What do I do???
My 3yo is starting nursery next month so we've been trying to get him to understand about private parts and appropriate/safe touch.
We're trying to teach him that private parts are penis/vagina, bum, mouth and chest.
We have a 3 month old baby girl and he's realised she "doesn't have a willy" so we've been explaining that she has a vagina and he understands/doesn't care 😅
But today when I was changing his sister I was explaining again about private parts (we've only spoken about it 2 or 3 times in the past week or so) and he just started being really cheeky, saying he was going to touch her and me and then started hitting my bum 🙄
I've explained that if he wants he can ask to hold hands, or for a hug etc, it's okay to touch arms and legs but he just doesn't care about what he *can* do he just wants to do what he *cant* do and it's started to get me worried.
I'm not making a big deal of it, I've just been explaining it matter of fact like anything else and not too often, and usually he listens.. I'm also aware it's better to explain what he can do but with this subject isn't it important to say explicitly what he cannot touch?? Idk can anyone help?
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*also commenting to add when I say it's okay to touch arms and legs I mean if he's asked, not just grabbing people. Normally he's very good, he's not a physical child we've never had issues with hitting or biting etc so I didn't think this would be an issue. He's always been the type of kid to like his own space.
Also I've been trying to phrase it to help him understand that nobody should touch him either, except mummy and daddy and his grandparents who sometimes look after him whom we fully trust
Are you linking it to him starting nursery because you're worried something bad might happen?
At this age I'm afraid you're not going to get much out of them about their day as their communication skills just aren't there. And even when they are - they don't tell you what they've been doing. A horse went into school and all the kids had a photo with it... we found out weeks later in a newsletter. Same with puppet shows and all sorts of exciting things - he's 6! 😆
You're just going to have to go with your gut and/or trust the nursery staff and the procedures they have in place.
In terms of language though we've always used the anatomically correct names. My youngest has been saying 'my penis' for a year or two now and he's three. I think it's best to use the right names rather than any pet names.
Try not to worry too much as he’s a bit young still.
NSPCC have something called Talk PANTS which is used in schools. X
There’s a lady on tiktok who sings songs to pre school age children about things like this to get it to stick in their heads she’s so good ill try and find her name xx
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