Jinger and Jeremy: Life with the Soccer Preacher Man

[Jinder Roles]

I'd heard horror stories about periods and was terrified of it for years. Like, I'd cry in my bed sometimes thinking about my period. I thought I'd be in so much pain, vomiting and bleeding everywhere for a week. 

When I finally got it I was 12, went to the bathroom (thankfully it was midterm break at school), put on a pad and when back to playing Sims 3. It only lasted 2.5 days with mild, if any, symptoms. After playing Sims for a little I decided to let my mom know...she was much less calm than I. 

I'm very sorry to all the women who have to deal with painful, heavy periods. My friend has to be hospitalized sometimes for it and its awful. 

[Jilli]

I was horrified when I got my period. My mom tried to be sweet and informational(about body changes) but it made me so uncomfortable I made her stop before I got it. I was 11, it was in the late morning at school. Couldn't address it until I go to home(I didn't know about all the nurses having pads until I was in high school).

Anyway, I had my very first choir concert that night. That was uncomfortable, I was in a poodle skirt that was a hair too big. Dancing and moving. I'm so glad my parents were there for support.

 

As for procreation mom gave me a book by dr. Ruth and that was that. They decided to let the school handle all the information and offered me condoms because they didn't want to be grandparents too early. Not spectacular, but I was painfully embarrassed and unresponsive so I don't blame them.

[eleanora3]

TLC posted more photos from Jinger's wedding. Jinger looked lovely on her wedding day and her pre-wedding photos are gorgeous, but her post-wedding pictures aren't that great IMO. She's trying too hard to recreate Jessa's wedding pictures and the lighting/setting aren't as beautiful. Plus her hair and makeup needed to be touched up at that point. Good pictures, but could have been better.

[NewOrleansLady]

2 hours ago, Kak said:

I have an extremly repressed mother, who discussed nothing, and I mean nothing. I got given a belt too, in the early eighties. I was/still am horrified by that. I used it too, until I discovered I had other options. I'll join the therapy queue. 

 

My mother had a Masters degree in Public Health (MPH).  I got the "Growing Up And Liking It" packet from her.  That was all.  I'm still waiting for the "birds and bees"
talk but since I am now 69 and a great grandmother and since she has been dead for 25 years I guess I have figured that all out by myself.

SINGLE MOM MOMENT-  Son (14 at the time) came out of the bathroom after a shower.  No t-shirt on

Me:  Get back in there and clean those pits!!!

Him: Looking at his pits-Mom, that's not dirt, it armpit hair.

Me:  Get your brother (who was 10) in here

Thus began a talk about facts of life (I thought his dad would have given him that talk-another fail on his part)  I told both of them that they could ask me any questions they had and if they only knew the street/slang name for whatever it was that I would not be embarrassed or shocked.  

 

That was the beginning of many talks.  It was more educational for me than them.

 

.

 

 

[BlessaYourHeart]

Oh gosh I love first period stories they're always quite funny! 

My mum was open with me from around age 10. She told me about periods and showed me where she kept the pads and tampons and that there was a packet of 'teen' pads for me when I took it. You'd think I would have been prepared but hell no. 

11 year old me went to the toilet, wiped, seen blood and freaked out. I started screaming for my mum telling her that my bum was bleeding and I needed to go to hospital. She tried to explain that it was a period and I wasn't having any of it. I insisted something in my bum had burst and I was dying and she was going to just let her only child bleed to death. This went on for a good half an hour before I accepted my fate 

I refused to go to school the rest of that week though lol! 

I get really horrible cramps and really heavy periods; it's awful! It came this morning and I had a full day of teaching (no frees; my busiest day) talk about pain and wanting to crawl into a hole somewhere 

[Carm_88]

Oh goodness, I was 12. I knew about periods because I had sex education but once again, didn't really know what they were like. My Mom was pretty useless on the topic. Mostly just said your body is changing, I noticed that when I started to wear a bra. I started to bleed and didn't know what to do so I just changed my underwear and prayed that I wasn't dying. Did the same thing later and eventually my Mom came to me and shoved, massive pads at me. The thin ones exists but they weren't something that she used. Thank god for tampons!

[donnal]

When I got my period my mother explained how pads and tampons were used, bought me a bottle of Tylenol and that was that. Everything else I learned about puberty came from friends or YM & Seventeen Magazines.

 

Everything I learned about sex was either from classmates at school or Loveline with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew(which was super-informative).

[front hugs > duggs]

12 or 13. I got mine at the beach in a bathing suit, but was actually very lucky and didn't even notice until I got home later that day (didn't get on anything other than my bathing suit, I feel blessed). At first I thought I had cut myself somehow, and took a few minutes to sink in. I was at my dad's and had to tell him. He went to the store to get me stuff, but clearly didn't know what he was doing. He came back with these Kotex tampons that were ENORMOUSLY WIDE AND BIG, I was terrified, but didn't want to tell him. So I went to the bathroom and read the instructions word by word on how to insert a tampon.

It took about a year I think before I started getting cramps. The first time I got them I had no idea it was period related, I just thought my mom needed to take me to the hospital because I was clearly dying #dramaqueen

[NakedKnees]

Hahah I saw this thread was "hot" and came here looking to see what JinJer was up to. I'll chime in anyway...

1. Periods. I got mine when I was 12 on family vacation. My mom insisted I learn with O.B. (applicator-free) tampons and was yelling at me from outside the bathroom as I figured them out... she claimed that everything else would be easy-peasy to figure out after that. Even though now I suspect that's all she had with her, she wasn't wrong!

2. Puberty lit. I can very much second The Care and Keeping of You (seriously, touches on every topic in an age appropriate way) and Our Bodies Ourselves. My parents had a CD ROM game about pregnancy that they made me play when they were having my younger brother. I wish I could remember it's name, not that CD ROMs are really a thing anymore. When I was around 14, I got really into the website Scarleteen. I don't think they used the term "sex positive" explicitly, but holy hell WAS IT and it was soooooo good for me as I became sexually active.

Oh, and erotic art books. My parents were/are weirdly big fans of those. Those were.... useful? Confusing? Terrifying? To varying degrees, hahaha.

[Gillyweed]

Oh I never mentioned my period story!

I got mine a month before I turned 13, but I had been waiting for it for over a year. It started the night before one of my dance competitions, so while I was super excited, it was possibly the worst time ever since the competition schedule was hectic, and I would be wearing expensive costumes, so if I bled through them everyone would see on stage and it'd be impossible to get out. Thankfully, that didn't happen. But I remember the judges were taking a short break right before one of my dances, so even though we were supposed to stay backstage since we were already checked in and the dance could start AT ANY MOMENT my friend and I foolishly ran to the far away bathroom to strip my costume and check my pad. (We made it back in time to go onstage )

[Jana814]

24 minutes ago, donnal said:

When I got my period my 

Everything I learned about sex was either from classmates at school or Loveline with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew(which was super-informative).

Loved Loveline.  Dr. Drew was always so willing to answer questions even if they were embarrassing ones.  

[Jiraffe]

I've tried to formulate a response a couple times, but I apparently have a lot of feelings about this. I actually do have a therapist, thankfully. Lol!

I got my period around 10 or 11. My mom had told me the basics of a period because she started young too, so I kinda knew what was going on. It came out brown though so at first I thought something might be wrong...I got every stomach bug there was back in those days so I believe I thought it might have been a poop stain in my underwear. I yelled for my mom and she came in the bathroom, realized what it was, and promptly started crying because I "wasn't a kid anymore." I consoled her, peed, put on a pad, and went on with my life, lol. It wasn't the greatest pad...I feel like pad technology must have come a long way since 1992/93? It was this huge thick wingless Kotex thing. Either that or my mom just used the same thing she always had, maybe. To this day I don't like tampons, I can always feel them (I am small there and also have a tilted cervix apparently?, so maybe that's why) but I finally learned how to do one so I could go swimming. At 32. Go me! My mom was one who thought they popped your hymen, and although she wasn't necessarily thinking I had to be a virgin forever, she said that they would hurt at best and not go in, most likely. Once I no longer had that problem, I was just so used to pads I never bothered to change til moving to a place with gorgeous beaches.

I had...a complicated upbringing with everything sex ed. My mom was molested by a family member at 16. Her family handled it even worse than the Duggars, if you can imagine... Zero consequences for the family member, to where he never knew that anyone else had even been told until, I think, they were both in their 50s. She got married and had me in her early 20s, and was super ridiculously over protective. She never processed what happened to her, and was terrified it would happen to me. So I was petrified of all men when I was really young, and knew way more than I should have about bad people and bad touching. I know she meant well, but it just scared the crap out of me--she fully admits to having told me this stuff from the time I was like 2 and up. I wasn't allowed to be at friends houses if their dads or brothers would be home, even if their mom and sisters would be there too. And I didn't understand a thing about sex, so all I got was "be scared!"

She had one of those books for me, but when I tried to look at it around probably age 9 or 10 when limited sex ed happened at school, I was told I wasn't old enough. I guess I finally got it after my period started. But basically, I already had a complex, so I now understood what the hell was going on down there and why, but was terrified of all things sex anyway for years and years. I secretly listened to the Sunday Night Sex Show with Sue Johansen in my teens and that's pretty much how I found out that sex, and desires, were normal things to do and have.

[vspielman]

@JiraffeI feel so deeply sorry for your Mom and for you.  That whole thing is a hard lot.  <3 <3

[Exposed Collarbone]

I started a couple of months after I turned 14. I had been waiting for that day for at least a year. (I felt like I was the only girl in 8th grade who didn't have her period.) The first two days go great and when I woke up on the third day nothing was there. I thought my period was done so I went out to hang out with friends with no protection. Turns out that everything had just sort of gathered to the side and decided to wait until later to show up. I could never bring myself to wear those plaid shorts again. (They were cute too.)

[Fundie Bunny]

After reading this, let me go hug a box of tampons. 

I got my period at 10. Knew what a period was, and knew more or less what to expectativas,  but it was so light for the first few days that I just thought I had a big scratch on my ass or something. I got pretty down when it sinked it. My mom taught me how pads worked, and i figured out tampons a few years later.

And the talk, i never really got a talk from my parents, they gave me a book when I was 6 or so, that explained pretty much everything, from puberty to sex, to how babies were made, and it had a section about urban myths. It Also said something about homosexuality. It was great, and poor shy me was really grateful to not have to have the talk

[MargaretElliott]

I was almost twelve when I first got my period... the morning we flew out to Florida for a family vacation. Airplanes, long car rides, and a nervous kid who didn't know when to change the pad... I must have had my parents pull over every fifteen minutes to change it. And I couldn't even go swimming because I wasn't comfortable with tampons. I also had that care and keeping of you book- it was great! My mother told me all about my body, but didn't tell me anything about sex. I just kind of assumed the sperm ended up in the bed and kind of walked up the vagina. It wasn't until my (wonderful, comprehensive, informative) sex ed that I realized it went IN. My mother's gotten a lot better about sex- I was still living at home when my sexual health issues started- so we got on the same level real quick.

[Jiraffe]

@vspielman Thank you so much. <3 <3 I've made my peace with it, and especially, with my mom...I really didnt get when I was younger that she was just trying to protect me from the same thing that traumatized her most of her life. Her dad eventually apologized to her for their handling of it and that went a long way for her. She told some other family members, who believed her and have stood up to him, and though obviously she'll never forgive him, she has finally been able to not let it affect her life anymore. 

[SamiKatz]

Let me tell you ladies - your last period ever is waaaayyyy more exciting than your first!

I went through menopause early and that aspect of it was cool with me.

[PumaLover]

 
as far as "the talk" i was watching the salt and peppa special-lets talk about sex. my mom then chimed in with-"wait until you're married"  and that was the extent of the talk 
i'm actually very glad it didn't go beyond that --it's just awkward 

This made me laugh!

[Gillyweed]

1 minute ago, SamiKatz said:

Let me tell you ladies - your last period ever is waaaayyyy more exciting than your first!

I went through menopause early and that aspect of it was cool with me.

A family friend of mine had the worst last period ever. She was in the early stages of menopause, and then she went on to have her period for 6 months straight

[SamiKatz]

3 minutes ago, Gillyweed said:

A family friend of mine had the worst last period ever. She was in the early stages of menopause, and then she went on to have her period for 6 months straight

 

I"d downvote this, but I don't want to hurt your feelings.

Youch!

[Bad Wolf]

3 minutes ago, SamiKatz said:

I"d downvote this, but I don't want to hurt your feelings.

Youch!

Yes. We need a button that doesn't down vote the poster, but down votes what they say. (If that makes sense.)

[candygirl200413]

When I learned about menopause and some birthing injuries in my women's health class, I literately raised my hand and said to my professor "so do women just not win in life?" and the class laughed in agreement (it was 100% female that semester).

I'm also jealous of all of you that at least had a slight heads up as to what you would be experiencing! My parents in addition to what I said in the beginning of this topic that they thought I was going to get it when my sister did (around 13). Me, my mom and sister all happened to get ours on vacation. I was in Virginia with my dad and siblings and I was playing with my cousins when I went to the bathroom and like some of you guys thought I was dying or injured cause I never knew blood could come out of you like that. Told my dad the next day cause it obviously didn't stop and he called my mom in a panic cause I heard him in the next room yelling "YOU TOLD ME SHE WOULD GET IT LATER NOT THIS EARLY!". Then my mom told me I'd live and it was called a Period and to ask my cousins or aunt for some pads.

My favorite is that when I came home I called one of my oldest friends cause I was like she would totes know what a period is and will explain more to me, also her mom is a ob/gyn. She was so proud of me and gave me a better run down we talked about this story a couple months ago during one of our fun drunk events.

[Karma]

My mum phoned the doctor to ask if I could use tampons  when I asked to use them for my second period (I was nearly 14 and going on a beach holiday).  The doctor said if I was old enough to have periods I could use them. Hooray!

[onekidanddone]

My husband's step-mother was a nurse practitioner GYN.  The two of them would have "discussions" at the dinner table when he was a kid. Last year he bought an old copy of  Our Bodies Ourselves for One Kid. I swear the guy has no filter, and will discuss anything with anyone,. When One Kid  got her period for the first time last summer ( TMI I know) he tried to talk to her about it.  She was having none of it.  At least she is okay with him buying her some "product" when she needs to re-up. *

 

 

*'Product' and 'Re-up'  used with much artistic license   Credit goes to David Simon and the The Wire