My 11 year old daughter was having her first periods and the
questions she asked left me totally stumped. Why don’t boys have periods, Papa?
Do they bleed? When girls get periods as they age, what do boys get? Although I
was prepared for all sorts of questions, these questions left me and my wife searching
for the right answers.
I tried to answer each one of her questions in an honest
manner. I said, “My dear, boys do not get periods and they do not bleed. When
boys reach the age of 11, 12 or 13 they do not get anything similar to what the
girls get. There are many changes that take place in a boy but they are
definitely not painful.
She was now looking at both me and my wife with a surprised
look on her face. Her expressions seemed to suggest that this was totally
unfair and that she does not agree with how God had created man and woman. She
was shaking her head in a manner that suggested that she was not happy with
what we were saying.
Initially we tried to explain to her that this was how
nature intended it to be. Then we proceeded to explain to her about the
different reproductive organs that men and women have and how it affects the
human body. I knew that our answers have failed to convince her as to why she
has to undergo so many physical changes during the 3 – 4 days of a month
whereas boys are spared.
After hearing all our answers she turned around and said,
“Mummy, Papa, this is not fair. Why do girls have to suffer all the pain
whereas the boys don’t? Then in her childlike wisdom she said, “Maybe this is
what makes women so strong and boys so weak. As we have already suffered pain
we provide love and happiness, whereas boys who have not experienced any kind
of pain, do not understand the importance of love and they fight and indulge in
violence”
After saying this she left to play. My wife and I were completely
taken aback by what she had just said when she came back again and said, “When
I go to heaven and meet God, I will tell him to correct this great injustice
that he had done. Girls have suffered long enough all these days, now it is the
turn of boys to do so”.
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