How do I explain to my six-year-old daughter that The Sexy Girls Club is not a good name for a schoolmate club? -Caterina

A few days ago my daughter asked me: “Dad, what does putain mean?”, which is french for whore, but also means fuck! and which, by the way, is the exact word I felt like saying as I found myself in that situation. Being caught totally off-guard, I told her: “I don’t know. I cover Italian and English, why don’t you ask your teacher”.

Coward. But I’m in good company. My friend Sara did exactly the same. The radio was playing the hit I’m Sexy And I Know It when her daughter asked her: “Mom, why is he saying he’s sexy? Men can’t be sexy”. “Of course they can”, replied Sara. “Mom, what does sexy mean?”. She should have seen it coming: “I have no idea. But I think that, whatever it means, men can say it too”. Coward. The problem is we’re not ready to answer, if someone would warn us 24 hours in advance, maybe we’d be able to come up with better explanations.

When I picked her up from school, I explained to my daughter what putain means: “It’s a really nasty word, even worse than others as it is intended especially to hurt girls. Some people say it instead of ‘shoot!’, but that’s not polite either”. In short, I figured I could answer her question without having to go through a full explanation about sex or prostitution. Ask your daughter what sexy means: she’ll say beautiful, or even realize she has no idea. Then you can suggest she calls her club with a word she knows better, like The Beautiful Girls Club, or, even cooler, The Smart Girls Club.