How Fathers Can Assist Daughters Via Puberty & Past

If you’re a woman, chances are high you didn’t actually know what a interval was all about earlier than it arrived. For many of us, it felt unintended. Some thought that they had eaten one thing flawed, whereas others assumed that they had damage themselves. Just a few years in the past, earlier than the web turned a part of our on a regular basis lives, most women who skilled their first interval had been left panicked and anxious.

As ladies tried to grasp the adjustments of their our bodies, households and relations, within the title of custom, would usually sideline them for a number of days and later plan grand ceremonies with massive gatherings of company.

At present, many households are selecting a gentler path. 

At present, puberty is spoken about with extra openness. Households, colleges, and communities are slowly coming collectively to information each mother and father and youngsters, making the change simpler to grasp and embrace with care.

As we have a good time Worldwide Daughters Day on 28 September 2025, we share the story of a father who confirmed that small acts of understanding can change all the pieces. For his daughter, her first interval was not a supply of disgrace however a reminiscence of consolation and confidence.

A father who broke the foundations

When Madhulika Sprint (45) from Odisha seems again on her first interval, it’s her father she remembers most. Nimai Charan Sprint, who was a retired colonel and an ENT specialist within the military within the Seventies and 80s, helped her face it with out worry.

“My father is a health care provider, and perhaps that’s the reason he was so progressive in his ideas again then. If not for him, I’m not certain how I might have dealt with my first interval,” Madhulika shares.

Throughout India, the primary indicators of puberty are sometimes handled as a giant occasion. “It comes with a rule guide. Women are advised to not play outside, to not play with boys, to settle down, and lots of extra issues,” she laughs. “In my household, my father was the one one who broke all these guidelines. He advised me, ‘You be who you might be and the way you need to be. That is only a organic change, and you’ll be high-quality.’”

A military physician’s steerage at dwelling

When Madhulika acquired her first interval, she was in Class 5.

“My father observed it first and suggested my mom to research and make sure. When it occurred once more the next month, he sat down with me and defined scientifically what my physique was going by means of. He taught me methods to maintain myself clear, methods to use a sanitary pad, and that I have to keep away from unclean washrooms,” she remembers.

Again within the Nineteen Eighties, sanitary napkins weren’t like those we now have at this time. “They had been lengthy pads that got here with a belt, and my mother and father patiently defined methods to use them. Within the military, pads had been made with gauze and cotton. My father even taught me methods to make these at dwelling so I may select what felt most comfy,” she says.

Madhulika fondly calls her father her “second mom”. Whereas relations held on to guidelines, her father set them apart — calling these restrictions a delusion. “He centered extra on my food plan and what I ought to eat in order that I remained wholesome and my physique tailored to the change in the precise manner.”

Now, as Madhulika goes by means of perimenopause, she nonetheless finds energy within the classes her late father gave her many years in the past. “I’m so glad I had the possibility to have my father clarify issues to me after I felt most weak. Again then, it made me really feel safe, and at this time it nonetheless offers me confidence,” she smiles.

Mother and father, durations, and the facility of sport

What Madhulika present in her father’s care, many ladies nonetheless wrestle to obtain in their very own households. To vary that, Bengaluru-based physiotherapist Manasi Satalkar is working on the grassroots, encouraging mother and father to assist their daughters by means of sport.

Alongside her observe, she additionally works with a non-profit organisation – Merely Sport Basis – that companions with girls’s sports activities teams. After operating profitable campaigns in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Bihar, the workforce is now in Rajasthan, reaching out to households with the identical message.

“Most mother and father we meet throughout these campaigns say menstruation has been a serious hurdle of their daughters’ excelling. Nevertheless, the assist ladies who’re already in sports activities obtain is commendable,” she shares.

How small gestures depart a mark

Manasi remembers a marketing campaign in Uttar Pradesh the place a wrestling coach carried pads and lemon juice for his trainees so they may proceed observe and keep energised.

In Bengaluru, she carried out a workshop on menstruation for ladies athletes. “Among the many 30 moms current, there was one father who had come alongside, merely to grasp how he may make his daughter extra comfy throughout her durations. That stayed with me.”

For her, these small moments replicate a bigger reality: when fathers present up, they alter the story for his or her daughters. “It’s important for everyone — women and men, moms and dads — to be a part of these programmes in order that our ladies really feel uplifted, safe, and comfy sufficient to pursue no matter they need to.”

A notice to dads

As we mark Worldwide Daughters Day, here’s a reminder to all fathers: your position doesn’t finish with childhood. Whether or not it’s the first interval, teenage adjustments, and even menopause, daughters really feel most secure and most assured when their fathers stand by them with understanding and care.

When fathers stand beside their daughters at each stage, they do greater than break taboos — they provide them the boldness to stroll by means of womanhood realizing they’re by no means alone.

Edited by Khushi Arora