Mom Decides To Explain What A Period Is To A 3-Year-Old — Now She Claims She Can't Take Her Out In Public
While her intentions were pure, this mom's plan backfired bigtime.
@cactustate / TikTok A mom on TikTok named Tatum told a story that happened to her recently in which she was forced to impart an important anatomical lesson to her 3-year-old daughter.
She claimed that one day, while she was headed to the bathroom, her 3-year-old daughter followed her in. Tatum asked her daughter to leave, but she refused, so she decided to change her tampon in front of her curious 3-year-old daughter.
Her 3-year-old daughter asked her what she was doing and why she 'had a rat in her butt.'
As adults, we can put two and two together and figure out why she believed there was a rat in her mother’s backside, but Tatum decided to try and impart the reality onto a 3-year-old.
“I f--ked up today. I'm not the perfect parent, okay?” Tatum prefaced the video, in case you were worried about spoilers. “I don't always do the right thing, and today I did not do the right thing.”
She tried to explain herself, tried to claim that she didn’t want her baby in there in the first place, but she accepted full responsibility for the actions that came after and the problem she ultimately caused.
By revealing to her daughter the truth about menstruation and taking out tampons, it's now the reason she can no longer take her daughter outside.
“I'm on my period. I had to change a tampon, okay? She wasn't budging,” she explained. “She made it clear that she wasn't gonna leave the bathroom, and I don't have all day. I have s--t to do. So I proceeded to change my tampon, and she saw it.”
“As soon as she saw it, she looked me in the eye and asked me why I had a rat in my a--.”
Unsure of what her response should be, as she was placed in the spotlight by her 3-year-old, Tatum decided that this moment would be a great time to explain to her 3-year-old daughter what a period was, and what the object she was using did for this process.
“At the end of my whole speech, I'm feeling good, like I'm doing a good job, and I end it with, ‘and one day you're gonna get one, too,’” she continued. “All she took out of that conversation is that she's gonna get a rat in her a--.”
Now, Tatum believes that she can no longer bring her daughter on outdoor excursions.
The risk of taking her daughter, who fully believes there is a rat inside of her mother’s backside, is simply far too great — and the 3-year-old is not planning on quitting just yet.
“She keeps checking in between my legs for rats, and there are no rats in my a--. I am not housing a rodent in my anal cavity, and I don't know how to make that clear to her,” she explained. “I don't know how to undo what I did.”
Tatum further explained her decision on imprisoning her daughter within their shared home, saying, “The first person she sees, she's gonna tell him that I have rats in my a-- and one day she's gonna have rats in her a--, and that's a CPS call if I've ever heard one.”
Of course, Tatum is using humor to cope with the situation and isn’t actually going to hold her 3-year-old daughter hostage, but it is funny to think about the wild imagination that children have.
According to KidsHealth, “By the time they're 6 or 7 years old, most kids can understand the basics of periods.” Tatum undershot this margin by a few years, but she tried valiantly to explain the situation to her daughter, and they do say it’s important to start the conversation early!
Teaching your children about their own anatomy, or even human anatomy in general (if you have a son), is an important stage in a child’s development, seeing as one day they’ll go through puberty and have to deal with it firsthand.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.