Comments on: Rule #3: Teach Toddlers the Proper Names of Private Body Parts

By: C

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:58:31 +0000

I think it is good to teach parts, but I like someone’s above mentioned method–no specifics like the internal vagina until later. People think the whole area is that even in adulthood. But to consider slang terms bad words is going too far. I don’t see why we have to take such things so darned seriously. Breasts, sexual organs can be fun parts, so why not have fun names? Would you scold a kid for calling their head a noggin?

By: Christa

Christa — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:52:21 +0000

silly rather LOL

By: Christa

Christa — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:52:01 +0000

@Tammy
”However their father and his girlfriend call her girls if they say something they call it a shiny or cooter. Ok now how silly is that??? ”

That is not only gross it’s disgusting!

By: Christa

Christa — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:50:49 +0000

@Kristina Brooke

I have tought my 4 boys what the proper names are to private parts.
But they have also named them “cutesy” names like privates or “bird” or whatever. BUT that doesn’t put them in anymore risk of molestation than if they used the proper terms all the time. As long as children know how to point to privates, and even use their “cutsey” names, they’ll know how to point out what troubles them in that area or if they were touched there. IMO.
I am the oldest of 4 girls, and we never called our privates “vagina” growing up, and not once were WE girl molested. :/
Your statement is bunk. LOL

By: Tammy

Tammy — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:19:42 +0000

I have always taught my boys the proper names for body parts. They know they have a penis and girls have vaginas. However their father and his girlfriend call her girls if they say something they call it a shiny or cooter. Ok now how silly is that??? And her 3 year old this morning said girls have a vagina and boys have weenies. And her mom was like dont say that thats a bad word and I responded no its not a bad word its body parts. They should know that so they can tell you when somethings wrong. Goodgrief people are silly and make kids feel bad about themselves.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:21:58 +0000

TOTALLY agree with Kristina Brooke.

By: Luisa

Luisa — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:15:10 +0000

I am so glad I found your site it is like a beacon of hilarity in an all too dark and politically correct online parenting world. However, I do think that I would be proud to hear my son call the appropriate person a vagina head and I am glad he knows the correct anatomical names for the human body.

Kids and adults using lame names like ‘flower’ instead of vagina and ‘wee wee’ instead of penis make me cringe, like yeah, I got pregnant because someone stuck their wee wee in my flower… How’s that going to make sense to anyone who has English as a second language?

Cheers – Lui.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:11:54 +0000

@Kristina Brooke: I guess reading isn’t for everyone. Nice job.

By: Renee

Renee — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:29:59 +0000

Whenever my girls were little, I started teaching them their body parts, this was around a year old. Not after they had developed full language skills, or were old enough for it to be something new to share with everyone. I just taught them their arms, legs, nose, vulva, feet, buttocks, etc., as they discovered them. Usually from 6-12 months they discover their privates and just like when they found their ears and I said ears, I taught my girls the word “vulva”, it’s easier to say than vagina and is actually what they are touching. Vagina is the internal body part and doesn’t have to be explained to them until later.

SInce they had heard the word vulva, just like nose and eyes, they didn’t feel the need to tell anyone about it whenever they were around other kids just like they didn’t point out that they other kids have eyes and noses.

If you wait until your child is a toddler, they are going to share their new information, they’ve went all of this time with an unnamed or different named body part, now they know what it is and they may want to share it with the world. If they do say something in public, say, “Yes, he is a man and he has a penis.”, or “Yes, she has a vulva because she’s a girl.”, and go one with what you were doing. Within a day or two it will pass as long as no one makes a big deal about it. If you respond by: yelling, laughing, being embarassed and telling them not to talk about that in front of other people, you are giving them signals about their sexuality.

Many people grow up thinking that their sexual organs are somehow shameful or “bad”. It might not seem like a big deal, now. But when they are teenagers or young adults, it can have emotional effects on how they feel about themselves and their bodies.

If you didn’t teach them when they were first learning their other body parts, then, a few days of embarrassment is worth it if it means an emotional healthier child.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:14:52 +0000

We foolishly tried to teach our kids the proper names. Somehow or other my son ended up prounouncing ‘vagina’ as ‘dinana’ and ‘dinosaur’ as ‘dinono’ and he thought they meant the same thing. I once gave him a bath with his younger sister and he told me he was looking for her dinosaur. I just about died! The best of intentions. . .