My six year old is in her curious stage. I am answering her questions for the better part of the day. “Mommy, what’s this?” “What does this do?” “What do you use this for?”
Lately, the questions pertain to my body and its parts, which I know is a normal function of childhood. She is getting more curious about her body and mine too.
The other day she asked, “Mommy, is that your stomach?” She pointed to my breasts. I thought long and hard if I even wanted to go there, but decided I should. “No, these are called breasts…”
She paused, looked around and then looked at her chest. “Do I have breasts?”
I laughed but gave her the answer. I told her she did, and as she got older, they would grow. This excited her.
Later on that day, I was giving her a bath and she said, “Mommy, what is this called?” She pointed in between her legs. Again, I had to think about how I was going to answer her. Was I going to give IT a pet name OR keep it real. I decided to do the later. “It’s called a vagina,” I said.
“A…vagina?” she asked. I nodded.
I know there are many names that we can refer to our body parts as…cute little pet names that don’t make us quiver when we talk about them with our kids. But it is important for me as a mom that my six year old know her body and the appropriate names for her body parts. One day, it will be time for the birds and the bees talk and I want her to know the real names of the parts of her body.
So here’s the question of the day folks: do you tell your kids the correct names for body parts? Do you feel comfortable talking about their body parts with them? Do you have any tips to share with other parents to help them discuss this delicate subject?
Looking forward to getting some comments! Please take the time to leave one. Thank you.
Great post! FYI – My Nanna referred to "IT" as a "cookie", lol….
You're lucky that she's JUST now asking those questions! My 3yo (almost 4, he likes to tell me often) noticed a few months ago that Mommy doesn't have the same "parts". My husband and I have agreed that we will "keep it real", so when he asked me "Mommy, where is your penis?" I non-chalantly explained to him that Mommy was a girl and that girls have vaginas. I tried to not making it too terribly "exciting", and more matter-of-fact, since he's still so young.
I will tell you that I broached that subject with some trepidation because as all mommy's and daddy's can attest, there's not much of a filter on a 3yo! Luckily he's still working on enunciation, so when he'd blurt out his new found knowledge in the middle of the store, my hope is that others around didn't quite "catch" his question/statement. It made me think of the movie Kindergarten Cop with Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Good luck and I look forward to hearing about future conversations!
Yes, my daughter really hasn’t begun answering questions until now about it, which is kind of weird because my son was asking questions much earlier! You made some good points as well. Thanks for reading and commenting.
I think this is a great post and it really made me think about how I address things with my daughter. I actually do use pet names such as "private parts". And not so much because I'm afraid of giving her the real name, but my 8 year old is very intelligent for her age and any parent knows that this is the age when everything you say to them is repeated—to everyone. I just don't want her to be the kid that educates all the other little girls on their "vagina". Not at 8 years old anyway.
I think we should be telling the kids the actual names of their body parts, but in a fun way. Not too serious because they easily catch on that, and eventually will start thinking it is a taboo topic to talk about. I have a 6 year old daughter who's also at the stage of asking a lot of questions. The other day we were looking at my photos when I was pregnant with her. She asked me how she got into my tummy,… did I eat her? I was lost for words even though that sounded funny. http://missjane101.blogspot.com
Speaking of the sex talk, I am preparing for that. I know we will have to discuss it soon. I am so not ready for it. 🙁
hey guys, i am a 27 years old boy, i have been raise by a family which do not talk about these things with their kids and ignores questions by kids, i want to confess that that made me more curious and i used to think about sex things secretly. i passed my childhood always thinking about sex things and today i think it could be better if i was told about these things by my parents so that these things could not catch all of my attention all the time..
Now i want to tell my kids everything clearly , i want them to be able to shift their attention towards more positive things..