Comments on: Yes, you do need to talk about “the parts”

By: Jessica - This is Worthwhile

Jessica - This is Worthwhile — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:35:17 +0000

Everyone but me is still nervous about saying “penis” to my almost 2 year old, and I really can’t wrap my head around it. At bath time I say, “Now we’re getting your arms bubbly, your elbows, your hands, your bottom, your penis, your testicles, your strong baby legs, your knees…” and so on. I can hear everyone else sort of hold their breath when I say “penis and testicles,” but they’re just body parts. Seriously. I don’t want my kids whispering the words for their genitals as they grow up because of embarrassment. It’s pointless.

As a side note, my mother tried to calling his penis a “peepee” and I stomped that one out immediately. “Peepee” creeps me out to no end.

By: Jake Aryeh Marcus

Jake Aryeh Marcus — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:03:23 +0000

I think if you use the real/scientific/medical names for biological parts, it is actually quite boring for kids. It isn’t scandalous or sexual. “Penis” becomes like “chair” and “table.” Big deal. It is the name for the thing. I always treated it that way with my kids and names for parts have never gotten any giggles. It just is. They are mystified that friends make a fuss about it.

I so wish I had been taught the difference between vulva and vagina growing up. I am ashamed to say that the difference was explained to me by a little girl, the daughter of a friend, when I was in my mid-thirties and already a mother (of boys). No idea how that went right by me – even owning “Our Bodies, Ourselves” from the age of twelve.

As for that public service announcement, I found it truly shocking. My jaw dropped with the sheer stupidity of it.

By: geekymummy

geekymummy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:08:05 +0000

We use “Vulva” here (I think actually a lot of people use the word vagina because they actually think that is the correct term). However we have had confusion with a certain Swedish car brand that could prove embarrassing. And also with the word “valve” as in those rubber things that stop sippy cups from leaking. Just the other day I heard “Mummy, the vulva in my sippy cup is broken”!

I got into trouble here in the US not realizing that ‘fanny’ is used differently (it means bum/bottom in the US, and vulva in the UK). A co worker told me she had a “sore fanny” after going horseriding and I was quite taken aback by her confiding such intimate information!

I’ve nothing against the euphemisms though, as long as kids know the real terms too.

By: Leanna

Leanna — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:04:48 +0000

I have a friend whose mom called her vulva a “peach” when she was growing up. To this day, she has never eaten a peach. And parents think that using the real words is detrimental to a child…

By: Trish

Trish — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:27:36 +0000

NS – I always kind of hoped she’d go and name one of her dolls Vagina. When I tell that story to anyone, I usually round it off with just that prediction, complete with a pretend baby cradled in my arms, “… and she’d say ‘here, look at my beautiful baby, Vagina.’”