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

[Vindaloo]

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??

I'm going to use imminy-pimminy-cutie-fluff-glitter-dust-sparkle-petal and cunt interchangeably, I think.

love this thread.

Think again Attila - my 3 year old ds is insistent that I tell him the name of the line going down the middle of his scrotum

I have no ruddy idea, and several risky google searches later am still none the wiser. I am going to have to wait until NQC gets back from hoiday and then ask her, I think.

has it got a name?

Tell him he can name it.

C#nt is a perfectly fine word. though, possibly, not for a toddler eh .
front bottom is such a potent euphemism isn't it? what message do we give when we say that:
it's a hole, like the one at the back so a bit dirty in fact so dirty we can't even call it by its real name.
by making it unmentionable we send a very powerful message indeed.

sorry franny I only do twinkle anatomy

No, he wants to know The Proper Name, with that insistence that only 3 year olds have.

Dp told me something interesting about it - apparently it is the line where the labia fuse together in the embryo. But even he didn't know what the bugger is called.

HC, my MIL actually calls female genitalia "The Unmentionables"

I do feel such deep love for her, today

Willy or Winky in our house - no DD's so not got a word for that, but this thread's got my brain ticking! Not sure i'd use fanny though, suppose I just don't like the word!

no real name to it

I just found out a name recently for that bit between the balls and bumhole, although I reckon it's not a common term (but maybe everyone says it...)

Barse. Easy to figure out how that one was made up.

Oh, mears, my eyes are watering.

It's foof and will be until my DD is old enough to name it herself
Feminism doesnt occur to her yet, thank God

I dont know how you can compare vulva to velvet, nor can I understand how anyone can let their little girl call it her "fanny"

Title of the thread made me shudder

All the thesis in the world wont make me change my mind

I'm with HC on front bottom: remember hearing that as a child and thinking 'yuk, and its NOT a bottom'. Think its my least favourite so far.

F&Z, thats fascinating, about that line...must tell dh...

I looked on there already Mears. There will be a name, I will bet my life on it. I just have to find the bugger.

Pointydog I think that is the perineum or "duck run", isn't it?

F&Z, what if there isn't? What if you were the first human being ever to want to name it? And what if the anatomical powers that be gave you free rein to name it?

I'm worried...... if the length of this thread is any indication, we are all going to flail wildly when it comes to explaining the birds and bees.
Hopefully that won't be for another while (my kids are 3 and 2).

Should we start the debates now???

Just out of interest, to what does foof/minnie/nunu/tuppence refer?

I rather favour my daughter knowing that there are distinct areas, with different functions, rather than just "down there". My son distinguishes between his penis and his scrotum.

Franny, I did think that was the same bit as the perineum. Do men officially have them too, then?

And where the heck does 'duck run' come from?!

Yeah right, like no other man on earth except my ds has thought "hey what is this amazing and fascinating part of my bollocks? What shall I call it?"

I will ask ds what he thinks it should be called. Personally I would call it Nigel.

My ds was 2 when he asked about the birds and bees.

Men do officially have perineums, yes (The European Perineum Board has decreed it)

and I am as mystified as you about duck run

What's wrong with fanny?

because vulva sounds like velvet, it's the same consonant sounds.
it's not about feminism so much, it's about body image and that starts really young, imho.

Depending on which part of the country you come from, sorrell, it can be quite rude. Comparative with "dick", for instance.