Excuse me, Aunt Flo?

[maai.livejournal.com]

Hello,

I have been here awhile, but this is the first time I've posted.

I was just thinking, I have no idea why this springs to mind at the moment, but I am remembering when I was in Elementary School, the girls would be excused from P.E. during their first period.

The thing is, it seemed to me that this only happened when it was your FIRST period, and we would still participate in P.E. and other activities during subsequent periods.

Does anyone else remember this happening? I did go to Catholic School. Is it possible this is just another one of those weird 'Catholic School' things?

Why just the first one, and not all of them? If it's thought to be that traumatic, it seems like you should be out of school the whole day.

Just trying to figure out the logic behind it.

[X 'd to my own]

Comments

[hellonurse06.livejournal.com]

I was one of the girls that tried to get out of gym everytime i had my period. It didn't work, but i tried (I REALLY hated gym lol)

No one was ever allowed to miss out on gym unless they were obviously sick ... and since menstruation in itself isn't an illness, you weren't missing gym without a doctors note.

[iliad-communes.livejournal.com]

It might have been because a first period means you're not used to pads/tampons and whatever you're wearing has a much better chance of leaking or whatever. By the next time, you at least know a little bit about it, and can be expected not to gush blood all over the gym floor.

[maai.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that makes total sense!

[emmeangel.livejournal.com]

i think the reasoning is because since most girls get their first period in middle school and probably weren't prepared for it with pads & such, they excuse you so you don't bleed everywhere. that, and if they do have a pad on or something, they might need a little time to get used to it.

my school makes you stay out of the pool when you have your period, and it's a public, non-religious high school. i guess they don't trust tampons o_O;; the real kicker is that you have to make up the number of classes you missed while on your period (if you had it during the swim unit). but at least when you make up the gym class you don't have to swim. ha!

[maai.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I was wondering. I wish they would just come out and say these things, instead of just quietly whispering about them, so you have to try to "decode" what it is about! I am still not very good at that, let alone when I was 11, heh.

[xxlavenderxx.livejournal.com]

Eeeek, I'd die having to tell my teacher about having my period and not going in the pool, haha. Do you just get to go to a study hall or sit around in class? Study hall, I hope!

[maai.livejournal.com]

We had to sit on the bench, so everyone knew, and if they weren't sophisticated enough to guess, someone would tell them.

catholic school

[prblmchld.livejournal.com]

i went to catholic school and, not only did not have P.E. class, we didn't even have health class!

[maai.livejournal.com]

Wow, I guess that makes our school really progressive then! We had Health Class, though I don't remember that we actually called it that, in 6th grade. I think it might have been treated as a special section of science class or something... *scratching head*

I do remember the one person who had to sit out due to a parents' note though, heh. How humiliating!

[starladear6.livejournal.com]

Before I read all the comments here, I at first thought to myself "ooh! a school that celebrates first periods and gives girls a day off? awesome!"

but, no such luck.

I'm so sick of the stupid attitudes around periods... they aren't gross! they aren't something to fear! They should be celebrated! The rest of the world needs to get over their "dirty bleeding woman" complex and stop treating periods like some kind of interruption to life.