To ask...What do you mum's refer to your vaginas as to your little kids?!

[Zara87]

Not even sure this is allowed... but I have an almost 3yo who is now noticing and asking questions about how I wee without a willy!
He keeps saying stuff like "you do a wee out of your that bit" and pointing. I just want something to refer to it as, which doesn't sound ridiculous. I know it is called a vagina but i don't really want to call it that to him, I'm not sure why but it kind of sounds wrong at age 2. My mum used to call it 'a Mary' which i don't like!
Does anyone have any suggestions

What's wrong with teaching the correct words from early on?

Mine enunciated many long words clearly at two. I think we used "fanny", which isn't rude in the SE for a long time. I would rather that than teach a long word such as vagina from whence wee does not come rendering it an incorrect term.

You must at all times not use terms that annoy other people.

So here are ours... Bits. I refuse to use privates. I'm their mother! I made the bits!
When they get old enough to want privacy, it's theirs, no question. But I will still be the mum that says wash your bits.

But fanny means vagina, so it is also factually incorrect in terms of wee, roses?

Always been privates in my house although me and dd also use mary to refer to our own bits.

If you are really a mother of a boy do not discuss your genitals with him. Do not urinate in front of him.
Why?

Wee wee/willy and bottom here. She knows the proper names,about periods,babies and even contraception. She just doesn't use them. The mainstream term in schools around here seems to be "privates".

Ive never banished the boy or the child from the bathroom when I'm changing my tampon. I'm not explicit, but there's a normality I'm trying to instil.

I get the comment over time of night and what you're implying though I don't think there's a whole thread of hairies, that's slightly overestimating the social skills of the folks from bridges to think that they have a group who gather to be jolly on mumsnet at a set date and time

However, I don't understand why mothers shouldn't urinate in front of their small male children.... I don't let mine go in the gents yet alone or leave them outside the cubicle in busy toilets

And I don't get why mums shouldn't discuss genitals...surely if a child has a question you don't say "darling that's not an appropriate question for me to discuss with you"

@Charolais

It's not about being ashamed of female genitalia, it's about having an age-appropriate female equivalent of willy, isn't it. I suggest going Swedish and calling it a 'snippa' and this article gives a bit more information www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/01/sweden-girls-genitals-feminist-invention-snippa-vagina

Why are people so bothered about the vagina vs vulva thing? People are happy enough to use the shorthand "penis" without insisting that it be called "penis, scrotum and testicles."

But people don’t use penis to mean testicles! They use balls!

Haggisfish* true but if someone says “he showed her his penis” you don’t get a chorus of people saying “it wasn’t just his penis it was his scrotum and testicles as well. It’s just a shorthand for the whole thing

Girl willy, obviously.

What the heck is the correct name for the bit you wee out of? I'm thinking 'urethra' is just the tube so what's the actual opening called?

The eye?

Irrelevant. No kid needs that much detail.

I need to refer to the kids genitals (they're 8 and 5) purely in hygienic terms. They have to be taught how to wash. So for the boy it's bits, for the child it's 'dusty bits' because girls' vulvas go white if they don't wash well. That's a natural thing.

Lady's bits

Vagina and penis here.
I have also managed 3 children albeit young but my eldest has never seen me pee.

My mum called it a Hoohaa, Mut or Mutata.

I always used correct anatomical names with my kids. However when they became teens they pretty much refused to use them anymore so Hoohaa came back into our lives which covers vagina and vulva. Penis is Long John. Testicles are Balls.

Long John?

My DH would be delighted if I called it that

NoMudNoLotus When you say that do you mean you call it a Vulva?

But really... Vulva is such a yucky word. Vagina doesn't cover it, that's something a young girl has no concept of until she's of tampon age.

Why don't we have a nice name for our outside bits other than labia (ick) or vulva (car?) is it because men are afraid of the area?

haggisfish yes but Fanny is a made up name to refer generally to the whole and acknowledged as such. To use vagina for the urethra is just wrong because that is not where wee comes from. A penis has a urethra but I think the female composition is more complex and it isn't appropriate to use an anotomical term to cover it.

I know it is called a vagina

But is isn't called a vagina - that is where babies and periods come out . Wee comes out of your urethra - if you are going to tell your kids the correct words, it's pointless to tell them the wrong words. Check a picture of your anatomy so you know what you are talking about.

Laughing at goat! Sound of music will never be the same again... 'high on a hill was a lonely goatherd'...

I call all male and female parts "bits" - "wash your bits" for example. Don't know why just the only thing I'm comfortable saying. DP would tell his girl to wash her Minnie and I hate it.