Girls have a xxx and Boys have a yyy

When genitals of either gender happen to come up in our conversation, Alfie and I rarely use the proper terms. I don't know why. Maybe it's because they sound so clinical. Maybe it's because neither of our parents used the proper terms when we were growing up. Maybe it's because there are so many other interesting, colorful terms available that not to use them would be a shame. Alfie could rattle off ten names each without even pausing to take a breath, and, I'm guessing, so could you. I'm not going to print the obvious ones or the nasty-sounding ones, because if I do my site might start appearing on all the wrong Google searches, and I'd turn off my family-oriented readers and advertisers. Besides, those terms are the boring ones. I much prefer the creative names, like

Family jewels
Tackle
Wee Willie Winkie
Meat and Two Veg
Frank-n-Beans
The Old Pork Sausage
Peach
Flower
Loving Cup
Kiki

(it's up to you to guess which ones are male and which ones are female)

I'm sure no-one but Alfie and I cares about which terms we use when we talk among ourselves -- but I've heard it said time and time again that parents should use the correct anatomical terms with their kids. And I have to admit, we don't do that. Whenever we talk to our kids about their private parts, we say Winkie and Pee-Pee, not Penis and Vagina. They do know those words are nicknames, and they do know the correct terms. They hear me use the proper terms when I take them to the pediatrician. And we do consider ourselves to be pretty open when it comes to our bodies (we're not self-conscious about appearing naked in front of the kids). But somehow it feels weird and overly formal to call a "Pee-Pee" a vagina -- kind of like saying "phalanges" instead of "toes", "rectum" instead of "bum" or "butt", "excrement" or "waste" instead of "poop". Am I teaching my kids to be embarrassed about their private parts? Do you have nicknames for your private parts (or is that already a nickname)? Or do you find nicknames annoying?


This post was inspired by the Silicon Valley Moms Book Club's May selection, the Body Scoop for Girls: A Straight-Talk Guide to a Healthy, Beautiful You. It's a down-to-earth guide to feminine health written by an ob-gyn who specializes in adolescent gynecology. I received a free copy of the book to review, and I do think it's a great book, one that I will probably give to The Pea when she's old enough. Click here to see what the other SV Moms have to say about this book!