Preparing for Your Child’s First Period

Celebrating your child's menarche (first period) is a special time in their life and in your parenting journey.

Menarche is a menstruating person’s first bleed and this experience can have a big impact on setting the tone for their bleeding years. With a little bit of planning, preparation, and education, you can help make this a really positive experience for both of you.

Here are some ideas for how to prepare for your child’s first period.

Reflect on Yours

When you think about your own first bleed, is there anything you wish had been different that you could give to your child? Is there anything that happened for you that you'd like to pass on?

Make sure they know what to expect.

Making sure your child knows what menstruation is and how safe and normal it is prior to their first bleed will help them feel more comfortable. See my previous "What's a period?" post for some ideas on this.

Put together a bleed box.

Putting together a special box for their bleed time is a wonderful way to make sure your child has everything they'll practically need during menstruation as well as showing them that this can be a special time of rest and nourishment. Some potential items include: cloth pads, a journal, a special pen, chocolate, herbal tea, a hot water bottle, art supplies, a cosy book.

Teach them about the psycho-spiritual as well as the physiological.

Introducing your child to the menstrual cycle as a creative process as well as a biological one is incredibly powerful. You could liken this to a garden: Planting seeds of ideas during pre-ovulation. Nurturing and allowing them to bloom during ovulation. Reflecting, harvesting, and pruning during the pre-menstruum. Pausing, resting, incubating, and nourishing during menstruation.

Organize a simple ceremony.

A beautiful place to start would be a special meal with older menstruators from your child's life who will celebrate them and pass on a piece of wisdom about growing up and/or menstruating (making sure everyone present knows to keep this positive for your child). You might want to have everyone write something down for your child to keep and look back on. Consider creating a garland of photos to celebrate their life so far.

Gift them a symbolic totem.

A beautiful red shawl, a crystal pendant, or any other special item is a wonderful way to symbolize this transition in a child's life and highlight how beautiful and special it is.

Invite them to begin cycle charting.

Teaching your child the basics of cycle charting will allow them to begin getting to know themselves in a much deeper way and to create a positive experience of working with the energies of their cycle. If you're new to cycle charting yourself, download my free Cyclic Parenting 101 ebook to learn everything you need to know.

Have more information on hand if they want it.

As well as making sure your child knows they can ask you anything they want, having a book available to learn more from can be great, especially if they're feeling shy about this topic. Reaching for the Moon includes the more spiritual side of menstruation alongside the physical and Welcome to Your Period is a great option if you want to keep it more "practical".

It's never too late.

If your child has already experienced menarche and you're only learning about menstrual cycle awareness now, know that it's not too late. Many adults come back to celebrate their menarche and create the experience they wish they'd had and you can absolutely do this with your child.

Ultimately, you know your child best and by trusting yourself, I’m sure you’ll know the perfect way to honour this special time in both your lives.

If you’d like one-to-one support in helping your child prepare for this big life transition, send me an email.