A mum was stunned after she was called to the daycare office over her son saying the word ‘penis’.

The woman took to online parenting forum Mumsnet to explain what happened.

She says she was picking her toddler son up from nursery when the manager pulled her aside for a serious chat.

“Ok I am fully prepared to be told I Am Being Unreasonable but I really think I’m not, although my husband says I am,” she writes.

“I went to pick up my son from nursery today (he’s 2.5) and the manager came out before I walked into his room and asked me to step in her office.

“She closed the door and said in a very serious voice that my DS had told one of the workers that he liked his penis when she was changing his nappy. Then directly afterwards he said to some of the children that he likes his penis.”

“Then she just stared at me with this weird worried look on her face,” the mum continues.

“So I said “OK. I’m not sure what you want me to do. I think most little boys like touching their penises.

“She said that she understands that, but it’s inappropriate for him to use that sort of language in the nursery setting. So I said, ‘I don’t understand what you mean, he’s not cursing, he just said he likes his penis.’

“She said other parents may not want their children, particularly the little girls, to hear that word and that the nursery workers had gone to her and she had told my DS to stop saying it and explained to him that it wasn’t a nice thing to say.

“I got quite angry and said that I really don’t appreciate her doing that because it’s not a bad word and her telling him that it is will make him think it’s a dirty or bad thing, when it’s actually the correct word for it.

“I also said that if you don’t want him to say it, just distract him with literally anything else and he would have forgotten about it. She said, ‘Well I don’t know if they tried to distract him but I do understand that he’s young and children say lots of things. But I wanted you to know what happened so you 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. He’s 2 for gods sake! He doesn’t understand anything about what is socially appropriate and telling him that penis is a bad word seems bizarre. And furthermore, 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.’

“She then said that she was just 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. Then we just stared at each other and I said that I had to go get DS and I was disappointed with how they had handled it.

“I came home and told my DH [Dear Huband] what happened and 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. 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?”

Her post has since been removed but parents agreed with her saying, “God forbid we call body parts by their actual name,” said one woman.

“Definitely not being unreasonable,” another forum user wrote. “The way nursery handled this is astonishing. I wonder if they’d have had the same reaction if he had said willy.”

How would you react? It all sounds a bit crazy really.

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