What do you call your children's genitalia?

Thank you, Sadie. I informed my sister of the truth of the word too late to save my niece from calling it a "gina". *sighs*

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I used to encourage my son to call his a ding-ding. I thought that was cute. The girls usually call it some derivation of vagina--bagina, or something like that.

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Ethel (and Sadie) You are correct, vagina, is not the exactly correct term for the outermost part of a female's reproductive organ. However, you can choose to be cutsie and have your child have no idea what anything is, or just confuse the hell out of them all together. It looks like most people choose to teach their children the correct terminology a little at a time. Just like with anything else, you teach them the truth, but in a manner that they can process. As they grow older and are able to digest more information, you give them more information.

My 3 year old doesn't need or want to know vulva, clitoris, and labia. It has one name: vagina. Same for penis.

My son knows he has a penis, he goes for it as soon as the diaper is off, but he doesn't really care if I have a name for each individual part at the moment. And my daughter hasn't really noticed there is more than one part. When she asks, I will divulge.

As my children mature, they are more readily able to process more information, I will give them that information. The same with where do babies come from: My daughter was only 15 mos old when I was pregnant with her baby brother, we discussed it the whole pregnancy, she took showers with me, she watched me grow, but she didn't understand all the ins and outs of the process. She is learning more and more as time goes by.

And, no kids should not be reproducing. And adults should be able to call a penis a penis and a clitoris a clitoris without collapsing into fits of giggles. That is what is supposed to seperate the mature from the immature.

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We just use vulva and penis. One day, though, dd was in the bathroom after going potty, and she was sitting on the floor inspecting her parts. And suddenly, finding her clitoris, I heard her exclaim, "Hey! I have a peanut!!"

So I think she's confused about penis, too.

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Hokay, I'm the only guy posting here, but hey... I've got questions and this is a funny line of thought.

When I was growing up, the penis was a "tinkie" (I've also heard and called it a "wee-wee," which is what we're calling my son's front bits) and you went "tinkle, potty or poo-poo" (he's learning that he's "poo-poo boy" when his diaper is full and it embarasses him, so we're working on new words for that so he doesn't fight when it's time to change him). The girl parts weren't named until I asked what they were (natural curiosity when I discovered everyone doesn't have a tinkie). At that point, to be honest, I can't remember what I was told! *LOL*

In the long run, I learned what it was really called and I'm sure my son will too. It's rather funny to think of a child less than 3 years of age calling the private parts a "penis" and a "vagina" since I almost never refer to them by name anyway (my wife and I have goofball names for them thanks to the good ole American tendency not to like to refer to them directly anyway). Heck, I got "wanker" from England and it's just goofy enough that such became my preferred word!

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This is something I have been thinking about. I have read that it is important to use technical terms, but I dont know. Growing up my mom had me call mine my pocketbook! Is that not crazy! But the best name I've heard is the Grey's Anatomy (now Oprah) coined Va Jay Jay!

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We don't use "vagina" since a vagina is inside the body. When my daughter first gave a name to the area, she called it "my kitty." I have no idea why. So we called it "kitty" until a friend used the Russian term "piska" (pees-kah), which she said is an all-inclusive term for labia, vagina, etc. So we've used "piska," which is more technically correct than "vagina" and much more fun to say.

We also sometimes still say "cooter." ;)

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With my one-year-old son, we were calling it "penis" from the get-go, but his limited vocabulary changed it to "pee pee" and he seems pretty *attached* to that for now. Based on the good tips here, I guess we'll go back toward anatomically correct.

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My daughter is 2 1/2 years old. We have always used vulva and penis. I don't have the slightest desire to use a nickname for her or anyone else's genitals. I don't use nicknames for any other body parts (although I do occasionally say teethies or toesies), so I don't know why I would use them for genitals. Many people use the word vagina, but being a stickler for language, I can't. It just isn't correct. People may think I'm too serious, and I probably am, but I think that using nicknames for genitals contributes to the idea that those are places that you can't directly talk about.

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Well, gee. . .it seems I've been doing my 3 yr old daughter a disservice this whole time allowing her to say she has a vagina (which, indeed, she does, even if she cannot see it). I should just tell her to call it by some silly nonsensical name that has nothing whatsoever to do with her anatomy. What could be better to call your private parts than after a feline or a greasy redneck in a trailor?

Thank you Eden and Punky and others for saving me years and countless dollars in therapy. I'll just tell her it was better than giving her a *technically* wrong term.

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Well all I can say is that most little ones have nicknames for their private parts. My grandson calls his a pee pee. I really don't think it matters at his age. He will learn all he needs to know when the time is right. The nicknames usually happen because they usuallt can't pronounce the correct terminology in the first place. Let kids be kids!

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Michelle, I'm sorry if what I said was offensive to you. I do tend to take things much too seriously, and I had hoped to convey that. I didn't mean to imply that people were doing the wrong thing by using the word vagina or by using nicknames. It's something I can't bring myself to do, but that doesn't mean that other people can't or shouldn't. Everyone has to do what's right for them. I do tell my daughter that she has a vagina, but again, being the tight-ass that I am, I prefer the term vulva for the parts she is actually pointing to and asking about. I can see how the way I said things didn't come out the way I had hoped, and I'm sorry.

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