Oh Moomykin, please do not strangle me! I am EXTREMELY sorry I took so long to answer your question. My Oh My! *faint* It was March 2009, when Moomykin asked after my ‘Keeping It Simple’ post, “So, how have you explained the monthly visit to your boys? That I’d like to know, coz it’s such a girl thing.”
My boys knew about menstruation when they were 2-3 years old, the time when I brought them home from the care of my MIL for good. I became a full time stay at home mom.
Many of you might have noticed that my style of parenting is rather unusual. The things I do could be hard for some parents to down their throat. Least to say the older folks. They often say I had crossed the boundary into the forbidden city.
Do you bathe WITH your children, irregardless of their gender? I do. That’s the extremity of my parenting. Appearing naked infront of my children is totally unacceptable to my traditional-thinking in-laws.
Ok, back to Moomykin’s question. Because I wanted to be ‘accessible’ to my young boys (then), I kept my toilet door open even though I am enjoying my ‘bombing’ session.
There was this time, Keatkeat (3 years old then) came in and saw my ‘bread spread with strawberry jam‘, exclaimed, “Mommy, you got blood! Pain Pain? Sayang Sayang.” (**Sayang means ‘heartpain/caress’ over here.)
Me: “Keatkeat good boy. Mommy not pain. Sometimes Mommy will have blood. Then Mommy need to wear pampam, just like you. If not, my shorts will be dirty.”
That reply was good enough for a 3 year old Keatkeat.
As months/years passed, the questions changed along the way. But I am lumping them all up over here. Cannot really remember which question was asked at what age. *giggle*
Keatkeat: “Why you have blood every month?”
Me: “Because I am a big girl. A big girl will have blood every month. Does a girl looks like a boy? And a boy looks like a girl?”
Keatkeat: “No.”
Me: “Outside, they look different. Inside they are different too. That is how our body are.”
Keatkeat: “When I got blood, its painful. Why when you got blood it is not painful?”
Me: “When you pass urine, is it painful?”
Keatkeat: “No.”
Me: “Same for Mommy. When the blood comes out from below, it feels like passing urine. So it is not painful.”
Keatkeat: “So sometimes you pass urine and sometimes you pass blood?”
Me: *laugh* “Yes baby, yes…..”
That was the last time he asked about menstruation. But it is a topic we talk about naturally every now and then, especially when they want me to bathe together with them.
And when I said, “Sorry Babies, today I cannot, because…” before I could finish my sentence….
They filled in the blanks, “You got blood down there today. You don’t want us to step on the blood. We know.”
Me: “Yup! You two are sooooooo Smart!” *wink*
The seemingly hardest question is the easiest
when you can think like a child.
~ Angeline Foong
Oh Moomykin, I hope this answered your question. If you have more, I’d love to answer them again. Ok Ok, I promise, this time its going to be SPEEDY reply. *giggle*
You’ll forgive me, won’t ya? *wink*
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