Girls pee out of their butts. (part three)

The first conversation on this subject, described in part one, came to me in the middle of earning my Women's Studies degree. Now, I'm a year out of school. I'm nannying for 1.5 year olds and writing on the side, and I came home for a week to see my family. I spent most of the day, today, with my 4 year old nephew. He's well-spoken and curious, but also a bit modest at times. Though today he came into the bathroom with me at the restaurant where we were eating lunch. When I sat down to go to the bathroom, he unabashedly searched for the source of my pee. I asked him if that's what he was looking for, and he smiled, "Yes. Do you pee out of your butt?"  I explained that just like he has a penis, I have a vagina, and that it would be funny if we peed out of our butts. And we laughed. (Though my mom did point out later that we actually pee from our urethra. But I knew that's not what he was getting at.)

He didn't say another word until we were in the car later and he decided to tell me, as a joke, that girls pee out of their penises. Now, were he my kid, it would have been a bigger opportunity to explicitly discuss the fact that some girls do in fact have penises and some boys have vaginas. Though I am his aunt. I can't go full feminist on the kid then leave him hanging when I head back home to NYC. I only see him a few times a year. But I can at least plant a few seeds so that when he's 14 and curious, he knows who to talk to.
I said,

"You know, some girls do have penises and some boys have vaginas."
"Why?"
"Just because they do. Everyone's different."
"Oh."

And he simply continued with the former conversation;

 "Well boys pee out of..what's that word again?"
"Vaginas"
"Boys pee out of vaginas!"
*snicker*

This continued for awhile, and I felt accomplished.  I taught him a useful word today, though it wasn't much of an anti-transphobia teaching moment.

Do girls pee out of their butts? (part two)

I've had this conversation with two three/four year old boys-- one, a child whom I nannied since he was 2, and the other with my nephew. I'm sure the question is asked of many caretakers, by children figuring out what to call theirs and others' body parts. It's a process for each family, largely depending on how comfortable the parental figures are with discussing unexposed body parts. The exposed ones, however, are an integral part of 'the baby show' (things parents make their children perform to demonstrate their growth).  It's true - parents are obsessed with watching their children point to their own body parts:

"Where are (baby)'s eyes?"
[baby points to eyes]
*eruption of awe/pride/enthusiasm/encouragement/applause*

Certainly, as a nanny and as a sister, I have little access to how this manifests itself in more intimate situations when parental figures discuss the unexposed body parts. Some children have more exposure to their parents' bodies than others. Some parents feel comfortable walking around their home naked. Others' children have never seen them in their underwear. And though a parent's modesty is not always indicative of their child's ability to name body parts , I think it's safe to assume that the child will have a better reference if she's seen her family naked before. But it's around 3 or 4 when these questions come out of their mouths. Sure, for some kids it's earlier, or if you're a very open parent, the child me already be well-equipped with body part language.  When I have a kid, I'm going to tell him what a vagina is and her what a penis is. And I'll tell him that I have one or that her father has one. And they'll see it, and when they point to it and name it, we'll cheer just like parents do when kids point to their noses. Because knowledge is good and all types of bodies are natural and normal.