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How do you explain the clitoris?

2 replies

Cyoursoul · 07/10/2024 09:01

Parenting fail this morning. My DD(8) was looking at a book we have in the house about the human body. She was looking at the ‘How babies are made’ bit which includes a diagram of male and female genitals, with all the different parts labelled.

We use the right words so she’s familiar with stuff, and I’ve been open with her about things if she’s ever asked. She knows the basics of a sperm being like a little seed and needing to meet an egg etc. and that she has a vagina and boys have a penis blah blah but this morning she pointed to this diagram and asked what the ‘clitoris’ was for. And I didn’t know what to say!

I just sort of said that it’s all part of the bits of our bodies that are for making babies. But of course it’s not actually that! I have no idea what an age appropriate definition of the purpose of the clitoris is. Is there one?! I don’t really want to get into what it’s actually for but then again I don’t want to lie, or pretend that it doesn’t exist (DH does enough of that, boom boom). Is there a way to do it? Or do I just leave it as ‘it’s all part of the same group of parts’?!

OP posts:
littleburn · 07/10/2024 09:07

I think what you said is totally age appropriate for an 8 year old.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 07/10/2024 09:07

I might say that it’s a tiny little thing that would eventually have turned into a willy/penis long before the baby was born, if it had been a boy. And if she asked why a girl/woman should have such a thing at all, I’d say, well, boys and girls both have nipples, even though boys won’t one day want them for feeding a baby. Same as we all have a heart, lungs, etc.
At this stage I wouldn’t go into the ‘pleasure’ element!

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