For many years I have written about my “boys”. They are 10 and ALMOST 13 now. They are still my boys, but they are starting to head towards men...young men, but getting closer to men faster than I would like.
When I think about the fact that Anthony and I never expected to only have 2 children, it doesn’t bother me at all. I feel complete with my boys. I didn’t expect to feel this way. When we got the initial news, life was a bit crazy....but I thought that when things calmed down a bit that I would feel crushed, like something had been taken from me.
That feeling has never come.
I also thought I might feel disappointed to not get to experience raising a daughter. Many years have passed and I have watched many parents of daughters around me and realised perhaps I’m not cut out for raising daughters. I have 3 hairstyles....ponytail, bun, and down. I’m rubbish at painting little nails, and do not get excited by handbags or purses etc. That sounds totally stereotypical and I guess if I had a girl who was equally unenthusiastic about these things I would be ok, but there is never any guarantee.
Having only boys, I never envisioned myself having “the period talk” with my sons, but a few years back we did, because I want them to be informed and not all weirded out about a normal process that goes on in their very house...even if it’s not happening to them. I wanted to know that if a girl at school ever had a tampon or pad fall out of their bag, my sons would have the maturity to simply pick it up and hand it back and not behave like they are handling a grenade.
This chat was slightly awkward for them, but overall it’s been fine.
Fast forward to Wednesday night when I decided it’s one thing to KNOW about tampons, pads etc, but I didn’t know if they even understood HOW they work. Anthony was out at a meeting so it was just the boys and I hanging out. We were chatting and I brought up that years ago we had talked about periods etc, but did they really get how things work? I suggested that one day down the track, their wife might ask them to grab some tampons from the shop and they need to know what they are looking for.
After showing them some and opening them up, I asked if they know how often they need to be changed. Their answers were nothing short of scary 😂 I then grabbed a glass of water, as they were curious as to how they actually absorb anything.
So there we are, with a glass of water bobbing a tampon into it and watching it blow up like a little hot air balloon...and in walks Anthony.
The look of confusion on his face as to what we were doing was spectacular! He of course added in his very fatherly advice that another use of tampons is to stop nose bleeds 🤷♀️
Next week - facials!
