Comments on: “Let’s get naked!” Helping children feel comfortable in their skin

By: Leah

Leah — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:28:08 +0000

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

By: Her Bad Mother

Her Bad Mother — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:47:30 +0000

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.

By: crunchy

crunchy — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:19:10 +0000

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!

By: Jessica - This is Worthwhile

Jessica - This is Worthwhile — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:54:00 +0000

You should have a nekkid BlogHer event!

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:43:51 +0000

@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.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:57:19 +0000

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?

By: Frost At Midnight

Frost At Midnight — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:56:29 +0000

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.

By: Family Matters

Family Matters — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:04:48 +0000

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.

By: jen @ negative lane

jen @ negative lane — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:10:46 +0000

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!).

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:41:29 +0000

@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.