acceptable names for "private parts"

[girlymomma]

Hi - we are potty training my daughter and have been using the word 'fanny' in lieu of vagina. It has been suggested this term may offend other parents at pre-school. What is an acceptable term?.........saying bottom for everything seems slightly confusing and could cause problems should daughter get sore or whatever on her whatever!
This is a bit of a minefield..........any suggestions?

[MrsBadger]

[sound of can of worms being opened...]

There are lots of opinions re this on MN - most people seem to use a nickname, but there's a strong anatomically-correct lobby who say 'vagina' for the vagina itself and 'vulva' for the surrounding area.

Personally at 2-3 (guessing she's at this age) I'm a fan of the 'wee-hole, poo-hole, baby-hole' approach as it is anatomically correct (and a lot clearer than 'flower', 'minnie' etc), and the names are easily swappable for urethra, anus and vagina later.

[NotQuiteCockney]

I like fanjo. But I have no girls, so what do I know? DS1 seems to have settled on "bits" as his term for female genetalia, which is a bit euphemistic, but survivably so, I think ...

[Greensleeves]

Not this again

VULVA

Geddit?

End of

[flutterbee]

My Mum always reffered to them as front bottom and back bottom and there was never any confusion.

Also for boys its called a squiggle, God I love my Mum and DH and I use both terms with great succsess.

[girlymomma]

am ashamed to admit am uncomfortable at the prospect of small child talking about her vagina. Am uncomfortable using word vagina myself which is in itself good reason for using it now................we are a bit strange in England are'nt we!
wee-hole good suggestion and almost a pun.
suppose just clearing throat and calling it a hahem won't work?

[sunnydelight]

I taught DD (3) fanny. She's obsessed at the moment in working out gender differences and often loudly points to people and says "that's a boy, he's got a willy, that's a girl, she's got a fanny" so I'm so glad I didn't go for vagina. Hearing her say fanny in public a couple of times a day is (very) marginally less embarrassing

[suzywong]

nadgers
for boys

[beckybrastraps]

Why would you be talking about a vagina when you are potty training?!

[Harpsichordcarrier]

vulva
just because it's a nice word and the right word and no need to get embarrassed about it

[beckybrastraps]

And you do not wee out of your vagina!!!

[Melpomene]

Give me a V!
Give me a U!
Give me an L!
Give me a V!
Give me an A!

What does that spell?

Vulva!

[mrsdil]

My son always says a girls bits their 'rudie' and boys 'winkie'..he is 5.

[lunavix]

I HATE fanny. It's just an ick word. Don't like penny either.

Here a girls is a minnie, and a boys is a willy (or a wih-wee in ds case :P )

[beckybrastraps]

A girl's what is a minnie?

[lunavix]

a girls front bottom is a minnie :)

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

Fanny and willy are acceptable in our house.

[manitz]

we use fanny and willy. although dd has a 'china also.

mine were front, bottom and middle bottom when I was growing up. At that age I'm not sure why we discussed the middle one???

Can i ask is vulva anatomically correct? I thought that was the flaps and urethra was the wee hole. Learnt all my non-front/back/middle bottom stuff off the tampax leaflet and prob not a very good drawing.

[firestorm]

front bottom for us save the technical stuff for later.

[maazaa]

i called it a "cot" when I was little.....short for "apricot"!!!!

[Tortington]

we used tuppence

for boys it was always penis.

[Norah]

I've said this before - but I never had a name for my "front bottom" - when I was 11 we moved house and my new friend introduced me to the concept of a front and back bottom !

We use front bottom with dd - although she has recently picked up a really cute name for it from an Italian girl at school and that's "Fafalina" - means little butterfly apparently !

Not sure why it needs a name really though !

[plummymummy]

willy for boy or pee pee and wee wee for a girl

[louise35]

Ooh I get a feeling of deja vu here!! We used "tuppence" for DD but now she just refers to them as "bits" even though she does know the proper technical terms.

[sanchpanch]

Fru~Fru

[FrannyandZooey]

I encountered a new one today - Foopar. I wondered if it was like faux pas but apparently not.