Identifying Body Parts

I realize that the following admission will probably mean that the National Organization for Women might come knocking on my door and demand that I turn over my membership card, or at least give back my "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" poster.

But, I'm feeling the need for honesty today, so here it is:

Before we had our boys we did not teach Annabella the proper name for her vagina.

That's right, we called it a "wee wee" or a "woo hoo" and even when for some reason she started calling it a "bottom," we didn't correct her right away. But when it became clear to her that both of her brothers came with different equipment than she did, she didn't buy it when we called what they had a "wee wee" too.

Without a proper name the penis, Annabella often came up with her own. "Package" was popular for a while and then for some reason she started calling it a "gun." I was somewhat alarmed by this and I told Marco that I didn't want her to associate the male sexual organ with violence.

I don't remember his exact response, but it was somewhere along the lines of, "What's wrong with her being scared of penises? I'd be more than happy if she were scared of them for ever."

But soon enough we both have come around to the logic of simply naming the penis and the vagina. And I know that I'm supposed to find both of those words equally easy to say and to hear her talk about, but at first I didn't. Now I'm fine with it and find a lot of humor in the various discussions surrounding body parts. Such as the night a few weeks ago when my mom was giving all the kids a bath. I was in the other room folding laundry when I heard my mom say, "Don't touch your penis, Milo."

To this Annabella corrected, "Actually, everyone is allowed to touch his own penis or his own vagina."

Comments

[cactusnic]

That is hilarious! My young 'uns are too young to start asking such awkward questions yet but I now know honesty is the least complicated option!

[suzanne]

This is equally as funny as my sister at 5 years old. As there were far more females in our house, she didn't get the anatomy lesson that Annabella has. We were in the back seat of a VW Beetle that had no heat in the middle of a very cold, NY winter. Complaining about the cold, she asked my sister to turn on the heat "because I'm freezing my balls off here".

Good for Bella-we had to qualify the touching part, that sometimes it's not appropriate to do that in the company of others. :)

[Ruth H]

We stew and worry over these things and the kids work it out okay. Whatever it's called, either sex, if the kids are comfortable its okay.
I have a grand niece Annabell's age, her first four years were in Scotland and somehow it came to be called her "rose". We don't know if that is a Scottish term, or just an Emily term.

[Brett]

Congradulations for choosing to be honest early on with your kids. Your post reminded me of this story
http://www.news4jax.com/entertainment/10948346/detail.html

I saw a few weeks back about some woman who was offended over seeing a theatre marquee that displayed "The Vagina Monologues" and having to explain to her niece what a vagina was. The marquee was changed (but later changed back) to hoohaa because of her complaint. Im with you. Honesty is the way to go when it comes to topics like this.

[Jan]

LMA(er, B)O, Megan. Allow me to provide you with a cautionary tale, so you may avoid what happened to my mom:

When I was 7, I asked my mom where babies came from. She told me, on a level a 7-year-old could understand, the unvarnished truth. She was very matter of fact about it and I assimilated it the same way I had when she'd told me why tomato soup was orange.

What she neglected to add was, "Do not share this information with your little friends. Let their own mommies and daddies tell them when they want to." So I promptly went to school and spread the good news.

One of my friends had a 5-year-old sister and a mom who was very pregnant with #3. Friend told sister, who went in to the kitchen where their mom was innocently making dinner, glared at her mom, gagged out, "Ew, mommeeee, nasty!!!" and left the room, leaving mommy blinking at the doorway.

And she was only the FIRST of my friends' parents to call that night, asking my mom to keep her kid quiet for pete's sake.

[mark]

wow. i can't believe annabella is so old! i remember when you had just gotten pregnant with her and you announced it on TSS.

holy dookie.

:)

i'm glad my parents always were up front with me about that stuff. i'd hate to be left in the dark until SexEd in 5th grade.

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