A childhood belief about periods

My mother, for whatever reason, never told me about puberty, so when I started my period at twelve years old, I didn't know what to think of it. My brother, younger than me, said I was having internal bleeding, and I accepted this happily - and went on stuffing toilet roll and cut-up clothes in my knickers - until I had my first sex education lessons at secondary school. I'm now of the opinion that parents should just give their children puberty books at age eleven if they're too embarassed to speak about it.