Sunday
Jul052009
"Let's get naked!" Helping children feel comfortable in their skin
Sunday, July 5, 2009
It is a beautiful Sunday evening. We are sitting on the balcony, overlooking the lake, having dinner with friends, an engaged couple that we do not know that well and that my two year old daughter has been very shy around in the past. The kids were playing peacefully (for the most part) while we chatted with our friends. Then, out of nowhere, my daughter walks over and stands between me and our friend Richard and announces:
I am not putting you on. Those were the exact words that came out of her mouth. So after a few giggles, what did I do? I took her clothes off and she proceeded to play on the balcony naked. That is until she insisted on going inside the house, at which point I insisted on a diaper to avoid having the furniture smell any more like pee than it already does.
This is one of many opportunities that we have had, as parents, to teach our children that their bodies are normal. To allow them to develop a positive body image. And to let them feel the wind, the water and and sand on their soft skin.
I'm not alone in this. Some other great bloggers have written posts about being pro-naked baby.
In her article, My run-in with the naked baby police, Katie Allison Granju (@kgranju) writes about a woman that objected to her daughter and her cousin, both under 2 years old, playing naked in the baby pool in the front yard of her house. Katie who explains that she has had several run-ins with what she calls the naked baby police, questions where some of our ridiculous notions come from:
Catherine Connors, who writes Her Bad Mother, put up a post about her nudist daughter a few months ago. In Good Girls (Don't) Wear Underpants she explained:
This is where I should pause to explain that my daughter's most recent nudist streak started a mere few days ago on a Thursday afternoon at St. Luke's park in Ottawa. We had heard that Her Bad Mother and Mother Bumper were rolling into town as part of the Canada Moms Road Trip and we decided to host a little get together for some of the Ottawa bloggers and the road trippers at the park. The guests of honour got caught in traffic going through Montreal and were a bit late arriving. All of us locals were there and our children were having a great time, fully clothed I might add, and then Her Bad Mother and Mother Bumper showed up.
Their kids had barely made it across the lawn before they were stripping down to their underwear and hopping into the wading pool. Of course at that point, there was no stopping our kids! My daughter insisted on going into the pool and since we hadn't planned ahead for this activity, she didn't have a bathing suit or a swim diaper so I stripped her down to nothing and hoped that none of the lifeguards or other parents would complain. Thankfully none did. I have heard of incidents at other Ottawa area wading pools and unlike breastfeeding in public I am not fully apprised of the legalities of letting your two year old go naked on city property. So began her naked streak and it has been tough keeping clothes on her ever since then.
But then there was my son. He is four years old, but the size of a seven year old. He saw his naked sister in the water and starting stripping his clothes off. The pants came off. The shirt came off. Then the Spiderman undies got dropped to the ground. This is where I drew the line. I told him he had to keep his underwear on. He said he loves his penis. I said, I know, it's great, but it is private and other people don't need to see it, so you need to keep your underwear on. There was some protest, but I sealed the deal by telling him he could go to dinner and home commando. Off he went to splash and play.
This wasn't the first penis incident with my son though. The first came at school and I only heard about it a few weeks later. I was on the phone with the mother of one of his classmates and she mentioned the incident that had happened at school. I wasn't aware of the incident, so she explained to me that my son, her son, and another boy had been caught showing each other their penises. She was very disturbed by this occurrence, she said. On the other end of the phone, I have to admit, I had trouble not bursting out laughing. I just didn't think it was a big deal. I mean obviously children need to learn about modesty and privacy and we will have those talks, but it is normal for kids to do "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" games. And for me having my kid feel comfortable in his skin is the first priority.
After finishing the awkward conversation with this woman, I went home and wondered, was I wrong? Should I be more worried? I mean as kids we did this type of thing too (don't look so shocked mom!). So I turned to the index of my Natural Family Living book to see what it had to say:
This is followed by a series of tips on how to respond to this type of situation with sensitivity and teach children about privacy and setting limits. Using the tips from that book, along with a good dose of what I call common sense, the approach we are taking is to very much encourage our children to be comfortable in their own skin and happy with their own bodies. Then, at age appropriate moments, we will start to gradually introduce concepts of privacy and modesty.
When I hear stories about women who are ashamed to breastfeed in public, people who are ashamed to don a bathing suit, people who will only have sex in the dark, I wonder what happened to make them feel that way? Who told them to be ashamed of their bodies? Then I remember...oh right...high school and the media. Gotcha. But if they are to have a fighting chance of surviving those horrific influences on body image, I think our kids need our encouragement and support, in embracing and exploring their bodies as children.
So, let's get naked!
"I love getting naked. I want to get naked. Take my clothes off."
I am not putting you on. Those were the exact words that came out of her mouth. So after a few giggles, what did I do? I took her clothes off and she proceeded to play on the balcony naked. That is until she insisted on going inside the house, at which point I insisted on a diaper to avoid having the furniture smell any more like pee than it already does.
This is one of many opportunities that we have had, as parents, to teach our children that their bodies are normal. To allow them to develop a positive body image. And to let them feel the wind, the water and and sand on their soft skin.
I'm not alone in this. Some other great bloggers have written posts about being pro-naked baby.
In her article, My run-in with the naked baby police, Katie Allison Granju (@kgranju) writes about a woman that objected to her daughter and her cousin, both under 2 years old, playing naked in the baby pool in the front yard of her house. Katie who explains that she has had several run-ins with what she calls the naked baby police, questions where some of our ridiculous notions come from:
I truly don't get this cultural hang-up about letting little children be naked sometimes. When I worked as an au pair for a prosperous French family one summer, they happily let their four-year-old daughter play naked on the beach, as did all their friends. She did own a swimsuit, but it consisted of only a bikini bottom. No top. The idea that there was anything potentially sexual about this never occurred to these parents.
Catherine Connors, who writes Her Bad Mother, put up a post about her nudist daughter a few months ago. In Good Girls (Don't) Wear Underpants she explained:
I love that my daughter so exults in her physical being, that she is so unreservedly comfortable with her physical self. And yet I catch myself, sometimes, pestering her about sweaters and socks and underpants...When I pester her about putting something on – sweater, socks, underpants – I worry that I am nudging the boundaries of shaming. That she feels compelled to defend her choice to be naked, that she constructs ever more elaborate explanations for shunning underwear (my pachina gets scared in the dark!) – is that evidence that she struggles under the gaze of an over-anxious, prudish mother?
This is where I should pause to explain that my daughter's most recent nudist streak started a mere few days ago on a Thursday afternoon at St. Luke's park in Ottawa. We had heard that Her Bad Mother and Mother Bumper were rolling into town as part of the Canada Moms Road Trip and we decided to host a little get together for some of the Ottawa bloggers and the road trippers at the park. The guests of honour got caught in traffic going through Montreal and were a bit late arriving. All of us locals were there and our children were having a great time, fully clothed I might add, and then Her Bad Mother and Mother Bumper showed up.
Their kids had barely made it across the lawn before they were stripping down to their underwear and hopping into the wading pool. Of course at that point, there was no stopping our kids! My daughter insisted on going into the pool and since we hadn't planned ahead for this activity, she didn't have a bathing suit or a swim diaper so I stripped her down to nothing and hoped that none of the lifeguards or other parents would complain. Thankfully none did. I have heard of incidents at other Ottawa area wading pools and unlike breastfeeding in public I am not fully apprised of the legalities of letting your two year old go naked on city property. So began her naked streak and it has been tough keeping clothes on her ever since then.
But then there was my son. He is four years old, but the size of a seven year old. He saw his naked sister in the water and starting stripping his clothes off. The pants came off. The shirt came off. Then the Spiderman undies got dropped to the ground. This is where I drew the line. I told him he had to keep his underwear on. He said he loves his penis. I said, I know, it's great, but it is private and other people don't need to see it, so you need to keep your underwear on. There was some protest, but I sealed the deal by telling him he could go to dinner and home commando. Off he went to splash and play.
This wasn't the first penis incident with my son though. The first came at school and I only heard about it a few weeks later. I was on the phone with the mother of one of his classmates and she mentioned the incident that had happened at school. I wasn't aware of the incident, so she explained to me that my son, her son, and another boy had been caught showing each other their penises. She was very disturbed by this occurrence, she said. On the other end of the phone, I have to admit, I had trouble not bursting out laughing. I just didn't think it was a big deal. I mean obviously children need to learn about modesty and privacy and we will have those talks, but it is normal for kids to do "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" games. And for me having my kid feel comfortable in his skin is the first priority.
After finishing the awkward conversation with this woman, I went home and wondered, was I wrong? Should I be more worried? I mean as kids we did this type of thing too (don't look so shocked mom!). So I turned to the index of my Natural Family Living book to see what it had to say:
Between the ages of four and seven, children become more aware of their sexuality and begin to explore each other's bodies. Such sexual play is almost universal. If you do not remember engaging in it yourself, it may be that you were too young to remember, or you blocked it out because of your parents' frightening response.
The most harmful reaction to children's sexual exploration is judging or punishing the behavior. If you express anger, shock, or alarm, you can squelch a child's curiosity about her body and make her feel that what she did was abnormal. Reacting negatively may send your child the message that something is wrong with sexual curiosity.
This is followed by a series of tips on how to respond to this type of situation with sensitivity and teach children about privacy and setting limits. Using the tips from that book, along with a good dose of what I call common sense, the approach we are taking is to very much encourage our children to be comfortable in their own skin and happy with their own bodies. Then, at age appropriate moments, we will start to gradually introduce concepts of privacy and modesty.
When I hear stories about women who are ashamed to breastfeed in public, people who are ashamed to don a bathing suit, people who will only have sex in the dark, I wonder what happened to make them feel that way? Who told them to be ashamed of their bodies? Then I remember...oh right...high school and the media. Gotcha. But if they are to have a fighting chance of surviving those horrific influences on body image, I think our kids need our encouragement and support, in embracing and exploring their bodies as children.
So, let's get naked!
Reader Comments (39)
Great post! I'm from Europe and I don't think nudity automatically has to do something with sexuality, and sometimes don't understand why it is so different in the US. Where I come from there are public swimming pools, spas and saunas, separate for women and men, and actually you are not allowed to wear clothing in the saunas - for hygiene reasons. And everyone has to take a shower before entering the sauna or the pool, and there are no separate stalls for showers.
I'm rambling here... but anyway, I agree with you - let's teach our kids that there is nothing wrong about being naked, and kids should not be ashamed of their bodies.
I distinctly remember the first time my mother threw a fit about my running around in the yard with my "privates" exposed.
I was not yet in kindergarten, nor do I recall having any specific intentions toward it, so it must have been the summer in which I was three years old. Lets just say that the grounding was most likely inappropriate, even if it was the neighbours yard. They were all nekkie too. I think that the way that we as parents respond to our children definitely molds the way that they will feel about their own bodies. It didn't take me long to learn that naked was for the bathroom and changing clothes, and otherwise to be avoided. My mother's longterm weight struggles also taught me that one was never the shape that they needed to be, so I'm sure that didn't help. I'm not trying to blame my mom for my hangups. She got hers someplace too. I'm just saying that in retrospect it's a lot easier to see where some of my attitudes start, and so I'm glad that you let your daughter play naked. She should be allowed to grow up thinking there's nothing the matter with her body. :-)
Why do all your blog posts turn into therapy sessions for me?
@Katja: I lived in Germany for several years and used to go to spas and saunas where bathing suits are not allowed and men and women are mixed together. i sunbathed topless at the beach, at the pool, by the river, etc. Very different from the attitude in North America.
@slee: Glad to provide some therapy! Your post today was some good therapy too.
Love, love, love this post! For my kids to feel good in their bodies is so important to me. I just wish the rest of society would catch up!
Thank you so much for this! I don't remember how this came about, but I've always felt embarrassed and wanting to ask if others are comfortable with my kids' nakedness. Now I feel that I can empower my kids' nakedness and confidently facilitate it if they feel moved. Not apologizing or saying no, etc. Thank you for this moment to ponder my unchecked reactions. I hope to nurture confident, mature, baggageless children. Cheers.
I have no problem letting my kids be naked around the house, whenever they wish. But I find that I am uncomfortable letting them run around the yard naked (as they neighbor's 4-year-olds do), simply because we have no fence. Since they can be easily seen from a busy street, I draw the line--not because of any shame issues, but out of paranoia about predators. If we had a fence, it would probably be all-nakey, all the time. :-)
It is hard to explain to my 6-year-old daughter why it's okay for kids to be naked in their (fenced) yard but not adults, though (and indeed, I used to sunbathe nude when we lived out in the country). Her questions increasingly point out the arbitrary weirdness of American society. :-P
I really enjoyed this! My kids are naked as often as possible (we live in FL so weather permits this most of the year).
Recently we were shopping and my 2 yr old decided clothing was a bother, stripped in the store. I asked her to put the clothes in the stroller so they wouldn't get lost. Lucky for me, the store clerk thought it was a riot. And (IMO) since she uses the toilet, there's no real reason to require her bottom to be covered.
In contrast, my 4 yr old loves wearing dresses. She goes part time to a pre-school where one day she lifted her dress while playing. According to the staff, her underpants showed multiple times and they told me she must now wear shorts under her skirts while attending school.
I was a bit surprised really since she was covered by underpants (altho there are days they don't wear undies at home). And I told my dd as much as I thought she could understand. I said something like "Not everyone understands that bodies are beautiful. Some people think bodies should be covered and those are the rules at your school. We'll follow the rules at school but you can wear what you want and be how you want when you're not there." So far so good.
I know there's more to consider here and your thoughts have brought it back to my attention. Rules/boundaries/fears of others vs. freedom to enjoy/appreciate/love your body.
I forgot to say too- both my girls started potty learning early (before 2) and I think it had a lot to do with being "permitted" lots of nakey time to see how their bodies work. When it's all covered all the time, it's very mysterious and much more difficult to figure out.
I don't really have a problem with the naked thing. My sons play in the yard naked almost every day, esp lately...it's been beautiful here in VA!
I have a friend who almost pushes the "It's okay" thing, though. Her daughter came to sleep over, and after dinner the kids were supposed to get their jammies on. She was 4 at the time. Instead, she sat on my dining room floor exploring her yoni (what her mom and I both call the vagina to the kids). I'm all for exploring and figuring things out, but not while I digest chicken fried rice. Her mom and I were once upon a time single moms living together, so I have a pretty intimate understanding of how nakedness was viewed in their family. It wasn't strange for her to invite her daughter into bed in the morning with a boyfriend in the bed (both mom and BF naked), which wouldn't be a problem if it was always the same boyfriend. Until recently, it wasn't. I also saw my housemate naked more times than I like to remember, because she'd just be naked while she was getting ready to go somewhere.
So yeah...I set some boundaries for my kids. They can be naked any old time (Little L will be 4 on Saturday, and Baby E is 15.5 months), but the older one has to understand and respect that not everyone is comfy with that (like my 13-yo stepdaughter) and that he must respect her space when he's a nakey boy. It's okay for him to be naked, just as it's okay for her to not want to wrestle him when he is! ;)
@Cate: Boundaries are good! :) And they say that attachment parents don't know how to set boundaries. ;)
@Karen: Yes - I did http://www.phdinparenting.com/2008/11/20/potty-learning-the-road-to-success/" rel="nofollow">naked potty learning with my son as well. I think that would be a good idea for my daughter too, but my husband is at home with her right now, so it is up to him what approach he wants to take. The naked learning does involve some accidents to clean up, but is much more efficient overall I think.
Having once had to leave a public wading pool because someone else's naked child pooped in the pool, thus ending the afternoon for everyone there, I would prefer that non-potty trained children be in something when in a public pool. Other than that, we're all for being naked.
@kayris: Normally she would be in something. In this rare instance we had planned to go to the park and didn't even realize the wading pool would be open. The only people there were the people I was there with, it was 30 minutes to closing time, and I followed her around watching to ensure she didn't assume the position (she squats when she poops). My other option was to leave the park because holding a screaming toddler down because she doesn't understand why all the other kids can go in and she can't is not my idea of a fun outing!
My daughter (15 mos) is often naked at home. She showers with both of us and I don't think there's a problem with it. I do find myself apologizing for her nakedness when someone is at the door and she comes running over naked, though. There isn't really a good reason why. She likes clothes and associates them with going to the park, so when I say, "Clothes!" she runs over to the dresser all happy and then finds her shoes.
@TopHat: I love that...clothes are for the park!
I instigated an underwear on rule a while ago. Like, 2 years ago, once my now 4 1/2 year old was toilet trained. My daughter never wants to wear clothes, and at 2 1/2 she wasn't old enough to understand when it was and wasn't OK to be naked. For instance, when company is over or we're at someone else's house. So I made a blanket rule.
It's a tough line to walk, teaching what is and isn't appropriate while not shaming. So far the underwear on when you're not in your bedroom or bathroom thing has worked for us. I think it's a nod to social convention while still allowing a fair bit of freedom. And my daughter doesn't seem particularly bothered or repressed.
@Amber: That type of consistency is helpful to a lot of kids. Sounds like the underwear rule is working well for you! I hope it didn't sound like I thought all children that have to wear underwear would be bothered or repressed.
I've been known to refer to myself as the "least modest person ever" so it's not surprise that nudity is a non-issue in this house. Also, we live tucked privately away in the woods, so we just generally have a clothes-optional attitude, inside and outside. In fact, since we're still working on the #2 part of potty training, and my son has sometimes had to ask me to put clothes ON him (naked = better potty success, y'know?). Our oldest son is approaching 4 and becoming more aware of things and this led to a funny "Hey, where's your penis?" conversation between him and me the other day, but I figure that's all information he needs to know, anyway.
We do explain that outside of our house/property, it's usually considered more acceptable to wear clothes. Ditto for when guests are over. I think of it as a politeness issue; trying to make other people feel comfortable. There are just different behaviors that are acceptable in different situations and differentiating among them is a good social skill to learn. For example, although I have a seriously dirty mouth, I would not swear in front of your octogenarian grandmother (unless she did first!).
Totally with you on this one. We strip when we can, which means no prying eyes and warm enough, but the kids can strip up to when they're comfortable stripping, as far as we're concerned.
When my youngest was just a baby and we took off her diaper, she'd wiggle away from us and run around naked, giggling her little ass off. It was quite a struggle putting clothes back on her, even when it was pretty cold.
Naked is good, especially for kids.
Yes! I've always found it slightly bizarre that we Americans as a collective whole have no problem with violence, yet treat nudity as some kind of disease. Being naked is natural, and kids love it.
This is an interesting post. I have been contemplating this topic lately. My daughter is not a toddler yet and while I have no hang ups about nudity, I am concerned about predators. I would love to be able to relax about this, but the thought of some disturbed person looking at my baby is upsetting. I want my daughter to feel free with her body and to enjoy how wonderful it feels to be naked, but at the same time I feel very strongly about protecting her from perverts, so it will be difficult to navigate around once she starts requesting to be naked. I am curious about how others handle this dilemma?
@Jackie: I think as long as your kids are still at the age that you or another trusted family member is always with them and able to protect them from predators, then you are fine. There are predators that love the look of little girls in frilly dresses and that will turn them on more than a buck naked baby, so IMO keeping clothes on your baby isn't going to keep a creep from thinking creepy thoughts. Once your kids are old enough that they are venturing into the world on their own, going alone on play dates, etc. then I think you need to have a talk with them about not showing other people their private parts and not letting other people touch them. I don't know that our son, 4 years old, is completely capable of understand that yet and that is one of several reasons that we have said no to sleep overs at friends houses.
You should have a nekkid BlogHer event!
What a great post.
We are a naked family. We adults are naked around the kids..sleep naked, the kids jump in bed or shower with us...we just explain that that is ok at home and private and please c pull your dress down and don't show the world your 'china'!
Therefore my son was disgusted and horrified with his fellow day campers the other day when the made fun of a 6 yr old as he got changed after their pool trip IN the change room. Cos they could see his butt!
My son 7 was more mature about it..and it really really bothered him that others would have so many hang ups about their bodies to make fun of a kid.
Even the councilors!
Anyway..my need for my kids to be comfortable with what they look like and accept others for what THEY look like trumps 'appropriateness'
I just try to teach them as they get older that no all people feel the same way..even nana!
Yes, the Ottawa get-together was classic Emilia-and-Gemma-in-action, getting their nude on. What's interesting, though, is that it didn't occur to me for one second that there might be a rule about children in underwear at parks. Any such rules pertaining to adults are related to concerns about public decency - it's troubling to me that such concerns might be applied to children, because as someone at Salon said in response to the NYT article, imposing adult attitudes toward nudity upon children is basically to sexualize them. It's not the nudity that's sexual (duh) - it's our (society's) attitude that is.
Ugh.
Finally some one is making sense.
I let my kids run around naked until they were six but even when I encouraged modesty I didn't care if they were playing 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours'.
I think people are 'over-scared' about phedophiles.
When my kids were little we lived in the country with just one neighbour for about two miles. They lived next door and weren't offended by a nude body (when letting my kids run around in their birthday suits I did check for peoplevwho might be offended because of religion ect.) but anyway this couple were in their ealry 50's and had moved out, grow-up children so I alway let the kids run around naked. I was explaining this to a lady at a playgroup and she warned me that they were probably phedophiles. What the...? I just told her naked toddlers were beautiful and if they wanted a picture I wouldn't blame them. P.S. A phedophile gets just as much pleasure from a child in a bathing suit so why not let the child have more fun with no extra risks?
Once again brilliant piece of writing
Leah
you are sexist! so your daughter can be naked and your son cant??? wow, i bet you think that you are wise teaching your daughter to be naked. i wonder how you will feel when she is 16 and has a boyfriend. And you can bet that he feels comfortable naked too.
even that is better, you are consistent and stick to your values. plus you save water with those showers!
Who said their daughter can be naked by their son can't?
Oh wait, re-reading it now. That is because of the age difference. He is at an age where running around naked in public is not acceptable. He can do what he wants at home.
Thank you for this article. I've struggled with thoughts on how to navigate this with my own son. I was raised in a very closed household. I remember being shamed for wandering to my room naked after a shower when I was about 8. So the question lies, how do I help him have a healthy body image when I don't? I appreciate the food for thought. :)
I've been thinking about this a lot too. I used to sleep naked all the time before I had kids. I just hate getting all twisted in clothes and I'm just more comfortable that way. Since my daughter was born I've been sleeping with clothes on mostly so I have a barrier when she was learning to fall back to sleep without having to nurse. She's 4 now and still nursing, but not at night. I've found myself less comfortable sleeping naked when she's with us, yet have no problem walking around the house naked.
I've been thinking a lot about what really is sexualizing children. It started for me with the controversy a few months ago about the 9yos doing the dance routine with their stomachs showing and gyrating. So many people were upset about it, even a lot of AP parents. To me it wasn't a big deal. It was the adults that were thinking of their dance moves and outfits as sexual, not the kids. To them they were just dancing. But, so many people I trust and respect were upset about it, it's got me thinking about it. Was it inappropriate? I tend to lean towards not worrying about it and putting our adult puritan hang-ups on them.
This has also lead me to wondering about what kind of revealing clothing is age appropriate as girls enter the tween and teen ages. Are we making too big a deal about young girls showing their bodies, or are we teaching them respect for their bodies by expecting them to dress "age appropriate?"
I know this is a bit beyond the scope of this article, but I think it leads to it as the kids get older.
What do you all think?
People need to keep kids clothed at YOUNG ages, not when they are teens. That is when they know enough and can make their own choices. When you tell a teenage girl to cover up, you don't send the "respect for your body" message you think you do. Instead they feel like you're telling them they're ugly and nobody wants to see it, which is the last thing that you should do when a teenager is going through puberty and trying to find a judge on their body.
I still remember the moment i "knew i was naked" my sister had painted my naked body with different colored dots of face paint, she thought it was hilarious and i was having a good time running all around the house until a somewhat older girl was laughing at me from across the road of our front yard. Suddenly i felt invaded and afraid of judgment . I can remember my change in attitude and how much fun it took away from swimming at the beach and other simple activities , all of a sudden even swimming in undies didn't feel ok .
These days i am much more free and i very rarely will swim with clothing on , though i do live in a paradise area of NZ . Sexual energy is not a bad thing the question for us is where would we like to channel that energy. There is a myriad of ancient techniques from many cultures that recognise the importance of utilizing sexual energy in order to maintain a healthy body, mind and creative ability. We can lend our sexual energy to the density of physical sensation or encourage it to move inward and and circulate through our spine as vital energy. The practice of such energy control is central in yoga philosophy. This kind of awareness is relevant for children as well and can help them understand themselves physically and otherwise.
I encourage the freedom of nudity and would prefer that nakedness was never restricted by governments and societal preferences, when i was a teenager i lived by a river with a group of friends and we were all naked always , after a while the novelty wore off and it was normalized this experience helped me greatly in seeing the human body for what it is and not having it sexualized in my mind by my vulnerability to media projections.
My kids love being naked, and I let them do so. It really gives me an opportunity to discuss body parts, which is what I have always done. I like your other points too, which I had not thought about.
[...] don't have a any issues with young children being naked, as they often were at the water parks in Berlin when we lived there. But I do have a problem with [...]
While I am a conservative Christian and a big fan of modesty when it comes to teen and adult apparel, my stance on kids' nudity is a lot more practical. Basically, I have trouble thinking of a situation in which clothing doesn't seem useful-as protection from the sun and scratches and dirt and bugs on the parts of your body you'd least like to encounter those hazards. Swimming doesn't seem like an exception to me-have you ever looked at an old swimsuit and noticed all the scratches and pilling around the butt and other places? They make me think that I'm glad my swimsuit was bearing the brunt of that wear-and-tear instead of me! And it seems like it'd spread germs to have multiple people sitting on couches etc with no underwear on
It doesn't bother me to see other people's kids naked, but you won't see mine ;)
I would happily let my 22-month-old son run around naked in our yard, but my concern is the sun - not the nudity. We have a family history of skin cancer and my son has very fair skin, so I'm paranoid about letting him go out in the sun. He barely allows me to put sunscreen on his arms and face - I can't imagine trying to get sunscreen all over his body. So the reason for wearing clothes is never modesty or shame - it's just sun protection. Now if I could just get over my fear of him peeing all over the house, he could run around naked inside.
I'm 16 years old. As the only walk in the house naked. Naked (in the bathroom) also sees the Parents) Mom and brothers it always wear clothes.
I totally agree with the author of this article. Kids should be allowed to be naked whenever and where ever they like. This builds self confidence in the child, and will help lower their abnormal sexual curiosity with the opposite sex.
I live in Japan, where being naked, "be it children and/or adults of all ages", together in public bathhouses, hot spring resorts, countryside rivers, local park fountains and streams, etc., is totally normal, and is considered to be a way of communicating with one's family and neighbors.
I have five kids, two girls and three boys, ages 12 through 2, and they all still run around the house naked and enjoy going together to the rivers, hot springs, etc. It's kind of like they don't even notice that they, or others, are naked. It's totally normal to them, and there's nothing sexual about it. It's just culture.
It would be nice if the American society could wake up, stop judging others, and see that most European and Asian countries consider this to be a part of everyday life. Being naked, and being comfortable with it, is truly freedom.