It smarts just a bit to see how brazen she is with a tampon.
One morning not so long ago I walked into the bathroom and spotted a used tampon applicator fully visible, right at the top of the trash in the garbage can. My breath caught and my cheeks flushed as I yanked a few squares of toilet paper from the roll, wrapped it up like a miniature mummy, and shoved it deep into the bin. I was immediately transported back to my 12-year-old self, when I was new to periods and mortified by every aspect of them.
Including — especially — puberty and its indignities. Not only because after years of back and forth between which parent she most resembled, my daughter’s changing body has made us near twins. But also because it zaps me back to middle school: my unfortunate perm, T-zone as oily as cafeteria pizza, hormones coursing through a new body I already hated, my mind fixated on an unrequited crush.
And even though no one ever said it, I understood that my period was something to be embarrassed of, something to hide. Alone in my room, I practiced sliding wrapped pads in and out of my jeans pocket so I could do it in science class without anyone noticing. I practiced tucking used pads under other trash in the waste bin.Teenage girls often start to morph into their mothers. That was certainly the case with me and my mom, and now, with my daughters and me, too.
In raising my own girls, I have tried to course-correct, welcoming questions and always answering them as truthfully as I can. Now, I considered how to talk to her about the errant applicator. I thought maybe I could demonstrate the way I usually tucked them back into the wrapper, then used toilet paper to hide the wrapper itself.
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