From talking to people, I get the sense that girls generally tend to start earlier–like, around 3, 4, etc. Early developers in every sense of the word, maybe? 
Holy shit. My ignorance knows no bounds.
I have no problems with it…if that’s the way it is, ok. But goddamn, here I was, thinking I knew something about the universe.
Holy shit.
“She’s Marching the Penguins! She’s Ya-Yaing the Sisterhood! She’s Finding Nemo!”
Haha, I’m the mom and am proud! The kid’s a little perv, it cracks me up. He asked for a pair of swim goggles for the summer. Of course I was fine with getting him a pair. We had the following conversation:
Niq: Mom, thanks for the goggles, you know why I want them, right?
Me: I assumed to swim underwater without getting chlorine in your eyes.
Niq: Yeh, that too.
Me: :dubious: I guess they also help you look at girls’ butts without getting busted, huh?
Niq: 
That’s mah boy!
I just had this talk with my daughter, actually. She’s 3, and up until now we’ve just been ignoring it (it started somewhere around 18 months - diapers’ll do that to a girl). Anyhow, last week she started masturbating while I was lying next to her on my bed.
“Hey, you know what? If you want to do that, you should go to your bed.”
“Why?”
“'Cause it’s private. It’s a privacy time, like when I ask you to give me privacy in the bathroom sometimes. It’s okay, everyone does it, but it’s a private thing.”
“Why?”
“'Cause it makes other people uncomfortable.”
“Why?”
“'Cause we have weird hangups about vulvas and good feelings in our culture.”
“Oh.”
…
“Why?”
“'Cause I’m gonna tickle you.”
In retrospect, it might be a little over her head yet. Still, we’ll keep working on it.
Aww. I wish my parents had handled it like that, WhyNot. I thought for sure I was turning out so screwed up!
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t do it.
And either my mother caught me at an age that I’m too young to recall and told me to stop it, or I just always “knew better,” but I never did it in front of anyone. It was a strictly private bedtime activity, particularly if i wasn’t sleepy.
It was a go-to method for me to get deliciously sleepy and drift right off to dreamland.
I’m 29. Nothing has changed.
How come you’re so hinky about the blastocyte? Blastocytes need to blast off, too.
It is never too early to masturbate.
I once thought how I would deal with it once my daughter started doing it. I decided on a plan similar to Whynot’s. The strange thing is that I have yet to notice my almost-3 yo daughter doing it. Maybe she figured out herself that it’s something to do in private.
Why is that strange? Haven’t we already established that not ALL kids start at such young ages? It doesn’t affect their later sexuality, so why the worry? You almost seem disappointed…
I understand the concern. My oldest son, who is almost 7, has recently started dropping his pants and fondling himself in front of our family. He is autistic, so his behaviors are often a little out of the ordinary, but after my initial panicked calls to his neurologist and specialist and therapists, I’m assured that it’s quite typical for his age. Now I just remind him to go up to his room and have some private time, whenever he feels like it.
My 2- and 3-year old sons have not done this yet, though. They do get a little excited when they get erections, and often like to show me. “Look, Mommy!”
My 3-year-old did, however, poke his 19-year-old sister in the boob and ask, “What’s that? Is that your nittle?” (his little mispronunciation) She turned 10 shades of red, set him on the floor, and promised that she will always wear a bra around the house. I wish I’d had the camera in my hand at that moment. 
I’m starting to have these talks with my son, too. He’s just over two and always stuffs a hand down the front of his diaper at bedtime. During baths and diaper changes, he’s always tugging his penis, too. He’s also started playing “horsie” on the bottom of the bathtub - in other words, laying flat and humping the bathtub floor. I’ve told him pretty much the same thing - that it’s okay to touch yourself, but that it makes other people uncomfortable, so it should be done when he’s all by himself. I don’t think he has any idea what I’m talking about (understands the words, but not the concept). But, oh, well - gotta repeat everything a thousand and one times with toddlers anyway.
I wish my mom had been so calm about it with me. When I was younger, I was rubbing myself against the bed and she walked in on me. Told me that only filthy little girls did that and I should never, ever play with myself or even touch myself there for other than functional reasons again. It took me until I was in college to do it without any guilt.
Really? Why would I be disappointed? It is as strange as everything she does, since I don’t have other kids to compare her to.
She’s late in a lot of things she does, ahead in others. She had been using the potty for months in daycare before she decided to do it at home. She crawled late and walked almost right away. None of that was disappointing though, I figured she’d do things when she damn well pleases.
It’s perfectly normal behavior, and her mom perhaps needs to be a little more explicit in her “when not to” instructions. “Not in front of other people” is not adequate instruction for a 2 year old. They’re barely aware of the existence of other people unless they want or need something from them! They simply don’t realize they’re being observed, unless attention is what they want. She needs to tell her that she should only do that in her room or the bathroom, by herself. And she should understand that she’s going to have to say it more than once, the same way she has to say *everything * more than once. I’ve never met a toddler who’s behavior was changed by a single instance of correction.
And Kinthalis, even disregarding the ridiculousness of thinking you can make someone stop masturbating entirely, I sincerely hope that when the time comes, you don’t let your SO’s discomfort with your daughter’s sexuality influence *her * comfort with it.