what if your 4 yr old asked what a virgin is?

I have a policy of not lying to children. So I would just tell her the truth. EIther say its a lady who has never had sex or say its a lady who has never been given a mans seed to try and make a baby. Most four year olds I know, know exactly what sex is so she will get the explanation unless she is very very sheltered.

Or as someone else suggested say it means Pure.

The problem with telling them it is something totally innocent like someone from virginia is that they are then liable to repeat it. For example a little girl in my friends daughters class heard her mum mention sex (she was 4 and pretty naive like she should be) and asked what it was. Her mum told her it was something adults do and it was like kissing on the mouth. A few weeks later a boy in her class was messing around and was dared to kiss her and she promptly informed her teachers when they asked what they had played at break that he had sexed her on the mouth. She thought she was sounding all grown up calling it by the adult name and actually caused a bit of a stir.

We actually talked about this in my human sexuality class..it's okay not to lie to her but since it's not your own daughter I suggest just telling her to ask her mother. It would be very wrong for you say something about sex without the consent of the parents.

However if this were happen to your own child it's best to just answer with virgin mean pure, because that is not a lie...Or say It is a a person (women or man) who has not had sex. if he or she asks what sex is then tell them it is something that you will learn about when you are older. It's not brushing it off..it simply waiting until it is developmentally appropriate for the child to learn more/in depth.

I would tell the truth. Four is not too young to explain about sex. My son was four when we explained it to him - when he asked how I got his baby sister in my tummy. A virgin, in that context, is someone who has not had sex. Virginity has nothing to do with marriage or purity or any of that nonsense. A virgin woman or man is simply a person who has not had sexual intercourse.

If the child is bright, they will understand.

Four isn't too young to explain about sex, if the child is asking questions about it. If she just wants to know what the word means in reference to the Virgin Mary, and your friend doesn't want to explain too much yet, she can say that it's a term sometimes used to refer to a girl or woman who isn't married yet.

A virgin is a lady that is clean,pure, and has lived by God's word to wait until married until she has intercourse.

a mom and dad drink without the nasty alcohol in it

virgin doesn't always mean sex

ok, so i did read the whole Q... i'd just say thats her name... like, your name is francis, her name is virgin mary

Id start with a long explanation with a lot of big words and then pretend to nod off.

Tell her it means "Pure". I think if you used "Chaste" it would come back to the sex question.

Just tell her the truth shes gonna find out one way or another through todays world. makes no sense to hide it from her

she was a pure woman.. you could say that.. or she was a well respected woman?