A doll with her period?? AM I the ONLY mom who needs a break from all this reality??

This Llamily doll now comes with feminine protection. Shall we make another doll with zits and yet another with mood swings as well?

  OK so I'll be the first to admit I'm a TAD old-school and quite eager to share my opinions with family and friends. I'll also say that this past year I've done my best to TRY and hold off on oversharing these said opinions, especially on really harsh political posts on social media, etc. Today, though, I could NOT hold off and I raced to my blog to post on it!

 

Apparently, there's now a doll you can buy your little girl to help her prepare for her first period. (I'll pause so you can absorb that and maybe giggle a little, like I did...)

 

Now....before you go on to chastise me by saying this is all good for the girls and how much "easier" it will be for these poor little souls to understand what is happening to their bodies, let me just stop you right there.

 

I'm sorry but folks, is there NOTHING in life anymore that can be just...explained and then experienced as it happens without a lot of fanfare? Can't anything just be straightforward anymore? Must there be a ceremonial doll or special gift for EVERY single rite of passage?

 

Why can't a mother & daughter just...oh, I don't know...talk about it & be ready, & that's all?? Or am I being TOO old-school? 

 

My daughter, Marly is 10, and while many will frequently comment on how composed and mature and wise she appears to behave, she is still, after all, only a 10-year-old child and she is also heading into those t'ween years with reckless abandon. She now becomes more embarrassed than she ever used to and I'm doing my level best to keep the dialogue between us open! That being said, there is no way I could ever, with a straight face, hand her a doll that comes with feminine protection and expect her to think I understand all that is going on inside her little head these days.

 

  

Is it me or is there just TOO much reality in our lives anymore? I mean we already see women in labor, we see couples in every imaginable sexual position and we see people having plastic surgery, transgender reassignment, we see famous families and Amish families and 600 lb people and hoarders and runway models and singing and dancing and ....have I missed anything or anyone?

 

Remember sitcoms? Remember escaping into the Carol Burnett Show for an hour and laughing away your troubles? Can we not have to have EVERY thing be ...well....a THING?

 

A girl's first period is always going to be...pretty major and I am in no way trying to diminish it. But MUST we BUY stuff to make it special?? I'm all for capitalism but must it always be about how someone can make money off of it?

 

I have nothing but memories to remember how I was prepared for that time in my own life, but I still remember it 40 plus years later. Our talk was prompted by a note sent to all mothers of 5th graders. I remember the day mom drove me to school and how all the boys were ushered out of the classrooms so that we mothers and daughters could spend the mornings seated in little chairs together to watch a  black and white movie that I think was probably made around 1957, about the pending visit of our monthly friend.

 

We all watched, kind of in dazes, as the school nurse drew V-shaped diagrams of on the chalkboard and our moms nodded with fixed smiles on their faces. It was all so confusing.

 

The whole thing concluded with us all receiving little pink gift bags and 28-day calendars that we couldn't wait to begin using. :) We all whispered to each other every day, checking in,  on our insane race to womanhood. Who would be first? Who would take the longest?

 

Those of us who were among the early bloomers (and I was one of them) would roll our eyes and look down on the other mere mortals who didn't understand our cramps and discomfort. We felt we were in solidarity with our moms and teachers. We were now WOMEN, after all. What little we knew then.

 

But there were no dolls or reality movies or parties to mark the occasion. My mom took me out to dinner and bought me some girly things. But that was it, and it remains a sweet memory. I hope for Marly's sake that day doesn't happen for a few more years...I was HER age when it happened to me... but I for one, will neither mark the occasion with public fanfare nor buy her some silly little doll to prepare her.

 

Love it or hate it, and I realize, despite the years of whining that without it I'd have no daughter at all, our time of the month is a part of life and as we ladies all know, our girls certainly won't need a silly little doll to serve as a physical reminder of what will remain a huge part of their feminine lives for years to come.  But if you do buy the doll, please, for your daughter's sake, present it to her in a place where NO ONE else will see it! ;)

 

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