Or is my mother weird for calling female genitalia a "willy"?

[CoalCraft]

(light-hearted)

My parents came round yesterday to see baby DD for the first time, and mum offered to do a nappy change. I went with her to show her where everything was. Mum starts opening DD up and exclaims "oh dear, it (the poo)'s gotten all up in her willy!"

Her. Willy.

At this I suddenly remembered that she'd called it that when I was small too, and not knowing any better, so had I. But it's weird right? A willy is specifically a penis, and the female version is fanny? Anyone else use willy as a slang for vulva? For the record both DD and I are anatomically normal females - we don't have penises!

In case anyone's wondering, yes mum does also use willy for penis, she just makes no distinction - it's so odd!

(Also in before the "use anatomical terms" brigade comes in, DD is far too small to use any words right now, but yes, when she's learning I'll make sure she's aware of the correct words.)

Is it equally weird that I have never heard my parents refer to genitalia at all, ever? I have no idea what terms they would use and can't imagine a conversation in which this was discussed

Nor me. Never considered that till now. My mum never discussed periods with me either.

OP, do you have an older brother? Is it possible your Mum just got into the habit of Willy=genitals and decided to stick with what she was used to?!

Hahahaha omg that ‘turnout’ story is hilarious 😂 my parents used ‘pinky’ which is unnervingly descriptive and I do not like it. I only have boys so have managed to avoid that for now but would probably go with vulva I guess. Does sound very grown up though.

The worst is probably ‘minky’, just makes me think of those velour blankets. Or rather, the blankets make me think of vulvas. One of our cloth nappies was a ‘minky’

It was willy for boys and whatsit for girls in our house growing up. My husband called his “his wiggly” which cracks me up (obviously he doesn’t call it this anymore just for clarity )

I call it a foo-foo or foofy tbh, I hate the thought of my DD shouting about her ‘fanny’, its a bad word to me. She’s just learning to talk so foofy is easy for her to say. When I was little though I remember boy was willy and girl was widgey 😂

This has cheered me up no end :D

I remember someone I know who is a nanny said the family they were working for called it a “froo froo”. DH and I found this so hilarious it became a joke and now somehow it has slipped into what we actually call it a lot of the time. It’s awful. Must make sure we find a better term before baby arrives.

Lol weird 😶 my parents called both girls and boys parts "private parts" I myself call girls parts fanny or noonie & boys willy. My sis inlaw taught her boy to call it a pencil 🤭

'Mum, do you mind if I ask what brand of bra you're wearing? Whatever it is gives your testicles a fantastic shape, looks super comfy and supportive! Wouldn't mind getting one!

😂😂😂

I also like the Willy and Wally suggestion 😄

This is one of the weirdest things I have heard in at least a week.

YANBU at all. Insist that your mother explains herself.

Fanny is vulgar though and a horrible word.

Think we used tut or tuppence growing up.

Willy and Fanny here.

I’ve never heard of fanny being considered a swear word. After all, it’s a perfectly normal (albeit old fashioned) girl’s name.

Whereabouts do you live where Fanny is considered rude?

I know Americans use the word ‘Fanny’ for bum and that always sounds strange to me.

Calling it a willy is very odd.

I don't know what I'd call it informally, my DM would probably say "downstairs" in a meaningful voice. On here years ago somebody used "bits and pieces" for boys and "bits and creases" for girls which I thought was very equal.

My DGM had been in hospital and had to be bathed in bed for a bit, and said all the HCAs used different names. We thought "Auntie Mary" could be confusing if you happened to have one in your family.

Yeah that’s weird

We call it a minnie

In a sort of similar way my mum calls all underwear 'knickers' and my toddler gets very cross with her (she reports) when she takes him to the potty (they look after him once a week) - 'do you need help pulling up your knickers?', 'they NOT knickers, they my pants!'

My mum always insisted on penis and Vagina - 80s feminist, I actually got teased by friends for using them 🤣

@immortalstone

Is it equally weird that I have never heard my parents refer to genitalia at all, ever? I have no idea what terms they would use and can't imagine a conversation in which this was discussed

Nor me. Never considered that till now. My mum never discussed periods with me either.

Same here. I was handed a book and that was it.

It's frankly a miracle that I'm as normal as I am.

@Popskipiekin

Er yes this is odd haha. But people have such strange terms for genitalia. And my parents actually never said the word “poo” when I was growing up. They referred to a “turnout”, so much so that I recall struggling when someone would refer to there being “such a great turnout at that event”.

Maybe you can encourage your DM to at least refer to Willy for boys and Willa for girls?

I know people often say "I laughed out loud at that" on here, but I really never have laughed out loud at anything on here, apart from you struggling with "such a great turnout" for some inexplicable reason. I'm still chuckling now, and I have no idea why but it really tickled me!

‘Fanny and Willy’ when I was growing up, although the word ‘fanny’ used to make me cringe 😬

@BuggerationFlavouredCrisps

Willy and Fanny here.

I’ve never heard of fanny being considered a swear word. After all, it’s a perfectly normal (albeit old fashioned) girl’s name.

Whereabouts do you live where Fanny is considered rude?

I know Americans use the word ‘Fanny’ for bum and that always sounds strange to me.

I’m in the midlands but grew up in North Wales, and fanny is considered a bit of a swear in both places. I wouldn’t say it in front of my parents for example!

Fanny is considered relatively rude in our household as well.

My mum always used penis and vagina at home. We use bits - or less now the kids are older but there seems to be less discussion about them I guess.

Dm used to refer to a front bottom (never bum...bum is rude )

we use willy for ds' er willy. ds calls it a willy. dd isn't old enough to talk yet, but i'll probably go for fanny.

dsis is a teacher and aside from a trying to teach her students the proper names, she's encouraged us to use willy and fanny as she said in some cases it can be confusing. one of her girl students (year 1 or 2) said she had hurt her pinky. dsis had no idea what she was on about.

Under carriage when we were growing up.

You know I just can't help but smile inwardly when they hoike cars up on that lifty thing in a garage.

Ooh they're having a look at the under carriage.

Sorry. Childish.

Mum also called it a wee wee.

Heard female genitals called some funny things but never willy!

She will be confused late on.

My late mum called poo numbers as in number one for wee and number two for poo.

I grew up thinking the word numbers was rude 😆

My parents are medics and used the correct anatomical terms, penis and vulva. They didn't come up in conversation that often but what caused the most confusion was that we called our belly buttons our "umbilicus" other kids never knew what we were talking about!