Well, I've finally had the conversation with my girls (ages 6 and 8) about circumcision. They have a 4 year old intact brother and his penis is the only penis they have ever seen and to them, that is what a normal penis looks like. I'm sure they have always assumed every penis looks likes their brothers. I have deliberately never mentioned circumcision to them because I wanted them to see the intact penis as natural and normal.
Yesterday, after taking my son to his yearly physical, the doctor made note that he was uncicumcized. She said it out loud and also wrote it in his chart (why it was necessary to make note of it is a puzzle, but that's ok). Anyway, in the van on the way home, my oldest daughter said "What is circumcisized?" I was hoping they hadn't heard that, but they did! I explained in a very brief way,keeping it simple and as I looked up at them in the rearview mirror, I saw two little horrified faces! My 6 year old yelled,"They cut their penis' off?!!!". I corrected her, but I could see that she still felt that circumcision was a type of "cutting a penis off". My 8 year old asked me why anyone would do that and was just outraged and she said,"That should be illegal!" I told her that I felt the same way.
I'm pregnant with another boy and the girls made me promise I wasn't going to have his "penis cut off" and I told them I wouldn't do that in a million years!!!
Follow Mothering