whne u have nevere weared these sicne first time with period............. its weird u feel liek a baby with diaper.ahhaa funnny but i say u covered it really well............i say that this thing is what brings mothers and daughters together more.............. so special moments even doguht after............. your like darn it when are u gonna go away

poor girl

I think the way you handled this was textbook perfect.

Now wait until your daughter finds out you made a post about it.

Seriously, though, you did everything right.

You did awesome!!I had to have my sister explain it to me,not my mom.

MsCarmen,

It sounds like you did great to me.

Oh, believe me I made sure I reinforced that issue BIG TIME!

Well, I've been having the talk with her for years. But in the last year, I noticed she was beginning to show signs of puberty so I thought I might as well get it started. So I gradually led into until I had one of those periods where you want to rip your guts out. I tried to tell her I had a bad stomach ache so she suggested that I go to the bathroom and thats when I pretty much had to explain the whole thing to her, so I guess that gut wrenching period was a blessing in disguise, lol.

when my mother had that talk with me eonsss ago, she emphasized that more than sex, just sharing.

You did a great job!

Thanks everyone. Whew, got thru that one, now onto the next milestone.

I just want to add one thing that in a way was funny, and in another way I was thinking, oh thank God.

We were on the topic of sex and the emotions you could feel for a boy, inappropriate touching, and all that stuff. She starts crying and I asked her why she was crying she said, "Mommy, I don't ever want to have sex." Trust me, I nearly jumped for joy, but instead I honestly told her that one day she will. I told her she will fall in love, get married, and have a baby all of her own. I got her to calm down, but she still insisted that she was never going to have sex. If only those words would stay true until she was, I don't know, maybe 40??

remind her she said this when she's interested in boys

I wish you were my mom, god! I started on the 4th of july at the fairgrounds, like when the fireworks just started and since we lived nearby, we had walked and everyone was like, just walk home and wait for us to be done watching the fireworks. True story.

Sounds to me like you handled it quite well. I was there when a amily friends 10 y/o daughter hit her period for the first time (I was fiftenn/sixteen years old.

I was basically supervising her while she babysat a friends infant (you know let her learn how, but not by herself, lol). Anyway, neither she, nor I had ever heard of a womans period. Her mother was too embarrassed to talk about it with her, and face it I was a boy. lol.

Anyway, she came screaming to me thinking she was dying, I thought she was hemmoraghing (new termlearned in health class a few weeks prior, lol) and we BOTH panicked. Again, thinking she was hemmoraging or something, I tried applying a pressure bandage, while I had sent the enighbor boy to fetch my mother (five trailers down). My mother came running like a bat outta hell cause the neighbor told her there was blood everywhere, and nothing else. You can imagine the embarrassment all the way around

so, to me it sounds like you handled it quite well hun. You explained everything, let her ask what she wanted/needed to ask without discouragement, reenforced proper behavior, etc. It is exactly what I will be teaching my boys when they are older (god I dont want a repeat of that experience!!!! lmao)

Well, I'm not a mom but I remember being on the other side of this...since it was only a few years ago that I first started...and I think you handled it very well. I wish my mom had handled it that well...she went and cried and made my aunt talk to me.