Anatomy lesson

About a month ago, I made a decision. Right or wrong, it was time to teach Lindsay about girl parts and boy parts. Age 3 might seem a little young, but the reality was that she had noticed there was a difference between boys and girls and she wanted to talk about it. It all started with this little exchange while she was going potty one day:

Lindsay: "When I grow bigger, I'm going to turn into a boy and grow a funny butt!"

Me: "What now?"

Lindsay: "When I grow bigger and turn 4, I'm going to turn into a boy and grow a funny butt."

Not sure what exactly to say about it, and being pretty certain she wasn't talking about butts, I just changed the subject. But a few days later while going potty, she again said, "When I grow bigger, I'm going to turn into a boy and grow a funny butt!"

Having mulled the previous conversation over, I had decided that if the issue was raised again, I was going to face it. I knew what I had to do. So this time I explained to her that boys have penises and girls have vaginas. And that girls will never have penises and boys would never have vaginas. (Yes, I saved the conversation about sexual reassignment surgery....figured that would've been a lot to handle on top of all the penis/vagina talk).

We talked about it for a bit and she seemed satisfied with my explanation....so I thought that was the end of it for now. But she thought differently.

A few days after our conversation, we were driving in the car and she said, "You're a girl. And I'm a girl. And we have 'banginas!'"

And it didn't stop there. She went through a list of everyone we know and told me whether they had a penis or a "bangina." Not exactly normal rush hour discussion, but I guess at least it was in the privacy of our car and not in the middle of Target.

Again, I thought that might be the end of it, but she had different ideas. It has become a regular topic of conversation around our house. And then one day it turned to cartoon characters. We were sitting there innocently watching Diego and she said, "Diego is boy and he has penis! And Dora is a girl and she has a bangina! Mike the Knight is a boy and he has a penis!"

So far, no one is safe. If she's met you, she has speculated on your anatomy. I'm just waiting for the question about whether Bot (from Team Umizoomi) has a penis or a bangina. Now there's question I don't have an answer for.