# My daughter, 153 months old, just had her first period **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 9, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297 "2012-03-09T17:49:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/21 "2012-03-10T12:18:20Z")
> [@Coup\_Fourre](#): > > Gah! > > I have something in my eye… Me, too! And this is the part that did it: > [@robardin](#): > > “Don’t be sad, 4-year-old me won’t be gone… She’ll be here, inside of me!” ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/22 "2012-03-10T13:29:55Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I take it this thread has NOT been linked to on someone’s facebook wall… Don’t be absurd. She’s only 153 months old, she can’t have a Facebook account yet! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/23 "2012-03-10T13:30:38Z")
153 months old? Is this hipster dad speak or are you trying to get me to brush up on my maths? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/24 "2012-03-10T13:57:20Z")
[I hear you, dude.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=227409) Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/25 "2012-03-10T14:30:31Z")
I just this morning sent my youngest, a 14 y.o. boy, off to Washing DC on a school field trip. All by himself (except for all the other students, teachers and chaperones. His first parent-less trip.). I don’t think I’ve ever been away from that boy for 4 days in a row. He was my 23 week, one and a half pound baby, who was not supposed to live, much less thrive, and I know I’ve held him a little more closely than some parents. Still. It’s weird to be sad and happy at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Finally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/67e7ee/32.png) [@Finally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finally)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/26 "2012-03-10T15:00:11Z")
You’re killing me here. My little boy used to call, “Mama!” when he walked in the door. Now he’s a 6’5 265 pound 17 year old offensive lineman looking at colleges. When did this happen! ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/27 "2012-03-10T15:57:23Z")
I’m a few months into this stage, complete with “I don’t feel like swimming tomorrow.” I can’t find it now, but there’s a couple minute long French animation that follows a little girl that grows up and gets married including a bunch of speedbumps along the way. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/28 "2012-03-10T16:34:19Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Beat me to it! > (I don’t know what that link is, since I can’t run videos on this mochine… > But I’m guessing that it’s Zero Mostel singing Sunrise, Sunset.) I’m pretty sure that was Topol and cast. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/29 "2012-03-10T17:00:16Z")
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one going through this! This week my daughter took the ACT. It seems like I was JUST picking her up from daycare! I mean, like last week! **mighty sniff** On the period front; she’s more like me, the doesn’t-care-who-knows-it-type. Right when she started her first period, we went on a family trip to my in-laws. She told Grandmom she’d started her period (“My FIRST period,” she clarified!), and we even took a short side trip to drive past the Tampax factory that was in town. We also enjoy asking her brother if he’s on his period too. ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/30 "2012-03-10T17:41:51Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > There is a commercial out there that simultaneously makes me smile and breaks my heart. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qf8OGLqE1s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qf8OGLqE1s) My husband is going to be so pissed at you. I’m signing up my older son for preschool, and he (husband, not kid) is already way tired of me saying things like, “But it’s just the beginning. Soon he’s going to be all tall and stinky and I won’t be his favorite thing anymore.” _sob_ You don’t have to tell me. I know I’m pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/31 "2012-03-10T20:50:21Z")
I totally, totally get the underlying emotion of this thread. I have a two-year-old, and I can’t understand how on earth that tiny little bundle, whose entire fist could wrap around the first joint of my husband’s thumb, has turned into this person with a head full of opinions and stories and flights of imagination and ideas that we never put in there. But I have to say, if my dad had announced my first period to the internet, I’m not sure he’d ever have met that two-year-old, because I probably still wouldn’t be speaking to him. (I’m exaggerating, obviously. But I would have been utterly furious.) One of the things about having kids is that they’re not extensions of us. Their private stuff isn’t ours to announce. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/32 "2012-03-10T21:05:29Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > [I hear you, dude.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=227409) > > Regards, > Shodan Bingo. And that bit about how her 4-year-old self was still inside her, it blew me away when she said that at age 5 (minus one day). And yes, I teared up a bit while typing that anecdote for the OP. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/33 "2012-03-10T21:07:23Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > I totally, totally get the underlying emotion of this thread. I have a two-year-old, and I can’t understand how on earth that tiny little bundle, whose entire fist could wrap around the first joint of my husband’s thumb, has turned into this person with a head full of opinions and stories and flights of imagination and ideas that we never put in there. > > But I have to say, if my dad had announced my first period to the internet, I’m not sure he’d ever have met that two-year-old, because I probably still wouldn’t be speaking to him. (I’m exaggerating, obviously. But I would have been utterly furious.) > > One of the things about having kids is that they’re not extensions of us. Their private stuff isn’t ours to announce. She has no idea, and there is enough anonymity in a message board handle that nobody here knows even who _I_ am in RL much less my daughter. I’m pretty comfortable that I can here treat this as about me and my feelings as a parent than about her (I would not for example post this on my own FB status, due to all the family friends and relatives). ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/34 "2012-03-10T21:56:25Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > She has no idea, and there is enough anonymity in a message board handle that nobody here knows even who _I_ am in RL much less my daughter. I’m pretty comfortable that I can here treat this as about me and my feelings as a parent than about her (I would not for example post this on my own FB status, due to all the family friends and relatives). It doesn’t matter that she doesn’t know you’ve done it, or that you have announced it to a crowd of anonymous strangers: if she is old enough to menstruate, she is old enough to have you respect her privacy, and that means not publically blurting intimate details about her without her consent. Do you think she would be _happy_ knowing you’ve pasted this here? You need to reassess your boundaries about public and private, and what stays within a family and what is ale to be shared. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/35 "2012-03-10T22:11:12Z")
:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/36 "2012-03-10T22:34:39Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > :rolleyes: A cogent and penetrating rebuttal. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/37 "2012-03-10T22:59:51Z")
> [@Rysdad](#): > > …I have a sock from when he was a baby bungee corded on the visor of my truck (it says "#1 KID). … You bungee corded your baby to the visor of the truck?! For how long? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/38 "2012-03-10T23:51:04Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > She has no idea, Are you saying then, that she wouldn’t approve if she DID know? How do you think she would react, if she DID? ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/39 "2012-03-11T00:46:38Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > One of the things about having kids is that they’re not extensions of us. Their private stuff isn’t ours to announce. Menarche isn’t exactly private, I think is the point. Both of my girls started when mom was out of town, so I was thrust into a very involved role. It’s terrifying enough for a girl to have blood coming out of an otherwise healthy body (even if she’s mentally prepared for it). It’s something else entirely to have to ask for help from a male, and in my case not a biodad but the dude her mom picked up with. My daughters’ menarches are indeed private matters, but I am insuperably a part of the events. Their manifestations had profound effects on me and my reality, and therefore are valid topics for introspection, rumination, and even posting on my part. I was both an observer and a participant, and was shaped by it. Of course, both of my girls grew up in a tiny community where menarche is celebrated with a bonfire. We’re at least a little pagan with rights of passage. **Wench** , I don’t disagree. My girls have lots of private stuff that’s none of my business. I work hard to remind myself of that whenever I think I should intrude “for safeties sake.” They’re turning out better than okay. But menarche wasn’t just their experience. It was primarily theirs, but it was mine as well. I say little about it, but I will speak when I have something valuable to say. ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297/40 "2012-03-11T01:00:36Z")
I guess I don’t see the big deal in discussing the details of one’s child, on a anonymous message board. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-daughter-153-months-old-just-had-her-first-period/615297.md?page=3)