I was absolutely shocked when my eight year old told me that a girl in her class had her periods, that seems awfully young to me!  At eight I remember playing farms with my animal figurines and really enjoying imagination play by myself. Menstruation was the furthest thing from my mind and tampons were those funny looking things in my mothers bag, the things I so often wished were lollies!  That of course is due to my ‘sweet tooth’ and has nothing at all to do with this topic… so I’ll get back on track now.  Out of curiosity I Googled the average age of a girls first period and got the answer of twelve, now that’s more like it!  I feel as if our family has shifted maturity levels lately but I wasn’t quite ready for periods and boys and God help me… dating.  Hopefully I have a few more years of giggles and innocence before moving on to puberty blues.