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Ok I got my insperation off of another site, but this has been a debate i have seen over and over.
Do you teach your children to refer to the genital area with proper terms or use cutesy terms??
If you use cutesy terms is it ok to refer to them as food items "Hot Dogs" "Weiners" "Corn Dogs" for boys, or "Cookies" "Burgers" "Tacos" for girls??
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Proud Christian, Cloth diapering, Baby Wearing, Signing, Select vaxing, ERF, Extended Harnessing, attempted breast feeding mama to Cadence 2/01/02 Courtney 11/26/03 Kason 4/02/07 and Kaia 8/23/09And very proud Army wife to Smitty.
I think "pee pee" is about the only cutesy name I would really be on board with. I think it's important they know the real terms as soon as their oral development allows them too (DS cannot say "penis" but he can "pee pee" so "pee pee" it is). Higher Power forbid that anything horrible happen to them, they will need to know the proper terms so they can explain themselves in court, and it's just easier to never teach it to them the wrong way to begin with.
Food items always kind of grossed me out. I could never refer to my daughter's vagina as a taco and then proceed to EVER have tacos for dinner.
I don't think I've ever heard them referred to as food terms. Weird.
I teach my children the proper terms. Christian can't exactly SAY penis, but he knows what it is (and where it is). I personally don't understand why you would use other terms for body parts. Would you nickname your ear something else? I wouldn't, and I don't know why someone would nickname their vagina either.
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Writer, Navy wife, autistic mom of two autistic kids (E is 6, C is 5).
I teach them the proper names. But my DD giggles and is embarrased to say them. I am not sure why because we are all very open and try not to make them feel ashamed or to hide their parts when at home. She calls hers a "tooty" and "weinie" for her brother, but she knows the correct terms but she doesn't like saying them, which is beyond me.
We do proper names. She knows where her vagina is, her nipples, etc. The only thing I do different names for is using the bathroom. I'm not going to say "go urinate in the bathroom honey" or "go defecate in the toilet" so I will say "go pee pee or poo poo." I intend on teaching her the proper names, but we won't use them on a regular basis.
I am also guilty of telling DS what "boobs" are, instead of "breasts." Heidi eats boobs, for instance. But he says "boob boob" - I'm not sure what his fascination is with the repeating words.
I only have boys. I do refer to their genitals as penis, sometimes I will find myself saying pee-pee though. DH on the other thinks I shouldn't use the term penis, not because he thinks anything is wrong with it, but he is worried that if our 3 year old says it in front of others they might be offended. I get his point. It's just sad how easily offended some people are, as if their sensibilities are too delicate to hear the proper term for a word.
I have never heard of a good reason not to teach and use proper terms with children. I have friends who only use their family nickname for private parts and I do not understand it. What is wrong with the work penis? seriously? they say they don't want the child using the word in public. what? how often would your child use the word in public? how would offend others? I have no doubt that if an adult heard a child make some statement about his weewee or peepee etc they will know what the child is talking about - what is so hard about just saying penis?
This is just something I have never understood.
We don't call it anything yet. My brother (when he was little) referred to his penis as his 'hee hee'. My mom started saying, "Remember to wash your hee hee!" so that's where it came from.
The only cutesy body part name Chloe has/says right now is "tootsie" for her feet. I don't see anything wrong with having a 'cutesy' name for genitals.
Oh, and I'm almost 21 and I don't say 'vagina' on a regular basis when/if I talk about it. I prefer saying 'hoo ha' or 'vajayjay'...haha, I guess I'm just immature like that.
I totally forgot about piggies.... but we don't really refer to toes as piggies in my house - but we did when I was a kid.
I think I'm closest to Melissa's line of thinking - I'm not going to get all technical and say "go defecate in the toilet", etc. My children know the correct names for their body parts, but we definitely use "pee" and "poop", but mostly I ask them if they need to use the potty instead of specifying which they need to do. I know my kids can't actually SAY penis or vagina at the moment, but I don't think that there's anything wrong with teaching them the correct terms for their body parts, and frankly, it bothers me that my own parents get embarrassed by hearing the correct words.
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Writer, Navy wife, autistic mom of two autistic kids (E is 6, C is 5).
Ah. I just asked Luke if he knows where he "penis" is and he does. Good to know that he does know the word for it, even though he won't say it. Lauren has no idea where her vagina is, though.
I'm not for the 'cutesy' names at ALL.. Taco? Ugh.. COOKIE? I'd never eat a cookie (the food! LOL) again! But I don't think I'll be teaching Ashlynn to call it a vagina either.
My sisters use the word "privates" which I think is effective in naming (and not cutesy) and teaching them that they are private parts that people should not touch Unless it's a doctor and mommy/daddy are there and say it's okay.
I'll probably follow my parents idea and use "privates".
Now although I'd probably teach her 'chest' as opposed to breast, because that is what my sisters know and since they are so young I'd rather not confuse them, I see nothing wrong with 'nipples' (my sister used to call them "Nibbles" when she was younger)
I agree with some of the other ladies.. I wouldn't say "go urinate" or "Go defecate", I'd probably say "go pee" or "Go poop"
Or just say "use the potty" since younger children don't seem to understand the concept of keeping those things private and think nothing of screaming "I HAVE TO POOP" in a crowded area.
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Kailey(20) Cloth diapering, breastfeeding, babywearing, extended RF'ing, slightly crazy mommy to Ashlynn (3 * 1/28/10) and Matthew (10 months * 6/20/12)
We don't say "defecate" but we do shorten bowel movement to "bm" - that was what we called it growing up so I am just used to it. We do say poop sometimes though. (I always get thrown off for a sec when someone refers to breast milk as bm on here because I can't think of bm as anything but bowel movement!)
We use proper names in our house. I think that using cutesy names for genitals implies that there is some shame in the genital or that the genital is something to be embarassed about. A penis is a penis and a vagina is a vagina...I don't get why either has to be shortened.
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