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?

Fanny is extremely vulgar. Foof, twinkle, fairy, flower, etc are nauseating. Bits and proves seems a bit too imprecise. Vulva is the only option I feel comfortable with.

Bits and privates*

Fanny is used around here by teenagers and lads in their twenties when they want to be crude because it's funny. A drunk girl saying 'Ooo I nearly flashed mi fanny', or something. Or a lad shouting 'Get ya fanny art!'. Any 20 year old guy talking about a girl's bits would say fanny, whether bragging about sex or insulting her. I've heard 'flappy fanny', 'fishy fanny' in lad's conversations. Not used nicely and wouldn't like to hear a child saying it.

As a kid I said 'bits' or 'tuppence'

Fanny art?

Tuppence!

And yes in the North East at least Fanny coming from a toddler would be shocking!

We have a winnie and a winkle in our house.

I use fanny to mean a person who is a ditherer - he's a right fucking fanny. Also talk about fannying about with something.

We use willy and the general bollock area is the 'peanuts' - they picked that up at school, so will say 'right in the peanuts', for example, if something hits someone there. Although since we discovered the Narwhal song on YouTube we are also fond of balls.

I used to teach a lad called Willy. Poor sod.

Muskey so does DS!

NRTFT but dd1 is 3 and we have stuck with 'bum/bottom' for now. Fanny seems way to abrasive for a child.

Noooo... the silly fluffy names have been invented for a reason! There will be occassions where she will want to inform all and sundry that she has something going on downthere... do you really want her saying 'My fanny itches' at school or in Tesco's?
Fanny is a hideous word. Ew. So is vagina! Why??? So ugly.
I quite like 'nunni' and 'foof', wish we had those terms when I was a little girl... we had to call them 'downstairs', 'my privates' or 'front bottom'.

Fanny is rude?? Since when?

BlueUggs

I'm in Scotland (from Edinburgh, now in Glasgow) and it has always been rude. As posted above, it's the equivalent of saying 'cock' instead of 'willy'.

Calling someone a fanny is a bit like calling them an idiot.

I agree that calling someone is a fanny isn't that rude but referring to your bits as your fanny is pretty coarse.

I love fanny.

Fanny and willy were standard when I was a kid in the westcountry,. I guess we're all coarse.

DD started using 'bot bot' aged 2. We went with it!

Anything - ANYTHING - but 'front bottom'. Sorry to be coarse, but unless you're shitting out of it, it's not a bottom. Also, as someone else pointed out, it's confusing. Not everyone knows the term, I only learnt it last year (MN continues to educate me) and when I was a TA if a girl told me her front bottom hurt, I'd have assumed she meant the top of her bum!

hi everyone
PLEASE consider that this is a serious matter- without going into details, this week I spoke to a mother whose daughters were abused by their father (digitally penetrated, anally and vaginally) but because the girls description of what happened to the police was anatomically vague, they were unable to prosecute.

Hmm that word doesn't sound good, especially coming from a child.
My kids use penis, vagina/vulva.

We use willy for the boys and tankles because DS1 said that when trying to pronounce testicles and it stuck. We came up with Fandango for DD which she can't pronounce either and says Dango. It makes us all laugh but we know what she's talking about. I know they should learn the correct terminology but when they're tiny and never out of your sight I think there's plenty of time for them to learn the correct terms.

I have a boy so it's a winky but when I was little I used to call it my Mary!

crying at Barry!

Don't remember ever consciously having a conversation with DCs about names for their genitals. DD talks about her bits, DS talks constantly about his widgey - he picked that up at school, I'd never heard it before! Think it might be a Yorkshire term...?

When I was growing up, boys had a 'wiffle' and girls had a 'tinklebox' 😂

As long as they know the correct terms, then silly names are fine. EXCEPT FANNY. Personally I don't say willy either, DS knows it's a penis but he calls it his wee bot. DD used to call her's Mimi, for reasons unknown but she's grown out of it.

I spoke to a mother whose daughters were abused by their father (digitally penetrated, anally and vaginally) but because the girls description of what happened to the police was anatomically vague, they were unable to prosecute.

I'm sorry but I really cannot believe that. It may take longer to get a fully clear picture but there are trained professionals who work with children in these circumstances. They will, as part of their job, have to contend with vague or strange names for those parts from children all the time.