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?

We had an English teacher who was Canadian. She used to say "come on girls get off your Fannies and get some work done!" It got us every time. Lots of shoulder shaking in our English lessons! 😆

Jina in this house ... As in va(Gina)...

Yy MarthaCliff - those people who are so insistent we should all be using the anatomically correct words, I'm assuming you don't allow 'bum', 'tummy', 'belly' etc?

We just call it your 'bits' here, whether they are male or female. Not gender-divisive, not cutesy, not offensive, not inappropriate whatever your age. Works for us. Can't say I've given it a great deal of thought.

Muskey I might go for something like 'Baz'

As young girls we were always told to ' keep your hand on your ha'penny' , this sometimes was changed to ' tuppence' depending on who was giving the advice.

I'm from Scotland .. Mum brought us up calling it daisy . I don't know what word I'm gonna use if I have a dd. Not Fanny though ... That's what you call an idiot

This thread is killing me it's so insightful, how a word like 'fanny', which is seen as totally child-like, appropriate and even sweet where I live, can be seen as course, vulgar and rude elsewhere.
Thank god for regional differences eh.

Baz the fanny. Laughing so much dd wants to know what's so funny.

Marthacliff - unless I've missed something, nobody is really getting het up about it, it's just an interesting conversation about the lady garden!

However, I am one of those people who, while I wont insist that they always use it, I want my children to at least know the correct term for their bits, since an ex was arrested for possession of indecent images of children. I'd rather they know the real words for what they are, just in case. Then if they want to call it something silly, that's fine!

Fanny is very crude here in Scotland, as someone always mentioned it's a bit like saying cock. Used as a swear word mainly...it was be horrific to my ears to hear it come out a child's mouth! Just used bottom for whole area until kids old enough to not scream any other words out in public! Told DS at 4 his was called a penis when he asked and DD is still at preschool and says pee pee bottom. I will correct this to vulva before she starts school!

Fanny, willy and boobies in our house.

Fascinated how fanny is perceived as bad as cock or twat in some areas!

I live near London and have taught children from age 2 to 11, most used fanny or minnie, preschoolers sometimes used front bottom, older children sometimes used the correct words (which caused more sniggering than fanny/minnie/willy ever did).

Trying to teach my kids the proper worsd but they make me cringe even though I know they shouldn't.

That's what you call an idiot?

Which reminds me of the Scottish joke.

One woman asks the other : "Does your fanny quiver after sex?'

The other replies 'Nae doll, he just smokes a fag and then falls asleep'

I'm in Scotland and I never noticed 'fanny' being particularly crude. Calling someone a fanny is a bit like calling them an idiot. Maybe Glasgow has hardened me to the truly crude though!

Dylan

I'd put fanny up there with foof, twinkle, Minnie and noonie. They are slightly twee euphemisms for girls bits.

You seem to be suggesting that fanny is somehow more sensible and correct than the others though?!

I accidentally taught my ex bosses 4 year old to use punani. That went down well

Half pint pixie I'm intrigued by your point that an ex was arrested for indecent images so your children should know the anatomically correct terms. Where is the connection? The child protection angle has come up over and over on this thread but no one has explained what bearing they think CP has on what you call your genitals

Foof or fanjo for lady parts in our house. Misters or nuggets for testicles

kinddogs I'm from ne Scotland and its not thought of as that rude here, more a light insult - what you doin ye fanny. We don't class it as the same league as cock, cock is definitely worse.

Dylan.

How about:

A woman answers the phone to a heavy breather. "Do you have a tight, bald fanny?" He asks.
"Yes" she says. "He's right here on the couch. Will I put him on?"

Fanny isn't rude at all in Ireland.
It's used quite a lot. Cultural differences are interesting. In America fanny is the same as arse.

However with small kids, "my tenders" is the preferred name for all those, er, tender parts, a la Kung fu panda!

BuckinBronco - Well, my children are quite young, at the time my ds was only learning speech so was classed as especially vulnerable, and a social worker recommended teaching those terms. Basically it occurred to me during the whole ordeal that while I would know immediately what my children mean if they talk about their bits, professionals and other people involved would find it harder to be absolutely certain what has happened without them using universally understood terms.
I don't know if I've explained that well, and of course language will in no way protect them from predators, but should the very worst happen, I'd like to know that they would be able to articulate what happened and where.
For example, "he touched my vulva" is a lot clearer than "he played with my fairy"
Does that make sense?

don't have a girl, but what about calling it a 'wee hole'?! My boys just use the word penis. Call it what it is :-)

So glad I read this thread to the end - I like "Yoni" LittlePea. Never had to worry about this before - have one ds, but have girls on the way.

I quite liked Minnie, and then some friends named their daughter Minnie. And DS adopted woowoo from a friend of his, which ended up being the nickname which another friend ended up calling her daughter. All a bit of a minefield.