A faucet, a sparrow, a pie … What exquisite names parents do not come up with for children’s, excuse me, genitals. However, psychologists believe that this should not be done. But we must call everything as it is.
– Imagine, our grandmother told my brother that he had sparrows in his pants. And when he found out that it was such a bird and they showed him a flock of sparrows on the street, he should have seen his bewilderment! He tried to look into his pants right on the street to compare, ” my colleague Ksenia, the mother of a two-year-old boy, told me.
Yes, parents show extraordinary ingenuity in coming up with some kind of allegory for children’s genitals. Calling a penis a penis and calling a vagina a vagina is awfully awkward for some reason. So it turns out like in a joke: there is a priest, but there is no word.
In the UK there is such an organization – the Sexual Health Service. And her experts advise parents to leave the embarrassment for another case.
– Nicknames for genitals are made up of a feeling of awkwardness. We, adults, associate genitals with sex. And that’s why we are ashamed to mention their names once again. But children do not have such associations. They do not have embarrassment, and do not need to instill this feeling of shame in them, psychologists say.
But, if you think about it, a lot of people are ashamed of their bodies. And the very fact that people have sex also embarrasses many. But they are doing it!
– For children, the penis or vagina are the same body parts as others. After all, you do not hesitate to call your hand an arm or a leg a foot. Eye, ear – these words do not cause any shame. That’s all the rest should not, – experts explain.
To help parents cope with embarrassment, England has even set up a website that explains how to talk to children about their anatomy. And, which is also important, how to prepare a child for the fact that his body will change, how to talk about sex, relationships and growing up. In general, about what they are trying to tell children in sex education lessons and what causes resentment among some parents.
“We urgently need such a website in Russian,” Ksyusha said thoughtfully. – And then I, to be honest, too shy.