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?

Just go with biological facts. Vagina, vulva, penis. No need to be embarrassed then.

Shallishanti, that sounds more like a failure of the prosecution rather than an issue with terminology. With younger children that sort of language is to be expected and more often children are given dolls etc to point to where they are talking about.

I've never heard it being used as a rude or course word so I'm really surprised to hear that it's considered as such in some places.

(I once mentioned, at a meeting in Peterborough, that I was nipping off for a pee. The woman closest to me went purple and spluttered 'we do not use language like that here'. I was utterly mystified and still am)

I would use a word that is absolutely not going to be confused with anything else (unlike fairy, flower, bud, etc). We'll be using the Sanskrit yoni for tact and clarity.

Can courts really not work out what a little girl means when she says someone put a finger in her foof and bum bum or whatever? What happens if the child is too young to speak? I thought that they demonstrated on dolls etc.

Many adult women wouldn't know the word vulva (unless they are mumsnetters)

Another person here who grew up in Scotland. Where I grew up it was considered a very course and vulgar word.(Possibly even on par with cunt?) It was generally only used by really rough men and boys to insult and hassle girls and so had really bad connotations. I really cringe inside when I hear the word now which is pretty rarely funnily enough. This was during the 80s and 90s so not sure if things have changed at all?
The phrase "fannying around" was mentioned earlier. I've heard that used plenty and it doesn't seem to have the same kind of harsh reaction at all amongst anyone. I don't think it's even thought of in the same context really.

I said Widgy as a kid and my kids say it now for boys and girls parts.

Slightly off topic but did you know berk is rhyming slang for cunt

I thought that was a mild word you could use in polite company.

*Today 19:35 Shallishanti

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.*

If this happened, that is not why they didn't prosecute. If it were the case, no child sex offenders would be prosecuted.
Please can no one worry about sexual abuse when they name their children's genitals. In the very unlikely event you ever have to worry about it the name the children use to describe their genitals hasn't bearing on the strength of the case or the ability to prosecute. Officers who deal with this are highly trained and will encourage the children to use whatever word they feel comfortable with. They don't even need to say a word. Pointing is just as effective. How do you think they prosecute people who rape tiny babies?

I mean Ffs, stop and think for a second before encouraging this dangerous groupthink.

Dillydotty I did not know that! I have learnt something important today.
Reminds me of how my mum used to call people twats cause she thought it was the same as twit.

Berk isn't rhyming slang for cunt.

ShalliShanti what a load of bollocks

Edit
The usage is dated to the 1930s. A shortened version of Berkeley Hunt, the hunt based at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. In Cockney rhyming slang, hunt is used as a rhyme for cunt, giving the word its original slang meaning.

Wiktionary

Berkeley Hunt - cunt.

It is you know.

It's not it's a sort of urban legend that's gained legs. I actually studied it LOL

My mother called it a 'widdler' which I've never heard anywhere else and think is a bit strange.

Fanny has always seemed a really mild term to me. Vulva is better because it's the proper term, and that's what I'd use.

I don't mind other silly-sounding words, but 'front bottom' just sounds awful and makes me cringe, because I visualise a person with a second bum on the front of their body.

this is probably the time to tell you that my mum was called Frances and she was fanny for years but then that went to Franny.

Reminds me of how my mum used to call people twats cause she thought it was the same as twit.
My mum used to say that too (she thinks the word bum is rude) - she was mortified when I told her!

Eveninties lol I was mortified having to explain it to her - she's a special needs classroom assistant and had been saying it at school!

We say 'lady' and 'todge' . But to be fair people use cunt Twat cock and dick as insults so it's fairly even in my book...

The problem is that there isn't a female equivalent of 'willy' which isn't anatomically correct but isn't ridiculously euphemistic either

There is -Fanny

I'm surprised at some many people saying fanny is rude and even ruder in Scotland. I'm archetypal Edinburgh middle class lady and I don't think it's rude.

I wonder how dickhead came about? We don't say cunt face.

Front bottom and privates are just awful.

I don't think it's a regional thing or a class thing, it's just a SOME PEOPLE thing

Broom cupboard