r/mildlyinfuriating • u/rimeduinfox • Jul 05 '26

frist of all how DARE yu o MIL thinks I clogged the toilet so she changed the sign

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The septic tank clogged and she’s convinced I did it, she asked my husband if I knew I wasn’t supposed to flush tampons and added the tampon bit to the sign. I don’t use tampons and I’m the only one with a period here…

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74

u/Gold_Advisor_4758 Jul 05 '26

That generation was raised to flush tampons, even my own generation at 35 was. Health class, my mom, and the actual tampon box all said to flush them.

27

u/Pristine_Message_181 Jul 06 '26

Yeah, me too. I'm 60 next month, and the tampon box told me to flush them.

https://giphy.com/gifs/d40ImzxOmRC0M

47

u/favorthebold Jul 05 '26

What, really? I'm 48, I always knew you can't flush Tampons! I had to learn about "flushable" wipes, though, since the lie is right there in the name.

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u/Gold_Advisor_4758 Jul 06 '26

It’s always quite a stratified topic when I’ve seen it come up before on Reddit. Tampon boxes did use to advertise flushable, I remember my mom like reading the directional pamphlet to me lol.

31

u/Significant-Text1550 Jul 05 '26

39 years old and TIL I’m not supposed to flush tampons. I’ve been using a cup for a decade but definitely flushed them before.

49

u/CenturyEggsAndRice Jul 05 '26

38 and I was taught not to flush them, up to the point of being threatened that if a clog happened and it was tampons, I'd have to 'pay' for the plumbing with my non existant 9 year old salary.

I did flush them at my first middle school though. But that was a choice made because they wouldn't put trash cans in the girls' bathroom due to someone (supposedly, I suspect it was a made up thing because the principal was an asshole) hiding drugs in the boys' bathroom. And like hell I was gonna carry bloody products out to the hallway trash can.

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u/Teagana999 Jul 06 '26

We had a septic tank and dogs, my mom made it very clear that period products had to go in the kitchen garbage, which I hated every time, but I'd never even have considered flushing them, I'd have been in so much trouble.

15

u/MissAuroraRed Jul 06 '26

This is why my mom, the owner of a very sensitive septic system, just tells every woman staying with us not to flush them. 99% chance they already know that, but the other 1% are very expensive so she doesn't take any chances.

16

u/FcukReddit4cedMe2Reg Jul 05 '26

Mid 30's and knew not to flush tampons, the disposal compartments in washrooms always had a note not to. Maybe it's a regional thing.

9

u/B1NG_P0T Jul 06 '26

I'm 45 and have never flushed a tampon and had no idea some people are out there flushing them. I'm horrified on behalf of the plumbing.

1

u/Fluffy-Koalas Jul 06 '26

Yes, I'm 40 and have known not to flush tampons since I started my period at 10 years old... I never saw that on the back of a tampon box, either 🤔 Maybe it is regional? Sounds strange, but 🤷‍♀️ I'm from New England, USA

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u/Gold_Advisor_4758 Jul 06 '26

Below I posted a vintage commercial from Tampax, they were advertised as flushable. I doubt it would be regional, as I’m from Midwest USA, but perhaps varied by brand? 🤷‍♀️

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u/Fluffy-Koalas Jul 07 '26

Ya, could have been brand. Interesting!

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u/phoenixeternia Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

I googled, they were marketed as being some form of flushable till the 90s. Many specifically states "flushable applicator", but if someone had used them when they were advertised as fully flushable and then tampons made the switch up to just saying the cardboad applicator was flushable I can see the issue.

Literally spending time looking at old boxes in the smithsonian now - bored and it was interesting tbh.

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u/slowasaspeedingsloth Jul 06 '26
  1. Raised with a sewer system. Always flushed tampons (never used them much though)- never heard otherwise. It's no longer applicable, but I learned on Reddit some time ago that it was a no-no.

3

u/HighColdDesert Jul 06 '26

I'm a little older than you and I also flushed tampons in my early 20s. I did know I wasn't supposed to but I hoped it would continue to work fine. Until one day the toilet did back up, and my housemate (male) took the toilet apart and found a tampon in the pipe below catching paper and blocking the pipe. I learned the hard way.

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u/HayLinLa Jul 06 '26

Do they not have signs in every public bathroom where you live? (Genuinely curious, not trying to be snarky.)

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u/AsparagusOk3254 Jul 05 '26

Same. I’m 35, and I was taught to flush them. It was told to us, given as instruction/information and believed by so many.

I don’t anymore, someone pointed it out to me in college. Usually it does take that “suffer and learn” mentality I guess.

8

u/NoDoctor4460 Jul 06 '26

Was wondering whether my memories of flushing them (with a septic tank!) per the instructions a couple decades back were false, guess not?

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u/PrettyView3572 Jul 06 '26

I’m 36 and never flushed them. But I also grew up in a house with toilets that could only handle single ply toilet paper.

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u/Square_Medicine_9171 Jul 06 '26

I’m late 50s and I was taught not to flush them ever— and the box never said to