Does anyone really say "tummies"?

Of course you're right, thatbags. I'm not saying otherwise. Just a matter of how one was brought up, I suppose - old habits die hard and all that. Yes, in some respects I am obviously...A PRUDE!!!

There, I've said it! Better out than in...

I was brought up by a Catholic mother in the 1940s - I hope I have managed to free myself of her hang-ups!

I was brought up to be prudish too. It didn't work though , or I shed it at some stage of development.

I'm an an abject failure....and I don't care!

A French friend said to me that she was always surprised at how prudish the English were about their bodily functions, when they were so 'relaxed' about sex. I was on the autoroute last weekend and when I called in at some services the Ladies lavatories were out of order so we all had to use the Mens. The men came in, used the urinals, washed their hands and left, ignoring the queue of waiting women. None of the women seemed bothered.

Since one of the descriptors for ESA deals with continence, we have to explore the difference between true incontinence meaning complete evacuation of the bowels and faecal soiling.
I have taken to asking claimants if its like a wet fart or more serious?
The first gets no points the second scores!

I have found most medical professionals to be quite comfortable with any sort of words, posh or 'coarse', as long as they get the message across.

My husband used to do both, Galen, after he fell off a ladder and crushed two vertebrae, leaving him doubly incontinent. Would he have had extra points?
It used to be really upsetting when he had to go every year and explain all over again about what happened to him.

Only just caught up with GN after 2days in London.
bags I have to take issue with you.
It is not 'refained' but 'refeened' Please!
Belly is certainly acceptable in the north east of England, as exemplified in this song:
O what'll we do with the herring's belly?
O what'll we do with the herring's belly?
We'll make it into a lass called Nelly
Make it into a lass called Nelly
And all manner of things.
Howay ye the day
Howay ye the day
Howay ye the day
Me hinny-O

So belly is definitely an acceptable term.
There are many verses to the song, dealing with all parts of the herring's anatomy.
DGD loves it

That reminds me of this playground song, Jane!

Eee by gum
Does your belly touch your bum?
Do your balls hang low?
Do they waggle to and fro?

jane . Well I aint refeened either.

Do your balls hang low?
Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you tie them in a knot, can you swing them to and fro?
Do you get a funny feeling if you scrape them on the ceiling
Oh you'll never make a sailor if your balls hang low.

Livens up last Night of the Proms no end!

phoenix and ana
I know you're not Bags

Phoenix, I'd forgotten that one, but found myself singing along, as I must have done aged 10 or so. I'd no real notion what balls were, but I had an inkling and knew it was 'rude' so loved it.
Others posting here must have had a mum like mine - we had number two's, poo was a banned word. She hated anything "coarse" when we were children, and insisted on manners, politeness at all times. She mellowed with age, and also with the enjoyment she got from our use of expletives. My dad was taught to sing the following age 4 or 5, by his older cousins:
Shit bugger damn
some bloody buggers gone and shat our sam

Dad's aspirant parents were so not amused.
One of my favourites from my childhood and early teen years was the use of the word 'common' to describe women of a certain type. It was never explained to me, I absorbed it's meaning as I heard it used,sniffily, by my mother and aunts to describe - well, their brother's wife really.

Well I was born and bred in the north east and I have never heard belly used in our family. In fact mummy and daddy told me it was rude to say anything but tummy ache and if I had one I should go for number twos.
GC say they need a poopy and the rest of us just disappear.

Well you're a posh lass obviously harrigran, very refined
Iam64 I too was brought up to avoid appearing common at all costs, as well as applying the word to women and girls (never men, for some reason), items of clothing of which my mother disapproved, such as patent leather ankle strap shoes and velvet party dresses were also dismissed as common.
Girls who were irredeemably beyond the pale were 'common as muck'
Needless to say I now possess a lovely red velvet dress and at least 3pairs of patent leather shoes

When my younger grandchildren are getting particularly rambunctious and bouncing about all over me, I ask them to be careful of Grana's soft underbelly.

In Edinburgh when the two older DDs were at the potty stage, it was called a Big Jobby! I rather liked that.

DD3 is nearly as tall as me now (an inch to go!) but when her head was at boob height, if she was being a bit vigorous with the hugs, I used to ask her now to bash my boobs. She just used to grin.

not to, not now to..

Ps She understands what I meant now.

galen

This conversation reminds me of part of a rhyme my dad used to recite and My mum would seem to consider it very rude.
I could never understand why though.

And the cow in the barn
Kicked Nellie in the belly.
But the old man said
It wouldn't do her any harm!

I will have to look it up!

I'm a bit (a lot) of a pain wuss so when I'm ok I have stomach but if I'm in pain I revert to childhood and have tummy ache.

As for bodily functions I go for a wee or to the toilet if it's the other. I can't even type the other words lol.

OMG I didn't realise I was such a prude lol