(Ponder Wednesday): How do we teach kids about intimate body parts?


"Aunty!!! Boboh is putting his ‘STENIS’ inside the drinking water!!!” my neighbour’s 4-year-old daughter screamed at the top of her lungs.

I froze. The spatula I was using to turn garri for their afternoon meal almost fell from my hand. Maybe I didn’t hear well. Or maybe I was in denial. So I shouted from the kitchen: 
“Mummy, you say?? He is doing WHAT??”
“I said the water you gave him, he is putting his ‘STENIS’ inside it!” she responded at the top of her lungs again.

As how?
I quickly reduced the flame on the gas cooker before the soup would burn because no be small thing be this. I ran to the veranda and met her 3 year old brother sitting quietly, holding the little cup I had given him, and staring at the ground innocently as if he already knew he had done something questionable.
“Daddy, what did you do?” I asked gently.
No response.
“Look at me, I won't beat you. You put what where?” He looked at me briefly and looked back at his cup 
“Aunty! I said he put his...”
Mercy enthusiastically continued before I quickly stopped her.

Honestly, I couldn’t even get angry. I was just confused.
How did the cup suddenly travel from the mouth downwards? Last I checked, this boy asked for water and I gave him water to drink. So how did what... get... to be put... where?
Asin, he is just a baby...where did he even learn that from? Since it was my first time experiencing something like that, I simply corrected him and let the matter go.

Then I turned to Mercy. The big sister.
At this point, I was seriously praying she did not mean what I thought she meant
So gently, I asked: “What is ‘Stenis’, Mercy?”
She pointed to her privates confidently 😭

**
Gorgeous… Call me old school or millennial if you want, but I genuinely thought we were still letting kids be kids 😭
What does a 4-year-old want to do with words like that? What happened to soft terms like “pee pee”? 

Now don’t get me wrong o, I understand the importance of teaching children properly about their bodies and safety. But personally, I always thought you start with softer words they can pronounce first, then gradually introduce the proper terms as they grow older, at about, say 6 years.🤷🏽‍♀️

Am I wrong for thinking this way? Am I too old-fashioned? Because truthfully, that whole “STENIS” encounter stressed me out. It hit me from nowhere. I didn’t even know how to respond. I just quietly left the scene mentally defeated.

Please tell me below: Am I wrong to think the 4 year old is till too young for certain words? Would “pee pee” have been better? Or do you think teaching the correct terms early is perfectly fine?

Let me know in the comments please.

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