Children and Parents

My question is this: How do the folks who visit this site feel about parents going nude before their children?

Do you feel that it is "wrong" or "bad" for children to see their parents' naked bodies? And if so, why? And if the opposite is so, what, exactly, is wrong with children seeing their parents' nakedness?

Do any have stories of their own which tell the good, or bad, results of these young persons having looked at their parents?

And a further question is this: Should parents knowingly expose their bodies before their children, and if so, under what circumstances.

Do any have stories to tell, either from the standpoint of the parent or the child? One final question is this: Does it make a difference if the child sees the parent of his/her own sex naked, as compared with the parent of the opposite sex?

 

Sorry but to answer your questions would take up soooo much time! Besides I think some aspects of what you ask would be deemed too 'creepy' for me to answer; I see from your other threads that you have a small fascination with this subject.
All the best with your search

 

I'm going to step out and say that I think it is healthy for children to see their parents naked, and that goes for parents of the opposite sex just as well, or even more.

I know that I grew up with almost a feeling of anxiety since I was so curious about the body of adults, and of the opposite sex. It wasn't just a sexual thing for me, even if it may have been a little. It was mostly that I was very curious and didn't like not being able to see what people looked like completely naked. I grew up in a very conservative and religious family, and this was not an easy way to develop and learn about human bodies and their differences.

I think it would be a good thing if children saw both sexes naked and learned about what bodies looked like in a natural way, just the same as they learn about what the rest of the natural world looks like. They are able to observe things and answer questions even if it is in passing and rarely thought about.

I believe growing up in a nudist household also helps people to be more comfortable with the look of their bodies and that many different body types are beautiful and not just the models that are presented to us in marketing ads and TV shows.

 

I was not raised nudist, but Dad often didn't bother to dress after the evening bath. Mom was more conservative, but not uptight about it.

Dad set a real good example and I think we kids learned not to be as embarrassed as most kids about nudity.

I wish we had been a nudist family, but I will try my best to provide that to the next generation.

 

My two boys have seen my wife and I walk around the house nude since they were born. It is really not a big deal. Obviously we dont do it when their friends are over and I think they both understand. We also have a hot tub and neither has any problems about haging out with us nude. I think it is just normal to them. I dont want them to grow up feeling there is anything wrong with being nude or there is anything to be embarassed about.

 

Congratulations to you and Nudony for a living lesson in the goodness of nudity. Positive body image is a wonderful gift to give to your kids.

 

Of course there's nothing wrong with it. There is too much more to say about this, but our little microcosm of western society can be extremely ignorant of the whole world and history. Being natural and comfortable is very healthy for children to experience. Freaking out about whether a body is clothed is a great way to create vanity, anxiety and insecurity. I have had to protect my children from the paranoia of others over nudity and I will never allow them to think that there is anything wrong with being naked...just that in some places it is not appropriate, but that they should never be ashamed or embarrassed by their bodies or anyone else's, for that matter.

 

I would love to know the OP's fixation on this topic, and other people seeing wives.

 

i agree gromit, i ask you john, what are your opinions on the subject?

 

To me family nudity is healthy it is ok growing up i saw my dad and mom both naked and they seen me. we all slept nude so we would see eachother as we got up and etc. if a kid sees dad or mom naked its not a big deal or if kids want to sleep naked or walk around naked i dont see its a big deal.

 

I am a parent and our son regularly sees myself and my wife nude. Nude is not lewd. Shame of the nude human body and associating sexuality with nudity is only something that society pushes on you as you grow up. At a young age, if a child is regularly exposed to innocent, non-sexual nudity it promotes a healthy interpretation of the body as well as promoting a positive body image despite how society pushes the "skinny is beautiful" concept. It helps promote an understanding and acceptance of everyone's differences as well as reduce the chance of sexual promiscuity as they grow into their teenage and young adult years.

 

I'd be delighted if my mum or dad started going nude as they have never shown any desire to do so before, although they always accepted me and my sister being nudists.

If/when I have kids, I will not change my lifestyle at all, I will be naked as much as I can be at home and my kids will grow up knowing that the human body is nothing to be ashamed of, clothing is only necessary in public places, and that nudity and sex are seperate things (which come together beautifully but aren't automatically always linked).

 

Continued participation depends a lot on how their peers are about nudity both in attitude and actual nude situations. In summer camp, we were nude at age 11 with not a hint of self-consciousness among boys, but since we were textile, the girls showered in a separate bath house and we were all very curious about what they looked like without clothes. Not really lusting, just plain curious. Too bad it had to be that way.

In nudist circles, boys are confident with nudity around girls into early adolescence unless erections start becoming an issue. But this is not always the case. If the family is very active throughout the year with other families in social nudity, even the adolescent boys tend to learn not to be embarrassed about erections.

Not every family will be able to live near a nudist camp or resort that has an adequate number of other kids to encourage your own kids to stay with it into the adolescent years. But if you can provide a peer group, it would be an outstanding supplement to Mom and Dad's good example.

My club has families that are either new to nudism or don't participate often enough so that we sometimes see bashful boys sitting clothed in the clubhouse while teen girls, totally nude are completely confident in and out of the pool.

Let's do what we can to help our boys through these self-conscious years.
Sometimes the boy just needs a little encouragement to regain the confidence he had a year or so earlier. Often once he gets in the water with the girls, he will forget all about himself and those pesky erections. Our club is very willing to cut the boys some slack and not draw unwanted attention to erections in boys in their early teens. Our teen girls tend to be savvy enough to take it all in stride too.

 

I think so long as my hypothetical kids know that they don't have to wear clothes at home if they don't want to, then I'll have done all I can. If they want to wear clothes I can't and wont stop them. They will have freedom there. They can wear whatever clothing they like, even if they wanna only wear superhero outfits or fairy dresses in the house, they can.

But they will have to accept mommy being naked. I guess there's a risk as they get older (and I do) they will think it's gross or embarassing but I've been a nudist for ten years now, I don't plan on giving it up any time soon.

Hopefully if it's something they've known every day of their lives it will never occur to them to want me to change.

 

I understand the idea of letting kids do whatever they want, but even at places that are clothing optional rather than nudity mandatory, they will use the carrot and stick approach. By that I mean, you can wear whatever you want except no clothes allowed in pool or hot tub area. You could try something similar at home.
I made friends with kids in the neighborhood, but I also made friends with the sons and daughters of my parents friends. If they are nudist, then when they come over to visit, chances are your friends and their kids will take off all their clothes as they arrive. That will make it a lot easier on your kids to be nude, because they will be the odd ones out if they wear clothes. Some parents, particularly dads think that because the house is warm enough for them to be nude that the kids should be comfortable nude too. Quite often your kids will need it a few degrees warmer than you require. So why guarantee that they will be whining for their clothes simply because you are keeping the house too cold?
And if your kids do go through a clothing phase, there's still a good chance that they will outgrow it. As I got into my mid-teens I grew a lot more confident in my body and became comfortable nude with my friends at school showers or summer camp. If my family had been true nudists, I might not have even had a shy phase.

I've got a friend whose kids (boy and girl) are body shy, but they still come into the bathroom when she's taking tub baths and talk for a long time with her, not concerned about her nudity at all.
She grew up nudist and it's no big deal to her. I hope it will be the same for you or better.

The key word is "every day". Families that live textile all year and go to nudist camp one week in the summer are not likely to keep their kids in the lifestyle.

 

It's unfortunate that for most kids, the beginnings of adult sexuality are combined with that unsatisfied curiosity. I think that familiarity between girls and boys would calm things down a lot.

And that's a very intelligent and humane treatment of erections when teenagers get them. It really is good naturism at work, an acceptance of the human body rather than making anyone feel ashamed. I'm impressed that there are kids who can do that, both the boys and the girls, although I do see you saying that it doesn't work for all of them. Thinking back, I'd have been dying of embarrassment in that situation (most of us remember that it was bad enough having an uncontrollable penis even with clothes on!) but then if I'd been one of those kids who grew up with nudity, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.

 

Amontillado,

The shy boys are invariably the ones from families that are new to nudism or not practicing it enough, then decide to bring the kids. But I am not saying it is always a lost cause. Our club has clothed activities in town too, like bowling or a movie so the boys and girls could break the ice, make friends and ratchet the tension down a notch. Many of our girls are from dedicated nudist families and they always manage to coax the boys to get in the pool (and that means nude). Sometimes using sweet talk, sometimes daring them will work. Other than a little encouragement, Mom and Dad are not the main players in getting those boys in the pool.

Once in the pool, an unseen erection is a non-event and the water tends to cool their jets anyway, so the guys were "safe" once they were in the water. So the boys muster enough courage to strip off real quick and get in the pool (and the weather is hot as a barbecue grill this time of year), then eventually they will get used to nudity out of the pool.

Some of the teen boys will join the older men in petanque or sand court volleyball a few yards away and then if things "popped up" the teen girls are typically sunning by the pool and could not see them as easily. But really our teen girls are so used to all this that the boys would not get teased. For our people, erections among teen boys are just not that big a deal.

As for my nudist lady friend, she married a textile guy and her kids were not raised nudist. I am surprised that they are as laid back about her nudity in the tub as they are.

Among textiles the tension between boys and girls starts early. When I was in 7th grade (age 12), the moment the teacher left the room the mischief soon began. One time, a guy lifted a girl's skirt up high and showed her panties to the entire class. She was blushing deep red. I felt for her. But a couple of the girls were naughty too. They thought it was funny to dart by, give several boys' crotches a quick squeeze and induce a humiliating erection that even their pants could not hide. All these shenanigans would be unheard of among nudist kids. For one thing nudists supervise their kids better than this, but they are raised, on average, to treat others with more respect, and of course nudity of the opposite sex is hardly worthy of notice.

 

Garden, its not only errections that teenage boys are embaressed about, I was never in camp or in sports that you showered after and in fact nobody in my school showered after gym. But even if I was in that situation I dont know if I would have showered just because I was such a late bloomer. I was 17 before I had any noticeable hair. At 16 my grandmother had more facial hair than I did. Maybe if I was in a naturalist family I would have seen others like me and been ok with it but I dont think anyone in my school was as late as me and it made me deathly afraid of being seen naked...errections never crossed my mind. And apparently it goes the other way around. I dated a girl who said she had developed breasts at 10 and was always the biggest up until she was a senior and she was always embaressed by being an early bloomer.

 

pensfan13,
You are right!
I was early to get pubic hair and I hated being so different from every other boy in camp. We were all naked every day at various times and there was no avoiding it. Fortunately the bunkhouse chaperone was one of the hairiest guys I have ever seen, probably a retired marine from the look of him and he told the biggest teaser to lay off the teasing. He told that boy that he would be just as hairy as me in just a few more months. Those timely words brought a lot of my confidence back right then and there.

Later, as I got well into my teens, I grew to be comfortable while nude in school locker rooms, church camp showers, and skinny dipping with buddies from scouts. Dad did a lot to help me through my moments of doubt in those awkward years and will always be grateful.
College brought even more circumstances where I was nude, including with young women on informal outings. Each experience helped push me further down the path. Although Dad was not a nudist, his attitude and example gave me the necessary foundation. To me, social nudity is the next logical step in my personal growth. Just wish I'd started sooner!