I started when I was 11 on Christamas vacation...I was staying with my big sis(she is old enough to be my mom,lol) and we had ate like a boatload of buckeyes,you know pb balls dipped in chocolate....and i actually thought that was what was wrong with me,my mom always talking about eating foods that went straight through you....well that's what I thought,my mom hadn't had "the talk" with me so when it did happen,I had no clue what was going on or happenning to me,until mom did the laundry the next week and realized I had started....and that was just a couple pair of undies...I had thrown all the others away...and she wasn't like "Awe you started!!" she was more like Cruella Deville....wondering why I didn't tell her.....mad cause I messed up my drawers....all that kinda stuff....I metioned that to my sister the other day....and she couldn't believe it after all these years I never told her...so with my DD,she is 10 so she knows about it and I talk to her about it alot...I just don't want her to go through what I went through,and I have a feeling it'll be soon....though my MIL thinks she'll take after her and not start till she's 14,which would be nice,she would be older and more mature and probably more able to "deal" so we'll see I guess all I know is I kinda dread it...

I started for the first time in the fourth grade, during the middle of lunch. I didn't feel well, got a teacher, got permission and went to the restroom. I SO started crying right there in the bathroom! They'd given us "the talk" so I went to the nurse, she went to the teacher and we called my mom....

My first time was pretty anti-climactic - nothing scary!

I was 13. I woke up on a school day and I thought I was sick. My tummy hurt and I just didn't feel right. I told my mom I was sick and she said I could stay home from school. I went into the bathroom and wow - blood! My mom hadn't left for work yet, so we got to have a little mom/daughter bonding moment. Mom had bought a box of pads sometime previously and stuck them under the sink just in case I started (she had a hysterectomy and didn't need supplies anymore), so everything was handy.

I still got to stay home from school

LOL I already let my daughter use NAIR on her legs, she was quite hairy. No arm pit hair yet though.

I explained to her what a period was when she came to me with her female hamster, all upset "MOMMY, MY HAMSTER IS BLEEDING!!!!!!"...LOL

I have it on hold at the library!

wow, i got mine really late (which i already knew). it was about two weeks before my 16th birthday... i was in algebra class and we were having a review for our final. all of a sudden, i felt this ickiness, so i went to the bathroom. when i came back to the classroom, i wrote my friend, who was year older than me, a note saying, "i just got my period." she wrote a note back saying, "so?" i looked at her and mouthed "first one." she didn't believe me!

when my mom picked me up from school, i told her, and she got all teary-eyed. she didn't get her first period until she was a freshman in college! we went to the pharmacy and got some "girl supplies" and ice cream. ice cream should be required for first periods.

we had "the movie" in fourth grade, i think. i remember that our version featured a girl who liked to wear ugly hats (this was 1994), and wore a gross black dress to her birthday party. she looked like she was at a funeral, but she was really happy because she got her period! so she was a woman! *barf*

i really like the idea of moms choosing to make it a positive experience for their daughters- a cake, some ice cream, whatever. i know not all daughters would appreciate it - or at least appear to appreciate it- but i think it's good to put it into a positive light instead of a negative one.

i have a friend who is in her late 20's and never told her mom she got her first period. she said she just couldn't talk about things like that and snuck her supplies and hid them. i asked her if she thinks her mom figured out that she's had one by now and she laughed and said she hoped not. lol.

I got mine at 9 years old, summertime -- I was riding my bike, and realized there was blood when I went home. My family didn't make a big deal about it, just showed me how to use pads. I remember my grandma thinking tampons were inappropriate though! lol

I am 20 and I have never talked to my mom about periods. Or anything girl-related at all. She never gave me any kind of talk, and I was not very close with her, so I was very uncomfortable talking to her about these things. Even in middle school, I would ride my bike to the grocery store and buy my own shaving supplies (I taught my younger sister to shave too) and when I got my period, I just started buying my own stuff. My mom never mentioned it to me. I'm sure she knows that I've gotten it, but it's just not something we talk about.

It's so nice to hear all you mothers out there saying how great you were/are/will be to your girls. I had a bout of serious depression in high school, and a big part of it was that I resented my mother because of our lack of a relationship. I can't wait to have daughters so I can do everything she didn't. She was a great Mom in some ways, but definitely not the kind of mom you can talk to. Let this be a lesson! Talk to your girls! And ice cream is a great idea.

Mine was pretty uneventful. I was 12, and spending the night at a friend's house, and it noticed it just before we were going to bed. I told my friend, she told her parents, they gave me a pad, I went to sleep. The next morning I told my mom when she picked me up, and she started hugging me and crying, and talking about how I was getting so grown up, lol. She called my grandmother immediately and SHE started crying too. I was so confused... I didn't know what the big deal was!

I remember in the 7th grade, we were in art class..and this girl who sat at a table with all boys, got hers. And to make matters worse, she was wearing white shorts. It got all over her chair..and the boys were laughing at her. I felt soooooooo bad for her!!! They let her go home early.

As for me..I started when I was 11 1/2. And I got it in the middle of the night on a weekend!!! I was so embarassed to tell my mom, cuz I thought she'd get mad at me for messing up my sheets. But she was totally cool about it. She even stocked up pads for me, lol. It came in really really light that first day. But the next day..omfg, I had the worst cramps ever and it was so heavy. I cried the whole day. I remember wanting boobs so bad, but never wanting my period, lol.

My mom also gave me the book...Are You There God, Its Me Margret. And the girls in the book all wanted their periods so bad..and I could never understand that, lol.

OT, but Shopaholic - we are in the same city! And we're the same height! Lol... Where in Annapolis are you?

I was about 11 or 12 when I began...I kinda knew it was coming a few weeks before but just ignored it. Mum had fully stuffed my drawers with supplies: towels, tampons and Feminax but when it actually full on occured, she gave me the week off school and spoilt me rotten. Needless to say that no longer occurs each month, I just get mood-swings now!

mine was pretty uneventful. I got it at home. I was wearing black pants (luckily). I did have a foreign exchange student visiting at the time... so my mom and I just talked in private, and she gave me a pad and that was that. Though I do remember her telling me "Hey, you're a woman now" and I was excited. Then she told me she would tell my Dad later, and I go sooo embarrassed (makes me laugh now.) I was like "No Mom, he can never find out!" And she laughed and was like "Uh, he knew you would start it eventually, like every other woman on the planet." I dunno, I was always shy around my Dad because he was always working, so we didn't get to see each other much. I love my Dad, he's a great guy, we were just never that close.