What do your kids call their genitals?

[BellissimoGecko]

Not a troll, honest! I'm editing a book aimed at kids aged 3-6 about bodies, and the author has suggested using 'fanny'.

I never referred to DD's bits as a fanny! But I didn't use vulva either... what do you/your dc that age call their bits?!

We use Willy & Fanny when talking with our 3 year old

When I was growing up we called it a front bottom.

Now I have a DS and I live in Scotland but I am not Scottish. One day he was very insistently telling us that 'girls don't have wellies'. I was baffled and kept saying 'yes I have, I've got red wellies that I wear when I'm walking the dog'. It took a little while for the penny to drop...

What amuses me is I read once that 'penis' is 'tail' in Latin and 'vagina' is 'sheath' so we are just using the Romans' slang terms as our proper words...

Seem to remember someone saying the 'proper' old English words were 'pillicock' and 'cunny' (which if I remember the etymology supposedly comes from 'wedge' like e.g. cuneiform writing) but I don't think they'll ever catch on!

Willy / Penis

Vagina / front bum

Breasts / Boobs

Bum / back bum

DC know most of the terminology tbf but use the above. It's important for children to know the proper terminology and slang.

If an abused child is trying to tell something someone or something hurt their privates it could be hard to work out what they mean if they are using a term unknown to the person they speak to.

I was brought up with flower or canary … both of which still make me cringe now.

My mum specialised in cringey terms so males had a widgie or a winkie. I didn’t know they had such a thing as testicles until I was 14.

Workplace (I’m a HCP in highly specialist setting) I use anatomical terms for notes, whatever clients say otherwise - normally try and encourage boobs/breasts, penis/testicles and vulva/vagina/labia because that’s clear and consistent!!!

Kids in our schools had this in P1. Correct anatomical names and discussion about all the names different people have for them too..examples in a book of the same ilk include ftom memory...minnie , cupcake, flower, Willie, pee pee, la la, bits, foo foo ..that's all I can remember but there were loads.

She might have been saying Tuppenny Piece? I’ve read on this thread and elsewhere that the vulva is sometimes known as your “tuppence.”

There’s even articles about it in The Guardian and the Daily Telegraph which might also give the OP some more suggestions

I half remember one of those old double-meaning Victorian style songs about keeping your hand on your tuppence, but I can’t find it. ( There’s also a song about keeping your hand on your h’appenny (½d))

To the young readers, a tuppenny piece was/is a small coin worth 2d in old money.
Not to be confused with the larger 2p coin.

vulva and vagina

@RememberRememberTheMonthofNovember oh that will be it then! Will always remember her looking after me when I'd go and stay with her when I was only about 4 or 5 and handing me a flannel in the bath saying remember to wash your tutney (tuppenny) piece 🤣

Do people literally tell their daughters 'wipe your vulva' these days? That might sound like a weird question but I was brought up a few decades back when it was either (incorrectly in this context) vagina, or some sort of euphemism. Personally I hate the word vulva, I'm no prude but it's just so clinical.

Penis, testicles, vulva, clitoris. Daughter is 2

Penis and Vagina

I agree. Correct terms and slang terms are fine. I have a boy, he knew it was a penis but we used willy as a day to day term when small. Fanny seems a good casual alternative to vulva fur ecru day use, once they know both terms. After all, adults use alternative terms terms most of the time.

As a younger girl i always referred to my vagina as a "widget", and now i have a baby girl, its the only word i feel comfortable to referring it as (right now), my husband uses "foofoo" or "nunny" but i don't like either of them.

Hope that helps! Vagina and vulva is a bit too serious for a children's book and also difficult for children to pronounce, in my opinion.

Privates usually. People on here harp on like if you're not using anatomical terms perfectly its a safeguarding risk but I think it's perfectly obvious what she's referring to. It's not like using tuppence or cookie.

I'm not sure if she knows penis/vulva but I imagine it will come up in sex ed/science at some point and she'll learn it then.

Willy and front bum here.
Which was a looong time ago. Correct terms also taught, but we liked the user-friendly ones more.

We use penis and balls for boy parts and lady bits for girl parts. And I recognise the subtle misogyny in using euphemisms for one but not the other. But my daughter is resistant to the clinical terms for her parts and my son has no issue with "penis" so that's where we are. I'm working on the "lady bits" --> correct terminology with my daughter

😂 yes, totally agree

Even adults don't use it in normal conversation FFS!

Skin flute and clopper

I can’t stand that little girls (3-6) are still routinely taught vagina when that is a deeply internal part of their body. They can’t see it, and shouldn’t, in any normal world, even be aware of it at that age. They will only know the external parts which are labia or vulva. Who gives a shit that people are stupidly squeamish about saying the words? Use it and get over it.

Do it properly or not at all.

Mine too! 🤣

No.

You are doing women a disservice by shaming and erasing language around female anatomy and genitalia. Get over your issues. It’s just a word!