Rustle Free Sanitary Pads?

[wrenna.livejournal.com]

VP'ers, I need your help!  Especially the ladies in the UK!
My friend's daughter has just got her period for the first time, and is absolutely paranoid that people will hear her opening her sanitary pads when she is in the bathroom at school.    Her Mom has tried to explain to her that most people will understand, because in a High School girls' bathroom everyone will either have already started their periods, or will start their periods soon.
However, she's so anxious that her Mom has kept her off school today.

I've been using the cup for some years, so I'm out of touch with pads, but I remember seeing an advertisement on the TV a while back for pads with "rustle free" packaging... I even think I bought some myself... but I can't think for the life of me which brand it was!   I know it was one of the big brands, and if I remember correctly, the individual packages were white papery-cottony type, and I think they had red flowers on them.
Does anyone know what the heck I'm talking about, or have I dreamed this up??

Comments

[h0rsegurrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why everyone's jumping down your throat; I agree with you. If it's inhibiting her life (by not going to school) then something needs to be done about it, plain and simple. It doesn't matter if it's periods, boys, being made fun of, whatever, something needs to be done. Also, I think she maybe needs to know that it's something she's going to have to deal with for the next, like, 40 years, so it's something she'll need to learn to work around. I think girls ought to learn from a young age not to use their periods as an excuse to get out of their responsibilities. I mean, if they're having crippling pain or severe hemmorrhage-level bleeding, then that's one thing, but making a habit of using her period as an excuse to get out of school is something that she should be taught not to do from a young age. Under normal circumstances, periods are not a medical emergency or an illness, know what I'm saying?

[unripe.livejournal.com]

I completely concur with what welovedumplings has to say below.
AND
I don't really think that one day off school can be labelled inhibition of life or a 'habit' of dodging responsibility - I'm sure that by the end of this period she'll be less freaked out, and give it a few months and she'll be as comfortable as the next woman. Everyone's pretty much chronically self-conscious in high school, and too busy worrying to realise that everyone else is just the same. It's her first period ever, she's a teenager or pre-teen - of course she's embarrassed, it's a freak-out when your body changes suddenly and does things that you have no control over. I've known people who in high school had paranoia that people would hear them wee in toilet cubicles (how bizarre is that? What are you supposed to in there?) and who, of course have subsequently grown out of it. Honestly, yes, it would be lovely if noone ever went through scared, tentative, don't-ostracise-me adolescence but it's hardly a practical wish. I think, given that high schools are the way they are, that helping kids to increase their comfort levels in an emotionally safe environment, and to understand the pointlessness of the fear, and the harmlessness of the consequences and that others are just as paranoid is much better than saying 'Something Needs To Be Done!' and rushing them to a child psychologist. If you help people relax with their experiences, they'll be much more comfortable than if you make it into a really big next-40-years-of-your-life deal.
Maybe one day she'll come to vaginapagina and celebrate her periods :)

[wrenna.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. You have hit every single nail on the head with regards to how I personally feel on this "missing school" issue.

[wrenna.livejournal.com]

Whilst I can understand where you are coming from on this, I actually agree with the actions of her Mom in this instance.
At 11 years old, she's the first girl in her class to start her period. None of her friends have experienced this yet, and she's very reluctant to discuss it with them at the moment.
I think she already knows that she is going to have to deal with this for a good portion of her life, and she is clued up on the theory of what periods are, why they happen, etc. She's known about all of that for a while.
What she hasn't known until now is how it physically feels to have a period, how to use a pad, what type of pad for what type of flow, how to know when her pad needs to be changed, how to carry a pad to the bathroom without the whole world knowing, and all of that other stuff that all of us women have to learn at some point.
On the very first day, of her very first period, which environment was she better in? Being at school, where she'd be so self conscious of the noise that her pad may make, or intimidated by the 16 year olds who crowd the bathrooms, and where she'd be forced to raise her hand if she had a pad emergency and needed the bathroom? Or being with her Mom, who could teach her how to alleviate the cramps, how often to change herself, and generally how to deal with everyday life and not let a period interrupt it?
I really can't fault her Mom's thinking, and I wish that I'd had that kind of open, honest relationship with my Mom at that age.

[h0rsegurrrl.livejournal.com]

I guess it's moot now, but I remember learning everything about periods, including what pad to use, when it needs to be changed, how to carry a pad to the bathroom without everyone knowing, etc. before my period ever started, so I wouldn't be freaked out when the time came. I was also 11 years old and among the first in my class to start my period, and I already knew that it was something that had to be dealt with, not something that required special treatment to deal with. It seems like she already let her period interrupt her everyday life. I'm not saying that something should be done about it now, the school day has already been skipped and it's in the past, but I also think that she should learn to deal with these issues on her own; it's kind of a personal thing and not really a family emergency.

Also, where would she possibly be going to school with 16-year olds? If I recall correctly, 16-year olds are or nearly are juniors in high school and are long out of middle school. If she's 11 she's probably around 6th grade, which is the first year of middle school or even the last year of elementary school in some places, which is around 11-13 year olds; I'm not understanding how she's going to school with 16-year olds.

[wrenna.livejournal.com]

It's a little place called England ;-P We have a different education system here.. Our High Schools start at age 11 and finish at age 16.

[h0rsegurrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, did not know, my B.