One mom is furious at her son's nursery school after they called her in to reprimand her toddler for saying the word "penis" while his diaper was being changed at school. Although some parents might feel a bit embarrassed over what her little one was talking about, this mom isn't having it. She argued that the word "penis" is technically what his genitalia is called and what he was saying wasn't dirty. But her husband disagrees. "Was I wrong?" she asked.
The drama started when the mom went to pick up her son and got called into the manager's office.
The anonymous mom vented her anger over what went down in post that has since been deleted on Mumsnet. In it, she shared that things became strange at her 2-and-a-half-year-old's nursery school after the manager asked to have a private conversation in her office.
"She closed the door and said in a very serious voice that my [Dear Son] had told one of the workers that he liked his penis when she was changing his [diaper]. Then directly afterwards he said to some of the children that he likes his penis," she wrote.
"Then she just stared at me with this weird worried look on her face. So I said 'OK. I'm not sure what you want me to do. I think most little boys like touching their penises,'" the mom recalled.
"She said that she understands that, but it's inappropriate for him to use that sort of language in the nursery setting." But the mom was confused. "I said 'I don't understand what you mean, he's not cursing, he just said he likes his penis.'"
But the manager told the mom that she was worried that other parents may not want their kids "particularly the little girls, to hear that word and that the nursery workers had gone to her and she had told my [Dear Son] to stop saying it and explained to him that it wasn't a nice thing to say."
But this made the mom angry. She felt like her son had done nothing wrong and neither of them should be scolded for it.
The mom admitted that she didn't appreciate the staff having this conversation with her toddler. "It's not a bad word and her telling that it is will make him think it's dirty or a bad thing, when it's actually the correct word for it," she wrote.
But the manager said that she only mentioned it so she "could work on teaching him what is appropriate and what is not."
"I said "Absolutely not. I'm not giving my child a complex or making him think his body is something to be ashamed of," the mom clapped back. "He's two for gods sake!"
She added that her toddler doesn't understand what is "socially appropriate" and "telling him that penis is a bad word seems bizarre."
"Furthermore," she recalled saying, "I do not want you or anyone else to tell him not to say it either. If he says it again, just distract him with something and he'll stop."
The manager explained that she was trying to "avoid a situation where another parent gets upset because their child came home and said penis. I told her she can tell them that my son said it because his mother has taught him about all his body parts," she wrote.
"Then we just stared at each other and I said that I had to go get [Dear Son] and I was disappointed with how they had handled it," the mom continued.
At home, the mom told her husband what happened, hoping for a little support. "He said he couldn't believe I got so defensive and that he told me not to call it a penis because of that very thing," she wrote. "He said everyone here says willy and it's more socially acceptable. He said it was all my fault and the nursery was correct. I am genuinely blown away. Was I wrong?"
Many people online backed up the mom and thought there was nothing wrong with her standing her ground.
"As he gets older I'd explain that there are times and places to talk about penises and bums because they're private but of course penis isn't a bad word," one parent wrote in the comments. "That was a ridiculous thing for them to tell him."
"God forbid we call body parts by their actual name," another commenter added. "Definitely not being unreasonable. The way nursery handled this is astonishing. I wonder if they'd have had the same reaction if he had said willy."
Other people thought mom had gone overboard with her reaction and see where the nursery school was coming from.
"I don't think the problem is with the word penis so much as the context of him running about saying 'l like my penis,'" the person wrote.
Whatever the case may be, it's nice that this little boy already likes his body and isn't ashamed of it.
