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?

I like belly because it's such a big, flubbery word.

An adult referring to their 'tummy' is a bit icky.

An adult referring to their 'tummy' is a bit icky.

Also, it's short for stomach, which is one of the organs in the abdomen. Or belly.

I think the queen 'goes to the loo'

How about micturate, is means urinate but is more mysterious..

Kiswahili is Bantu in origin but has evolved over the years and has a lot of Arabic and European words/influences...so , who knows??

Dada, is sister. Which can cause momentary confusion (totally irrelevant)

I need to empty my bladder?

I think the queen 'goes to the loo'

I thought royals were above those things.

pee is indeed a 'politer' form of piss.Piss is an onomatopoeia surely?

for those saying stomach-ache isn't precise enough, and 'tummy' describes it better - surely tummy is just the diminutive of stomach? So not really any more precise. Any in areas where 'stomach ache' is the norm (like in N America, the bit I grew up in anyway), it has the same general sense as 'tummy' does - not that you are specifically saying it's definitely your stomach, only that that's the general location of the pain (and most often it is digestive system troubles). If you had other pain, like kidney pain or gynae pain or whatever, you probably would say abdominal pain etc. I too dislike the word 'belly', but it at least sounded like an adult word, whereas 'tummy' was very infantilised. I'd have said 'stomach ache'.

And going back to wee/pee - surely even if 'pee' is originally from 'piss', then 'wee' is the rhyming slang version of it. So one is an abbreviation, one is a rhyming slang - but both are just euphemisms for the same word (if that derivation is correct, which I suspect is arguable), and thus are equally coarse/vulgar - it just becomes a regional thing about which is perceived as more rude/coarse in your particular area. Nothing more absolute about it.

We would have said to children "do you have to go pee?" or "do you have to pee before we leave?" etc. For older ones "do you need to go to the bathroom" would be fine, but if you did need to use a specific word, much more likely to be 'pee'. "wee" might be used for very young children, more like 'wee wee', in the same as any other diminutive (like they couldn't pronounce the proper word).

Mine have always just said they need the loo. Does she need to specify whether she needs to wee or poo for them to be able to help her?

'Cagare' means 'defecate' (but much cruder) in Italian. 'Caca' is Italian for 'poo'. That's my contribution to this most excellent scatalogical thread!

Pee is only considered vulgar in England though (if at all)
Scottish and Irish children say pee or pee pee rather than wee and it's simply considered what young children, of all demographics, say. Italian and American children also say pee or pee pee. So the HT is being ridiculous. As are some people on this thread.

Marniesmum

My DD has learning difficulties as a result of being born with hydrocephalus at 28 weeks.

She is "accessing the curriculum " from Year 1 which is allowing her to make fantastic progress.

If she was in Year 3 (which, going on age, she should be) she would be well behind her peers both educationally and emotionally.

In Portuguese it's very similar.

Cagar is rude. (or very low class)

Cocó is acceptable, mostly for children, meaning a poo.

For urinating, it's chichi and for all. There's no verb.

(we don't have pissoirs, which means it's not "all over Continental Europe" that it's used. We call it "urinois", as in urinals)

French kids also say "caca".

Marniasmum

Sorry for spelling error! The sun is making it difficult to see my computer screen!

The word for poo in kiswahili is mavi or choo (choo is also the word that means toilet)

Feminist take on this, which I stole from somewhere:

I think "Pee" and "piss" come from "penis", and "Wee" comes from "willie". Why don't we start saying "Vee" (for "Vagina" or "Vulva").

"Please excuse me while I vee." "I'm just going for a viss."

Wherever somewhere is, it's wrong.

Pee comes from piss which according to the etymology dictionary is "late 13c., from Old French pissier "urinate" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *pissiare, of imitative origin." Nothing to do with penises.

Wee is attested from 1937 as a euphemistic variant.

Don't get me started on herstory for history. Pseudo-feminist back-formations cooked up from a total misunderstanding of etymology really boil my viss.

Piss is an onomatopoeia surely?

I'm pretty sure it is Marniasmum.

Better than he saying she needs a piss. Or a slash

We have used all those words in our family, though my default is 'wee'. I think 'pee' is a bit twee!

I think wee is confusing, wee is what you say on the swing and also it means small....

I am sure that wee and pee are interchangeable in terms of rudeness!

Well if she taught round here she would probably get "here miss canna gan for a piss"

Pee is much more acceptable IMO

I'm a teacher in lreland and have to admit l hate when kids say pee. Find it very crude. But l wouldn't say it to the parents of a child who was struggling in areas. I just flinch inside a bit. Maybe teacher was trying to protect your dd from saying it in other places such as friends houses where it might be out of place. But parents please don't teach your children to say pee. It's awful!!!

'But parents please don't teach your children to say pee. It's awful!!!'

No it's not. It's absolutely fine and definitely doesn't warrant three exclamation marks.