8:26 PM

There’s a lot of responsiblities, but that’s what being a woman is. And when it happens every month, even though it’s unpleasant, it means everything’s working. It means everything’s ready for a baby when you want one, and maybe you’ll have a beautiful girl and you can tell her all this.

- Mad Men, episode 512: Commissions and Fees

Betty has made plenty of parenting mistakes, but in this moment she was a wonderful mother. Her calm practicality lent itself perfectly to the situation, and the tenderness that she added was moving. The connection between mother and daughter is so strong in that moment when a girl reveals that she has started her period, it’s as much an experience for the mother as it is the girl, and it’s easy for the mother to lose herself in that moment; to become overwhelmed with sentiment and embarrass her daughter, whose own emotions are terribly tender. Betty behaved so beautifully. She was proud, moved, wise, happy & content; just as a mother should be.