PEOPLE will often tell you that having a son – rather than a daughter – is a good thing. Some say boys are more loving than girls, especially towards their mothers.

Others suggest having boys is more straightforward. As long as they can run around and scream loudly, they are happy.

Girls, on the other hand, are often written off as divas, cry babies or devious little madams who know instinctively how to twist their dads around their little fingers.

Both sexes have their pros and cons, I’m sure.

However, if I could cite the one major benefit to bringing up a boy child it would have to be the existence of a universally-accepted word you can use to describe their, um, bits and bobs.

I’m sure you know which one I mean. But what is the female equivalent? I am yet to come up with a solution.

I could wax lyrical on the subject but perhaps some things are best left unsaid.

I had hoped chats with other mums – with girls – might throw up an option I had not previously considered but so far that hasn’t been the case.

The suggestions veer from the overly clinical to the ridiculously twee.

Fortunately, my son has not been interested in ladies’ issues, which is a bonus because in all other ways it’s currently like one long biology lesson around my house.

This week we have enjoyed classics such as, “Where does food go?” “What do you call this bit of my neck?” and, my all-time favourite, “Mummy, what is poo?”

What indeed?

I’ve done my best to answer truthfully but in all honesty I’m starting to feel out of my depth.

I have considered using the internet but I’m not sure you would really want to type some of his queries into Google.

So now, I am seriously contemplating going back to basics and buying a set of encyclopaedias.

Perhaps those with pictures rather than words would be best.

But I might have to get it soon. My son already knows that before long he will have a new role – that of big brother.

He’s accepted this state of affairs – unquestioningly thank goodness – but I fear it can only be a matter of time before he will want to know one thing.

How does the baby get out of my tummy?

At the moment, I have no words for that one.