Cole walked in on me the other morning as I was climbing out of my shower. Before I grabbed my towel. He pointed at my... um... "lower half" and said "What's that?" Erm...
This isn't the first time this has happened. The first time he asked, I told him "that's just mommy" and he was willing to let it drop. This time, however, that explanation didn't sit so well.
"This Cole's penis, Mom. That you penis?"
"No. Mommy doesn't have a penis. You and daddy have penises."
"Daddy have penis?"
"Yes."
"That mommy's penis?"
"No, babe. Mommy does not have a penis."
"Mommy not have penis?"
"No, baby. Mommy doesn't have a penis."
"Then what that?"
"That's just mommy. Hey! Want to watch a movie?!"
So yeah. I avoided it. I was mere seconds away from saying fuckit and giving him the "Girls have vaginas and boys have penises" line, but all I could imagine was his daycare provider's face when he yelled that one out in front of all of the kids the next day. I'm not ready for that.
But, at the same time, I don't want to lie to him. Nor do I want to give him silly names for body parts. I want to be unashamed that I have a vagina. Not that I want to flaunt it and give him details about the inner workings of the female anatomy (not yet anyway, though I do think that all men and women should know these things before being sexually active), but I don't want to treat "vagina" as if it's a dirty word, either. Why am I being such a chickenshit?
So I'm turning to you. Have you gone through this? How did you handle it? Any tips for what to say to his daycare provider when she's pissed that Cole's been leading lectures on anatomy?
