Parent's Stories

Noreen
"When my son was 3 yrs old he used to come in to the bathroom with me and was quite used to seeing me naked. On this particular day, I had my period and he could see the tampon string between my legs. He asked me ‘what's that mummy?' I took a deep breath and told him all about periods and why women have them and felt quite pleased with myself. You see I wasn't told anything as a child and was determined my children wouldn't be kept in the dark. Well, when I was finished giving him all this information, he said, pointing at the tampon string again,' Yes, but what's that mummy?' I said, ‘oh, that's a piece of string' and he went off quite happy. I then realised that all he'd wanted to know in the first place was that it was a piece of string!"

"My son is 4 ½ and full of questions! The other day he came across sanitary towels in my bedroom and wanted to know what they were. I've got no problem with being honest with him usually, but we were in a rush to get out the door and I didn't have time to get into it with him. So I said 'what do you think they are?' and he says' I think they're for measuring your feet'. So, I just agreed with him and thought nothing more about it. A few days later we're in town buying him shoes and I ask him to take his shoes off so the lady can measure his feet. He goes' It's alright mummy, I can do it', takes off his shoe, and inside it he's got the sanitary towel and starts to show the sales assistant how he can measure his feet with it. I don't know who was more embarrassed - me or her."

Paul
"About a year and a half ago I was in the shower getting dried and my daughter was banging on the bathroom door, desperate for the loo so I let her in and when she finished she was watching me so I asked her ‘what are you looking at' and she pointed and said ‘how did I come out of there - it's awful wee'................cheeky sod!"

Yvonne
"My sister had bought me one of those nappy disposal buckets from Mothercare and it has like a picture of a baby on the side. My 2 year old, who hadn't mentioned the baby once, opened up the box and was looking inside a bit confused. ‘Mummy, tell Auntie ‘Nita to send back to shop, no baby inside' - he was looking for the baby in the box!"

Julie
"When my daughter was only 11 she was desperate for a hamster and she suggested that I spoke to her father, who wasn't keen on the idea. She said to me 'mum, maybe if you, you know, if you hump him, he'll change his mind and we'll get a hamster'. I was shocked! I would have sworn at that moment in time she knew nothing about sex, but she did! "

Stephen
"My son asked me where babies came from and he was only four so I told him it was the supermarket which was a big mistake because the next time we went, he was searching the shelves for the babies!"

Vicky
"I was breastfeeding my new baby and her brother, who's three, didn't really understand what was going on. I came into the kitchen one morning and he had my breast pump in one hand and a carton of milk in the other and wanted me to take off my clothes so he could put the milk into me for the baby!"

Have you got a story you'd like to share with other parents?

Send it to us at Talk2@csglasgow.org