To just call a fanny a fanny?

[teafortoads]

Apologies if this has been done before/to death but i am new to this Mumsnet Lark (posting not lurking, I have happily lurked for years). What on earth word do you give to your toddler to describe their girl parts? I have and always will, have a fanny, where as I am aware of friends who have foofs, fairies (could cause some confusion when you go to put the fairy on top of the Christmas tree) lady gardens vulvas and so on. I see no reason to pretty things up, and always arrive back at good old trusty fanny in the end having massively overthunk things. When DD2 is a little bit older I will furnish her with all the proper words, but are fanny and willie (not that she will encounter any of THOSE until she is at least 40 given that I am a single Mum and our house is happily a man free zone nowadays, and boyfriends will not be permitted until she is at least 40) acceptable? Is fanny a bit coarse?

Apols if anyone else has said but in the US your fanny is your back bottom & not rude at all.

I have a DD with a name not a million miles from Fanny. She used to have a front bottom. I remember Vanessa Feltz in a magazine column years ago saying fanny was the best word, & I write in to ask her how she'd feel if saskia or allegra became the nickname of choice. She didn't reply

Another Scot: fanny is a swear word here and an adult word everywhere. My girl (2) calls it her vulva: that's what it is.

We say "bits", DD age3 asked why, and I told her it was made up of bits, vulva, vagina and clitoris, but we agreed this is a bit of a mouthful so settled on "bits", I also told her some people call "bits" other names like fanny. We had to have a serious talk after she kept referring to her clitoris as "my little penis", and I don't want her to feel inferior so I told her that no she doesn't have a penis and explained all this.

Up north Fanny appears to be a much ruder word than den south. Not a word I would use and have never heard it used for a child apart from friends from London.

Growing up I had a front bottom and DB a tail. My mum cringes when she hears DS refer to his penis as a penis. I have to laugh on the inside

I am very surprised people think "fanny" is coarse. My mum is as uptight and middle-class as they come and that's the word we always used in our house (and the word I use now even though I'm 34!).

It's a silly, infantile word to me, not a rude one.

Noonie here when they were younger.

It's "front bum" here which my daughter created but at 7 she knows the correct anatomical name
The boys are avid users of "testicles" and "penis"!

And of course strictly speaking you don't poo from your bottom, you poo from your anus (or poo hole ) which is merely housed in your bottom.

And you wee from your urethra (or wee hole) which is housed in your front bottom. I honestly don't see any contradiction or confusion if you explain carefully enough when they're old enough.

(Vagina/baby hole explanation comes later...)

'Front bottom' seems more vulgar to me than 'fanny'. You don't exactly shit out of your fanny.

We use Yoni in this house, it's not cutesy, has a nice meaning and isn't rude. Sorted.

Apparently when I was little I asked my my why my dad had a "tailor" because I didn't think it was a tail but was perplexed because it was between his legs, my mum set me straight that men have penises.

'Front bottom' is yuck, yuck, yuck.

Babies come out of the birth canal in our house, suitably vague in my opinion.

I understand why people tell their children euphemisms for private parts (in my house when we were kids, my brother had a "wee man" and I had a "front bottom", but from a child protection point of view my understanding is that it is much better to teach your children the anatomically correct name. Therefore babylamb will be told he has a penis

Most kids learn the anatomically correct word and a cutsie word don't they?

Heron- yes, exactly, it's a childish name and just what a small child or your granny would use. And as a PP mentioned earlier here people say 'Get a move on and stop fannying around!'

It's easier for a boy though: Penis and testicles.

Doesn't seem right to call it a Vagina for a girl, because there's quite a few parts, each with a different name.

Precious-gem for us

We had girly bits when DD was younger (she's now 11).

Currently it's Ashley (Ashley Banjo = Fanjo - can't remember how it came about but there was much hilarity and it stuck)!

Front bottom' is yuck, yuck, yuck.

Agree! Sounds so vulgar and ugly.

Precious-gem, really?

God, that's the worst one yet.

The anatomical word that encompasses all the individual parts is vulva.

'Privates' is pretty good as an informal word, I reckon.

Agree that "Fanny" to me (grew up north) seems like saying "dick" or "cock", not the equivilant of "willy". Guess that depends where you live/are from.

DD has a 'foofoo' - she sort of named it herself.

we use the word 'Minnie' in our house I don't like the other words you all have mentioned as not nice words to hear from children's mouths. Other than that we use 'our privates' just like the advert for children, 'Our privates stay private'