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?

Actually, we use lots of words that aren't anatomically correct - tummy, kneecap, collar bone, shoulder blade, bottom/bum. I've never told any of my DCs to make sure they wipe their anus.
And yes, fanny in America is the equivalent to 'bum' here.

BartholinsSister

Fanny is an awful word! It's the equivalent to the word dick. Inappropriate for a child to say or adult

Considering the amount of baggage that comes with most words for vulva and vagina, and the use of twat, cunt, twunt, fanny, pussy and the like to refer to people who are acting like twats, cunts, twunts, fannies or pussies, I've been very happy to stick with sensible ol' anatomically correct terminology. My DD has been talking about her vulva since she was 1, and it doesn't sound any stranger coming out of her mouth than when she says 'eyebrow' or 'forehead'. It's a word that means a thing, and I'm especially happy that so far at least 'vulva' doesn't mean anything other than vulva.

Waiting now for the explosion of posts in AIBU about DHs and MILs and car drivers who are being complete vulvas...

we call it "twinkle"

although my girls (7 and 2) know the correct word too

I used to work with a Fanny. She was very posh and lovely. HTH
My DM didn't use any word at all

Vulva means wrapper.

I have a funny fanny story.

An American girl I once knew did work experience on a farm as part of her vet science degree. As you may know, the American definition of the word fancy is a bit different. The exact opposite in fact.

One evening, after a particularly tiring day on the farm, she sat down to dinner with her host family and announced "I've been hard at work all day, and boy does my fanny ache!"

I think the host family took a little time to recover from that...

I think when I was little it was commonly called your front bum.

I associate 'fanny' with American tourists with fanny packs, so I can't grasp the ire about rudeness. I had a US Colour Me Beautiful book years ago that used fanny perfectly matter of factly in terms of advising clothes eg 'if you are curvy, check that your top is long enough to cover your fanny'.

I have a 4 year old son who uses penis and vagina (well, sometimes 'pagino', but he's getting there ). Also, he knows that the vagina is the inside bit and that female wee doesn't come out of it, so I reckon he's already grasped more about the female urinary and reproductive anatomy than a significant minority of adults...

Joking aside, I agree with a previous poster about it being important for young children to be familiar with anatomically accurate terms.

I call it a fanny. All the other words sound too twee, and i cant be doing with anatomical words, as I cant be bothered to say please wash your labia, clitoris, vaginal area, and vulva to my 8 year old, when "dont forget to wash your fanny" will suffice

It was always gina to rhyme with miner in our house but I like the mumsnet fanjo now

Fanny is vile. I'd hate to hear a child call it that.

We say front bottom or bits.

I hate the word fanny, it's grim and common

People who say they want to use proper words never use proper words. The say vagina for to refer to vulva and so on. And do you really think it appropriate for a little girl to shout in the super market mummy I hit myself in the clitoris with the trolley?

mummy I hit myself in the clitoris with the trolley?

One way to spot the child of a Mumsnetter, I guess...

My friend's sister is so uptight she can't even name it. She calls them "Your area" AND she cant' say poo. She says "Dirt"

"Did you dirt?"

"Do you need to dirt?"

Very odd.

Fanny here tho it was fangita till girls were about 5

I'd put it on the same level as willy. Bit ruder. Not much though. I think it's cute

Horrible, crass word and it's banned in my house. Bits is what they are - age appropriate imo

All the people who think Fanny is "vile" and disgusting....think about this for a moment.

Fanny is a female name...as Willy is a male one.

Why do you think that Willy has managed to stick around as an acceptable word but Fanny has not?

I would suggest it's because it was always considered the HEIGHT of naughty, wrong, rude and shocking to even MENTION female parts.

So we all associate Fanny with something rude, dirty and taboo. JUST as we've been brought up to think of our vaginas in general.

Something smelly, SOmething rude. Something dirty.

So Fanny conjures ALL that up.

FANNY FANNY FANNY>

Whatever. Willy...they're all just silly names.

Calling it 'vulva' strikes me as po-faced. Surely when discussing the thing, we're referring to the entire entity, not just the lips.

Fanny always sounds a bit "Carry On films" to me - YKWIM, that character called Fanny that's used in various innuendos "Have you seen my Fanny?" fnar fnar.

On facebook there's a friend of a Dutch relative of mine whose name keeps popping up when she comments on Dutch relative's posts - her first name is Fanny and surname is something ending in "itis" . It sounds like a nasty dose of an STD

But, back to the original question, I wouldn't use fanny. Too crude.

I say front bottom like my mum used to, and also bits. I don't like the thought of my 3yo DD saying fanny, tbh.

We go with vagina for 3yo DD although she does alternate it with 'tinkle' which she heard at the childminder's and misunderstood to mean vagina/vulva.

I think fanny is ok, not particularly rude here in the SE

I never realised fanny was offensive either, growing up fanny was the word of choice used by my mum and the equivalent of willy for boys.

My dd tends to say 'bits' I would cringe if I heard a little girl say 'vulva' or 'vagina' it does sound strange imo for a young child to use those words.

This does seem to vary from region to region. A friend's little girl calls it this but it sounds so coarse to my ears - like a little boy calling his willie a "cock" or "dick". We've gone with front bottom though slightly tongue in cheek as it's kind of silly.

Yep what matt Dillon says

My d briefly took to using vagina at the age of about 3/4

cue lots of shouting in the park etc 'I BANGED MY FUDGINA ON THE SWING'

I was a bit sad when she stopped tbh