Her Bad Mother’s post about WonderBaby’s little euphemism got me thinking about parents and kids and the words we teach (or don’t teach) them to use. Maybe I read too much “Our Body Ourselves” as a young person, or maybe my Mom dragged me to one too many NOW meetings. Whatever the case, I came into parenting assured that teaching children the correct terminology for their bodies would furnish them with knowledge and power and pride.
Knowing the accurate words for themselves seemed an excellent first step in empowering them to know who to ask for what, when, and how they could carry themselves confidently through life. And when I had girls, I felt even more strongly about that.
Fast forward six years and each evening I’m reminded of this solemn undertaking in all its asinine glory.
“Mama, she touched my vagina without permission!!”
“EW. Your vagina STINKS!”
You get the idea.
I’ve promulgated such pride and power and accuracy that I’m afraid my inner Maiden Aunt rears her head simultaneous to each evening’s outcry. “Ladies. Please refrain from yelling out every little thought about your body. Let’s work on discretion.”
Yes. Discretion. A powerful motivator of 6 year olds everywhere.
I should write a parenting book.
Even though I flinch a bit inside, and admire that my friend had the smarts to teach her daughter to call “nursing,” “snack” (I know you’ll be shocked to hear that my youngest just calls out loudly “I want the BOOOB!!”), I am a bit proud of my daughters. They are weird, strong and outspoken. And haven’t yet learned to buckle under and act properly.
Let’s hope they never do…
For more fun with anatomy, go to Strollerderby
I love this. Power to the girls. Mine sound quite similar to yours, LOL.
Sometime if you have time and are interested, you can read my story about this: http://theartfulflower.blogspot.com/2006/12/and-thats-why-we-quit-calling-it-penis.html
I’m joking mainly about quitting the Real Words. Mine feel free to speak freely any old time LOL.
Heh.
M insists that I used to have a penis, but my husband took it away, and that is why my “Gina” bleeds sometimes.
He is also fond of yelling things in public such as “Hey mom. I have to go poop! A really big letter J poop is going to come out of my butt!”
Niiiiiice.
I too, taught my kids the proper names of their body parts.
It was worth it to see the look on my dad’s face the first time my daughter walked up to him, pointed at his crotch and announced he had a penis and she had a vagina.
I thought he might fall over dead.
Haha.
….trying hard not to be the mom that cringes when I choke out “your privates”, but I am.
We are on the proper terminology bandwagon, but currently fighting against his daycare provider who oddly insists on calling vaginas “tutus.” It’s doubly confusing to him since he attends dance class on Saturdays and most of the little girls are wearing tutus…sigh.
I love your kids, My kids and yours sound like they’d be great friends, crazy, fun, and all about just being themselves with wild abandon! *grin*
It might help with what they scream in public if you told your daughters that the outer area is called a pubic mound, genitals, genitalia, pubic region, groin, or crotch. Those are also proper names, and, as a parent who also told her girls the proper names of these things, I didn’t realize until my eldest was 10 that she didn’t know that only the “hole” part was the actual vagina, and that there were names for all of the other bits surrounding it too.
Watch the girls though, when my eldest was 8, she heard some 10yo call her pubic region a “muffin”, and immediately went on to correct and educate the poor child. Good thing the other girls’ parents were understanding, or we could have had a very bad time of things when the parents found out. I had to have the “it is a parent’s job to teach a child about their body, not yours” talk with her to prevent future occurrences of that one.
Kids are always out to teach each other new tings, and it’s so cute and sweet, but potentially hazardous. My mother was a lot more careful with me, and I had a “crotch” until I was about 8, wen suddenly I learned about all the parts by sneaking through all of her nursing books to teach myself Latin. *chuckle* I tell my girls to wash all their crevices when they bathe. it saves time.
Corgimom, I would take a picture of a dance tutu to the teacher and her supervisor and tell them both that if they keep endangering your son’s well being by lying to him and telling him that the things the girls in his dance class wear on the outside of their clothes are a private body part, you will contact the other parents and inform them of the problem. If the teacher is afraid of using the more crass and personal word “vagina”, she can take her pick from other words that are also correct, that she may find less personally embarrassing. It can be really hard wen you don’t want to come right out and tell your child that his teacher is lying, and there is no part of the human body is called a tutu. Best of luck with that!
Sweet chuckle on this one . . . we use all the right words, too. I remember when Scarlett asked me (loudly, of course) if it was okay to stick things into her vagina, like a carrot. “What would happen?” she wondered. Hmmmm.
My youngest was just four when we were both driving along toward Whole Foods when he said, “Mommy I have to go potty REALLY bad.”
Me: “Me too!”
Merrick: “Oh! Are you holding your penis, too?”
So he doesn’t believe that I don’t have one. We spend the whole rest of the ride discussing my lack of a penis. When we rush into the bathroom at Whole Foods, he demands (loudly) to see my penis, for me to PROVE to him that there’s no such entity hanging from my pubic area.
This inquisition takes place in a crowded restroom, while we stand feet to feet facing, in a single stall. Most of the laughter was muffled but one woman was laughing right out loud!