Old Estrogen and Young Estrogen Under the Same Roof.

I love having daughters. At thirteen and eleven, they are old enough so we can have a lot of fun together. And they give me an excuse to watch the Disney channel.

I do love watching them grow into young women while still having them at an age where they need their momma.

Also, I won’t need estrogen replacement for years since I can just sniff their necks.

Hormones are radiating off these two. It smells a lot like Love’s Baby Soft.

Having old estrogen and young estrogen under the same roof sounds like a dangerous combination. It’s a little known fact, but that’s the origin of the Chinese symbol for the end of the world.

Since I teach my kids at home, I am one-hundred percent responsible for talking to them about Their Changing Bodies. I don’t have a nice Health teacher to do it for me, and my husband might spontaneously combust if he had to talk to them about tampons and pads.

I was a lucky kid. My mother is very practical and has a degree in biology. When I had a question about My Changing Body, or How Babies Are Made, or Why Are Boys So Weird All Of A Sudden, she would whip out a yellow legal pad and sketch out an embarrassing a realistic diagram.

Yes, I did blush a little when Mom answered my questions, but I was grateful I could go to my mother for straight talk about things I needed to know. She didn’t put me off with vague answers about the stork or tell me to wait until I was older.

I’ve tried to handle matters similarly with my four kids. Except now I have the Internet instead of a legal pad. God bless the Internet.

Just this last week my older daughter started her period. I was proud and sad at the same time. What’s a word for that? Prad? Soud?

Proud she was transitioning into womanhood. Sad she was so very far from being my little baby.

We watched this video from U by Kotex for Tweens together. Boy, little Julie Taylor from Friday Night Lights sure has changed.

I feel that my daughters and I have a similar relationship to that of Aimee Teegarden and her mom. We talk frequently and openly about stuff they need to know about. I definitely want them to get their information from me and not from some random tween in a Justin Bieber t-shirt.

I find a good time to talk to my kids is when we are in the car. There are no distracting video screens, they don’t have to make eye contact with me, and—most importantly–they can’t escape.

Since my girls are in the early part of puberty, we’ve talked a lot about their periods. We will continue to talk about it in the upcoming months. My older girl is going to write a few things with me for my blog.

She’s okay with me writing about her on this subject. To make sure I respect her boundaries, I’ll give her complete editing rights over what I post. It’s very important to me to respect her privacy while sharing this time in her life.

Also, I’m going to pay her by the word, so that should balance things out. She wants to buy a Justin Bieber t-shirt. (Not really.) (She’s totally going to make me edit that out.)

Have you talked about menstruation with your daughter? If she’s already started, what’s your best advice to me? I love learning from parents who have walked this path ahead of me. It’s like you are my menstrual Sherpa. 

I wrote this while participating in a Brand Ambassador Campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of U by Kotex Tween and received products to facilitate my post and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.