Answering a child’s questions about sex at the level of his understanding is the responsibility of parents and the school. Between the age of two and three years, he becomes aware of the difference between boys and girls. This is a natural curiosity and it must be explained in simple ways. He wants to know why he can urinate standing while Rani cannot. Do not ask him to shut up or giggle at him and relate it to friends who visit you.
A little later, the child will want to know where babies come from. Little girls want to breast feed their dolls just like mother feeds the new baby. Such questions do not indicate any perversion or precocious behaviour, nor is it something you need to be bashful about.
Playing with genitalia is common among little boys. To him the genitals are just like a finger, a toe or his nose. It is just another part of his body. Do not pay too much to it and do not use expressions like ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’. It is a passing phase and the child will soon get over it.
The parents apply the same norms to their two-year-old as to themselves. If the child is running around naked they want to cover him and say things like ‘shame-shame’ and do not leave him alone till he has his pants on. His naked state is perfectly natural to him and he wonders why it should seem different to others.
