Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Original poster

Is it ok to use 'fanny' to describe girls bits to my toddler?

269 replies

Vindaloo · 22/08/2006 21:11

My DD is 2 and a half months and I was chatting to a friend about what words to use to describe boys and girls bits??

A friend uses 'nunu' for girls. For some bizaare reason I have started to say 'bits and pieces'!! thats sooo wrong, any suggestions or do you just say fanny??

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
Scoobydooooo · 22/08/2006 21:12

No i will be using minnie...

motherinferior · 22/08/2006 21:12

We do in the Inferiority Complex, but this is a fairly heated MN issue and many people deplore my terminology.

Original poster
Vindaloo · 22/08/2006 21:14

motherinferior - not sure what you mean??

OP posts:
tortoise · 22/08/2006 21:14

Noooo scoobydooo,dd2's nick name is mini!

Scoobydooooo · 22/08/2006 21:15

Lol tortoise well ds already calls girls bits minnies soooooo it has to stay now

soapbox · 22/08/2006 21:15

My DF used to call us three girls, fanny 1, 2 and 3!

Much to the of my friends

They tend to gravitate to the acceptable school terms I find, which for ours are Minnie or Ninkie!

SleepyJess · 22/08/2006 21:15

The Inferiority complex is Mother Inferior's house presumably (lol!) Vindaloo..

We use tootie.. but she also knows it's a vagina

Original poster
Vindaloo · 22/08/2006 21:16

scoobydoooo, do you call boys bits minis too??

OP posts:
SenoraPostrophe · 22/08/2006 21:16

I fully support anyone who uses "fanny" with their kids, but i just can't bring myself to do it. it sounds wrong .

we use mini too: no decision was taken, it was just the word dh used. I hummed and hahed for too long. think I would have gone for "fadge" or "gash" or if I'd thought about it.

Scoobydooooo · 22/08/2006 21:16

No !

motherinferior · 22/08/2006 21:17

Sorry . Sorry, I should have just said We do...but [etc]

1Baby1Bump · 22/08/2006 21:17

i wouldnt use fanny personally.
have asked dn if her twink was better in the past. she got what i meant.
(she had chicken pox and she even had them there, bless her)

SenoraPostrophe · 22/08/2006 21:17

sj: i'd use vagina, but that isn't technically correct. the vagina is the bit you can't see - if you want to be anatomically correct then you should use vulva.

1Baby1Bump · 22/08/2006 21:18

when i was at infants we used to say mini or mary.
dont know where mary came from but i think its popular!

Original poster
Vindaloo · 22/08/2006 21:22

I dont know why but fanny sounds odd to me, sounds like mini is a very popular choice

OP posts:
Kidstrack · 22/08/2006 21:22

we use flower for dd and it used to be tinkle star for ds until he was 3 and he started calling himself stinky winky from the teletubbies

Scoobydooooo · 22/08/2006 21:22

Help if i spelt "mini" right

I think i am thinking of minnie mouse ! lol

Sorry i am tired & poorly please forgive me....

SleepyJess · 22/08/2006 21:23

Vulva is just gross though.. and sounds amusingly like a naff car that has its lights on in the mid day sun! And technically, the vulva is part of the vagina..

Do some people teach their children to refer to their anuses (ani?!) rather than their bottoms? Or is bottom deemed acceptable?

Original poster
Vindaloo · 22/08/2006 21:25

blimey! i hadnt even thought about the bottom, i suppose i just say bottom or bum to refer to the anus. Again - anus sounds so horrible.

OP posts:
SenoraPostrophe · 22/08/2006 21:26

no it isn't. and your bottom isn't the same thing as your anus anyway.

but anyway, I'm not saying anyone should use it, just that it's a bit pointless to use "vagina" if your reason for doing so is that it's the correct term.

Cailyn3 · 22/08/2006 21:30

My friend uses the word minnie with her dd - I remember my parents refering to that area as a tinkle (you know..cos you go tinkle tinkle?!) If I have a girl next god knows what we'll call it - I always thought boys were easier in that department, up until my eldest son held up his willy and pointed to his balls (for want of a better word!) and said "what are those mummy?" I had to leave the room for laughing so much and came up with the word marbles......

Kidstrack · 22/08/2006 21:40

last year when my ds was 6 he came running in saying he had a sore winky, when i looked he had a bite of some sort from a fly on his balls, he held up his winky and said look mum its on those sort of ball things i've got, what are they he said, me very embaressed said um yes they are balls

magnolia1 · 22/08/2006 21:47

We use fanny, no problems with it and I personally don't like other names but thats me. Dd4 hurt herself the other day and came over saying 'mum Ive hurt my fanny' Other people around us weren't shocked or embarrassed to hear it and it wasn't a big deal to her or me (she is 3)

Elibean · 22/08/2006 21:50

I wish I knew....dd is bilingual, and as I speak to her in French I haven't had to come up with any English terms yet, but someone's going to have to and I can't see it being dh
Mini is a car or a mouse to dd, and fanny....well, I used to live next door to a Fanny and I just can't. Vagina I can do, but vulva...oh lor, help. Inspiration welcome, will keep checking this thread.

Kidstrack · 22/08/2006 21:52

we couldn't use fanny where we live as its regarded as a swear word, if dd hurt herself there and at nursery she would be given into trouble for saying it