Private Parts

I have a confession to make. I usually feel like I'm on top of things when it comes to the philosophy of parenting. But there is one parenting issue that I haven't quite figured out yet. What is the appropriate name for a child's private parts? I disdain euphemisms. When Esme farts, we call it a fart (although she strangely enough has renamed it "burping from your bottom" as opposed to "burping from your mouth", expressions that are always accompanied by gestures pointing to the various body parts).

But when I change Esme's diaper, I can't bring myself to say vagina. It seems like such a big word for such a little girl. Or maybe it's just that I don't like the word. I don't know. I read somewhere that women have a hard time using the word vagina, even if they are in conversation with their gynecologist. The word vulva doesn't sound much better, to me. So what's the right word to use? Without really planning it, I started saying "wee-wee". And somehow it has stuck. I change Esme's diaper, and she points down there and says in her two-year-old questioning voice, "Dat my wee-wee?"

"Yes, Esme, that's your wee-wee," I say, unsure even as I say it how I picked that word. For some reason, in my mind wee-wee has always been the euphemism for a boy's parts (yes, I have just as hard a time with the word penis as I do with vagina). So I started specifying, "You have a girl's wee-wee, and Emil has a boy's wee-wee." Curious as to what a wee-wee really is, I looked it up on dictionary.com. Apparently it's the pee itself, not the private parts. Who needs a euphemism for pee-pee, I wonder?