Is it wrong for my 8 year old to say she needs a pee instead of a wee?

[feellikeanalien]

AIBU. My 8 year old has had some issues about using the toilet at school and the teachers and teaching assistants have been helping her with this.

She a attends a small rural first school (69 pupils) and is in a composite Year 1/Year 2 class.

The other morning in the playground the headmistress called me aside and said that they were trying to get my DD to ask for a wee instead of a pee.

I was slightly surprised as I did not really see any problem with this and when I spoke to my DD about it she said that they had told her that it was a bit of a rude word.

Generally the school is fantastic and very supportive and I am wondering if I am being a little over sensitive about this.

Any ideas?

Oh I see. You're one of those. You don't want to argue but you do want the last word.

Tut tut.

It's a bit childish

Whereas calling someone 'thick' is such a mature thing to do?

Fart, however, is fun

'"go to shake the dew off a daffodil"'

I like that Polka. A pleasing mix of ladylike and vulgar.

Sorry but I think pee is crude also. Always wee. Though I expect a child to say they need to go to the toilet or similar in school.

When I was little my mother changed GPs because he asked if I peed regularly. She wasn't going to a GP who used that sort of language.

Honestly, the teacher is mental

I shudder at the thought of returning to village life. So goddamn WickerMan

Both sound vulgar to me. May I visit the restroom, or May I use the bathroom sound more discreet and dignified.

Wee is just a babyish twee version of pee. They're both awful.

Here you go.

Do people in the UK say 'may I visit the restroom?' That would feel like a really foreign phrase to me.

Both pee and wee are absolutely fine from an 8 year old!

And 'may I visit the bathroom' makes no sense if there's no bath!

Maybe it's because I don't have a stick up my arse about 'manners', I don't know, but I prefer to judge people by what they mean rather than particular words they use.

A word that just means to urinate - why should one euphemism be more vulgar than another? And pee vs wee for god's sake. Is one six year old really a worse person than another for saying pee instead of wee? Isn't the only really important concern that they are doing it in the correct place and not disturbing other people while they do it?

Pee is not more chavvy than wee. It's the other way round ime.

We always said 'diddle', (Jimmy Riddle is the rhyming slang for it). SE London. My mil's family, much higher up the social scale, always said pee. She thought wee was Non-U.

No mitzy they don't. Because we don't live in Catherine Cookson novels

But, its fine with me if others think my kids are rude for saying pee/wee. I presume others are equally unbothered. As long as those people with a liking for ridiculous turns of phase don't try and impose them on my kids, then all is well.

But I stop listening to anyone who uses the word 'chav'

My kids were taught 'going to the toilet' from the first.

Pee and wee are horrible. Pee is worse though.

YANBU. Seriously, does the head teacher think that this coy, pointless difference in terminology of worthy of comment? Bizarre.
Pee is what we say. Wee means small.

Thanks Tara, interesting. OED has to be the reference. And it is derived from "piss" as the other sources suggest.

I can see why pee is not considered as vulgar in Scotland or even in the US though.

Pee sounds horrible to me.
I probably wouldn't correct though, just cringe!

But yeah I would think that asking to go to the loo would be the thing to do.

Astonished! The HT seems to think she's running some kind of finishing school. When I think about the kinds of conversations my HT has to have with parents and carers on a daily basis (grim), this kind of nonsense makes me cringe.

Urgh, I can't bear people getting all prissy about this. Wee, pee, poo, fart. All nice simple words and everyone knows what they mean. Not swear words, just straightforward. I would be so eye rolly with a teacher who tried to adjust what my children say to make it more "polite". In my book manners are not making other people (including 6 year olds!) feel uncomfortable!

I guess pee is short for piss which is considered swear word (sort of??) but the child isn't saying piss!

Hester I think those predate Latin. Which is even more exciting, really.

Really?? That is exciting! Maybe it's an ancient Indo European thing? Or maybe a less ancient pan-European Celtic thing.

Any linguistics people out there?

Hi ho - I once heard a child at a petting farm say, 'Look - that goat is going to the toilet all over the ground.' Bizarre. You need something a little more precise than that.

The teacher sounds crazy, cant wait til my ds starts school and we encounter these crazies!

I love feck, I use it all the time, as far as I'm aware it was made up by the writers of father ted so isn't a swear word but has the same ring to it!

YANBU.

The best part of this thread is the bonkers argument running through it that's, by and large, being ignored by all the other posters. Britain at its best!

Avert your eyes/ears and carry determinedly on with the linguistics discussion. :o