What name to give to private parts?

[sophiechristophy]

Hi wise mums,

I was wondering what names people have given to their daughters for their private parts? It's hard to know which is the best route to go!

Thanks, Sophie

[julia e]

my son calls a girls' 'a mini' which he picked up at school (he's nearly 7)and good old fashion 'willie' and 'my privates' for his. i'm fine with those!

[Ruth_Baldock]

My sons: willie, penis (no beating around the bush there)

ny daughter: 'girl parts' and if we ask seb, 'where are alexa's girl parts?'in the bath, he points to...er... Them.

[Sanne Panne]

3yo daughter: my bum. The front side and the back side. And papa has a funny bum. So far, she's happy with that terminology. Will provide more information as the questions come. She knows pee gathers in the bladder before you feel the urge to go. But that's about it.

And just to respond to a veeeery old thread on here that I never dared to respond to: if you call it vagina, you're not being an ultra-physionomically correct no-nonsense parent at all. The visible girl bits are called the vulva. And you don't pee from your vagina, you pee from your urethra. If you want to go for the real terminology, do your homework ;) Sorry sounds out of place but it's so common!

[crystal7]

We use vagina although I'm aware that it's not strictly correct...I couldn't think of anything else though. I suppose in time we could introduce vulva etc! Much easier for boys!

[sanity girl]

In our household we use fifi. Works well for us and I think it's a cute name! For boys good old willy.

[sophiechristophy]

Sanne Panne - I agree with you, I find it confusing when the whole area is referred to as a vagina, when that isn't what it is.

[bobbly]

I used the proper names when my four year old asked me the other day. In the hope that if I am open and honest in my response about such matters, then he will feel he can approach me about stuff later, though understandably there will probably be a time when he feels unable to discuss things with me, but until such time I think i will continue to be as open and honest as possible.

[sophiechristophy]

bobbly what did you actually say though?

[apenn]

Penis and if he asks about me, vulva. My mom was a nurse - only grammatically correct terms allowed when I was growing up. I was the only kid at school who insisted that a baby is not in a woman's belly, it's in her [/i]uterus!

-A

[snowboarder]

Hmm thank goodness I've not had to go any further than willy.....hurrah for 2 boys!!

[The Nappy Lady]

Fu-fa or front bottom & back bottom here. 7 year old knows the correct terms but I think it will always be a Fu-fa in our house....we like having our own name for it!

[Helen GV]

Fanny for girls, willy for boys.

[GinaG3]

Daughter is nearly 3, she likes it use mini, this is her mini version of what mummy has. Daddy would occasionally have a willy or a mini, whichever she wants to call it at the time. We also use mooey. This was terminology from around 14 months.. Will correct her as she gets older and starts to ask. Will always try to be as honest as I can with her. But it's all a but of fun right now, right?!

[sophiechristophy]

I just found this which is interesting: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/mar/18/gender.uk

[redjam]

V. interesting article. It's so maddening there's not a word for girlie bits that's as socially acceptable as 'willy'. We say 'ninny' or 'girl's bits' here, though my youngest just calls it her 'bottom' and doesn't differentiate between front and back. In any case, they know it's not the scientific word but I've explained it's just the 'friendly' word we use in our house and left it at that.

I couldn't go for the proper names though - I heard a (possibly apocryphal) story from a friend who was at a playground when a three-year-old fell off a roundabout and shouted, in piercingly clear tones, 'Mummy, my vulva hurts!' That just sounds so odd...

Incidentally, when I was a child, my mum was so hung up about these matters that not only was there literally no word for female or male genitalia - it was never mentioned - but also we didn't have words for poo and wee. So I went off to school age five and couldn't understand why everyone fell about laughing when I talked about 'pushing' and 'wetting'. The lesson is: whatever terminology you use, the important thing is that you do talk freely as much as possible!

[Pam50]

My grandaughters refer to those parts as 'your bits'...This applies to both genders. Tidy!

[Saffron]

redjam Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I couldn't go for the proper names though - I

> heard a (possibly apocryphal) story from a friend

> who was at a playground when a three-year-old fell

> off a roundabout and shouted, in piercingly clear

> tones, 'Mummy, my vulva hurts!' That just sounds

> so odd...

But why do you think that sounds odd? Is it just b/c that's not what you grew up with? If I heard that on the playground, I would think, Hurrah for that little girl who knows what her body parts are called!! :)

[Bluemum]

Me and my husband are always struggling when talking about my daughter's "pussy"! That's how I refer it on me (in private, obviously!) and it doesn't feel right calling her "private bits" the p word. So, we go from: make sure you put cream on her "bits" to She is a bit red "down there"!

After reading this thread, I made a decision! I will start calling it vulva and that's what she will learn from mummy and daddy when she starts talking. EDF rocks!

[Saffron]

I like the word vulva too. It's correct, easy to say, and doesn't have any associations other than anatomical. Husband sometimes refers to Little Saff's vulva as her little daisy or baby fanny. I like the word yoni as well, though as the guardian article points out, it's not as widely known. More's the pity, it's a lovely and useful word.

[janiece]

Hi

I work with families teaching parenting skills and supporting families. And I come across this question all the time, I always advise parents to

Use names that will be understood to everyone. Should anything happen to your child whilst away from you, ie sch, child minder etc, that they can tell someone straight away and be understood straight away instead of using names will not be understood to everyone. Many children have been hurt and when they have asked for help saying somebody hurt my pretty, mini,ding dong or any other made up name and have been ignored because they don't understand what they are saying esp if the adult is not from this country.

I advise all parents that have already given made up names to their children to let whoever looks after them, make note of what they call their private parts.

I told My sons that its called a penis and my youngest who's now 6 asked me when I was on the toilet, "mum how comes you wee out of your bum", and he started laughing then I started laughing, I replied saying Girls don't have the same as boys. I told him that girls call it private parts. This was when he was 2years old, now he's older we taught him about all the different body parts from a childrens book.

Hope this info is helpful for you all.

J

[Otta]

Our older daughter is only 2.5, so we'll tend to just say "lets wash your bits". However, as soon as she mentions them, she'll be told the correct names, as my wife was as a kid.

Besides, I couldn't bring myself to use any of the names I've seen on this thread to be honest. Think how confusing fifi and the flower tots would become!

[madmum]

this is a funny subject and to be honest we call it all sorts of things in our house( boys mind)as I think its good to be familiar with all slang terminology...I used them often as a child much to mum's disgust.

ya bits n bobs

winkle

willie

dinkle

peins...funny story whilst showering my twothe other day ,my eldest (5) says to brother (2.5) you havent cleaned your peanuts...I choked laughing (can see how he got confused) due to this the new terminology is Peanuts..Example" mum he just threw a playmobile truck at my penuts" teee hee hee I still chuckle....

As for girls parts well we refer to it as either moo moo or fanny(chuckling again Im such a child)front bottom or lady parts.

Vulva hmmmmm not convinced by this terminology.

I Once worked in an Ann summers shop I used so many different slang and scientific terms you would not belive.....

[Vickster]

My friend's daughter has a fandango, which I think is great, but it just seemed weird with regards to my own daughter, so we settled on lady bits. There is a great chapter on this very subject in Caitlin Moran's book 'Bow to be a Woman' which I highly recommend

[newtoedf]

I think it is worth deciding what to do early on and sticking to it. I avoided giving a specific name until I'd worked out what I was comfortable with the result that bigsister newto (3.5) and I have had a lot of conversations like this:

Me: that's your vulva

Bs newto: no it's my bottom. Boys don't have bottoms do they.

Me: yes they do, Girls have vulvas and boys have willies

Bs newto: ....

On a loop for what feels like hours at a time...

It is surprising how fixed an idea can become...