Parenting - Answering questions from a 3yr old....?

Question

I am a singl mother to a beautiful 3 year old. She has recently discovered differences in the anatomy.
She is asking questions about her vagina. They are very specific! How do I answer these questions without brushing her off or making something up.
I want to tell her the truth, and for her to be able to come to me with these questions, I'm just not sure of the best way to explain it to a 3year old!
Can anyone help? Please!

Answer 1

Just answer her directly in terms she can understand. Getting clear answers from you now will help her to be able to approach you about her body as she gets older. Good luck!

Also, if she is old enough to ask the question she is old enough to know.

Answer 2

I also have a three year old nephew. He is not at the point right now that I can talk to him and he will understand this. So I simply tell him that it isn't something that we talk about.

Your daughter seems farther along than he is. I would simply say. Honey Jesus made us like that. Everything is okay. This is yours and only girls should look at this and nobody should ever touch you there. Only mommy and daddy when cleaning you with a wash rag or a doctor or nurse. This is yours only. We keep it covered and we don't talk about it to other people because it doesn't sound nice. But anytime you want to talk to mommy and daddy at home you can. If this is to much for her make it simpler. Otherwise you could tell her a little at a time. Good luck!!

Answer 3

In my honest opinion, if the boy is no longer allowed at the daycare which he shouldn't be then it is none of the other parent's business what happened so long as their children weren't involved. I'm sure the social workers as well as daycare staff will be making sure that none of the other children were involved. Obviously there is something going on there & the little boy is likely about to undergo a very stress period in his life & he doesn't deserve for all of it to be broadcasted. There is no need to alarm other parents unless he is still at the daycare. Good Luck. On a side note: The people working at the daycare are watching 15 to 20 young children at a time so it's difficult to monitor what each and everyone is doing at every second of the day. They filed a police report when they caught him in the act so it's not fair to say they aren't doing there job.

Answer 4

Check with your local library for some references on how to handle this. I know with my second pregnancy there was a great book at at the time that was written at a kids level, but very specific about the information. I thought it was great from a parents point of view, and helpful to the little ones. I'm sorry I cannot recall the name of the book, but like I said.....check with the library and they might be able to help.

Answer 5

Be honest but dont tell her anything like this is where the baby comes from... most kids make their own assumption about that... tell her its her private part.. if she wants to know why a woman is different from a man.... tell her that she will understand that better when she is older but that god has a special plan for why a boy and girl have different parts....

Answer 6

My son who will be 4 in two weeks asks a lot of these questions too. In fact about a month ago he barged in on me in the shower and asked if my breasts were udders!!! What do you say to that?? LOL

I have been using semi-correct terminology with him. I told him that people don't have udders, cows do, but grown-up girls have breasts and they are for feeding babies too. (He has peaked interest in this since his sister was born 3 months ago). We left that at that and it seemed to satisfy him. Then came questions about why his sister doesn't have a pee pee like his...here we go again LOL. I told him that she has girl parts and he has boy parts that's what makes them different.
My son was satisfied with these answers but if your daughter is persistent about it there are plenty of books out there to help you explain it. Just ask at your local Barnes & Noble and they can help you find them. Then it's probably time to talk about when it's appropriate to talk about these things (in private vs. public) so she doesn't bring them up at the grocery store :)
Hope this helps!

Answer 7

As a parent of a 3 year old, I would find no point into going in detail with her, I would tell her that it is where she has to pee from and that it is her private parts and to keep them hidden. I think that she will forget about it after that.

Answer 8

it is likely that she is noticing her urethra/clitoral area as this where she urinates from not actually her vagina. If this is the case for now she only need know that is where she wees from, later whe she discovers her vagina then you can talk to her about the purposes of a vagina. In my experience (three daughters) they were not really aware of their vagina tillmuch later but were curious about the clitoral area because of urination.

Answer 9

well i say tell her that her vigina is there so she can pee. remeber lil ones cant take toomuch info at once. my 4 yr old asked me where his baby sister came from i told him mommy stomach and he was satified with that he also knows that moomy had to go to the doctor and have the baby taken out of belly.

Answer 10

You have to make it simple. Try that is where the baby comes out when you have a baby? They don't need details, you get into details and she is lost at that age.