Wednesday

Peckers

I hired a nanny from Trinidad and she is actually quite wonderful. I just find it odd that she refers to my 3yo son's penis as his "pecker". It just doesn't sit right with me, sounds kind of harsh. Worth mentioning to her? And how? I prefer you to call a penis a penis?

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just tell her you would prefer that she refer to his anatomical parts by their proper names. Penis is penis.

nannyrobot said...

Some people say names like that because you never know who is going to be embarrassed to hear the real word. I have heard it be called pecker, willy, wee-wee, weenie, pee-pee, noodle, and many other names. I personally call it a weenie and for girls I call it a cookie because some parents would get mad if you say penis or vagina. If you want her to call it a penis, say so, because she just might not know, but I really don't think it's a big deal. It's not something worth fighting about. If you do say something, explain to her why you have a preference. I would say something like, "Would you mind saying penis instead of pecker? It is important to me that we use the correct anatomical terms with the children. I want them to grow up not being ashamed of their bodies and I believe the first step is to be honest with them about their body parts and not call them cutesy names. He has a penis and that's okay. He doesn't need to be ashamed to call it what it is."

nannyrobot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Wow!!! That is a great response!! Good job!

OTNanny said...

It might be a cultural misunderstanding; my assumption of the nickname 'pecker' always was that it was profane (like saying other worse names for penis). I would simply let her know that it's considered an inappropriate word by many people and to please use anatomically correct language. As a nanny, I personally don't get it when parents DON'T actually teach their children the proper names of their anatomy, and then I have to resort to using cutesy nicknames, which I hate doing because I think it's confusing to the child. So go ahead and enforce proper terminology!

nc said...

What OTNanny said!