"Playing doctor" is a phrase used colloquially in the western world to refer to children examining each other's genitals. It originates from children using the pretend roles of doctor and patient as a pretext for such an examination. Nevertheless, whether or not such role playing is actually involved, the phrase is still used to refer to any similar examination.
Playing doctor is considered by most child psychologists to be a normal step in childhood sexual development between the ages of approximately three and six years, so long as all parties are willing participants and relatively close in age. It can be a source of discomfort to some parents to discover their children are engaging in such an activity. Parenting professionals often advise parents to view such a discovery as an opportunity to calmly teach their children about the differences between the sexes, personal privacy, and respecting the privacy of other children.
Adults also use the phrase facetiously in similar reference, to refer to adult sexual activity.
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or doctor:
“The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery....Child’s play is the infantile form of the human ability to deal with experience by creating model situations and to master reality by experiment and planning.”
—Erik H. Erikson (20th century)
“The doctor learns that if he gets ahead of the superstitions of his patients he is a ruined man; and the result is that he instinctively takes care not to get ahead of them.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)