I told my son. My thoughts on it if he knew then he wouldn’t be one of those immature guys who hassled the girls for it (I’m sure you can remember those guys from school). I told him about periods – why we got them, how long they last, what it can feel like and so on. I also told him about the whole hormonal cycle of a woman and why we can be so emotional at times and all about PMS (what it is, how we can feel etc). I found he was far more curious then I at first thought. He had a lot of questions (once we got past the initial embarrassment of it all), I answered them as best I could and ever since he seems to be far more considerate of myself and his sisters.

You will make him cringe, but he should know.

I find girl get to hear all about boys, with their voices breaking and all that, so why not tell the boys about the girls. Girls are more complex after all and boys could use all the help they can get with working us out. I gave my sons the best head start on understanding women that I could – the rest is up to them.

I think it is important for boys to know. I’m sure you will gross them out, but if you don’t tell them then they will be clueless and at the mercy of every woman. I remember my husband when we first met – oh my goodness! He had no sisters and his mother never told him anything. Consequently he was so awkward about anything feminine. Just asking him to pick me up some tampons on the way home from work was too much of an overload for him. For the sake of your future daughter in law – tell him!