we were at the beach on Sunday. It was beautiful ! 87 degrees. I put on a few pounds over the winter and had to "fit" into my textile swimsuit. It always sucks fitting into my swimsuit on vacation. I was lying on the beach with my wife, telling me not to flash my crack to those around us.. LOL. I just wanted to strip off my swimsuit, but I am sure that someone would become offended and dial 911 and the fashion police would have showed up.
My 9 year old son, because of the sand in his swimsuit rubbing in his crotch area, had developed a rash and was crying it hurt so I had to go fetch some vaseline to rub on his rash. I said to my wife, "you know if he didn't have a suit on, he wouldn't have got a rash in the first place".
I got the look like I was an absolute freak.
When we arrived back at the condo, I was taking a shower to rinse off all the sand and sweat, and my son comes in the bathroom. I told him to come into the bathroom, strip, and I was getting out of the shower, and he could just jump in and take his shower, without me turning off the shower and all that. He says….absolutely not ! Dad you might see me naked.
At 9 years old…he is over conscious about being "naked"..
What the Hell !! ??
How as a parents are we in America creating this fear of simple nudity? It's just absolutely stupid and it is damaging. How do you convince people of healthy nudity when they are so opposed to something they have never experienced?
As Richard says, it's a sad story. I wonder if there might be some way to allow the boy his "privacy", and at the same time to say, firmly, clearly, lovingly, that there would be no shame in being seen naked by his father. I presume, Gregory, that you had no concerns about being seen naked by him? That would be good modeling, at least.
Oh, I have no problems at all with it. There is no covering up at our house, but we were on vacation with extended family and he was out of his "element".
You are 100% right Shane. Congratulations on taking the sensible & natural approach to teaching your kids how to follow your lifestyle choices. As long as they are also aware of the 'nutters' & the 'perverts' that are out there and those who choose to 'mis-read' what they see !
We were at a fairly deserted beach about 2 years ago, the nearest people were about a thousand yards away. We were both feeling quite hot and needed to feel the sea breezes on our skin. We both got naked and lay on our towels. Later we both put a magazine over our eyes to shield from the glare of the sun. We must have dozed off, when I awoke a short while later I noticed a family of about 6 or 7 people were about 6 feet in front of us. The 'mother' of their group just casually waved, when she stood up it was clear she was naked too. Her 'husband' came to me and said "I know this isn't a nudist beach, but thanks for giving us the courage to strip, that's why we stayed near you two. We hate having to wear swimwear."
The whole family were naked, it turned out to be a glorious afternoon and we made new friends… naked on a textile beach !
Now that's a good story!
On family vacation my son and I often go naked on public beaches. My daughter will sometimes follow suit. We always change openly even on very crowded beaches because the message I'm teaching to my kids is there is no shame in being naked and nobody is paying attention anyway.
Whereas we haven't had quite that experience there was one occasion when a hiker turned up, probably saw us and stripped to sunbake himself. My wife almost walked up to him thinking it was me drying off after a swim. She realised at the last minute it wasn't.
In my view if people really want nakedness to be normal they must behave like it's normal. I strongly suspect others will follow suit. That's how most things get established. It is in fact how I grew up. Or family camped by streams and beaches and skinny dipping was absolutely normal.
It is complete madness and we are responsible. Things need to change.
I totally agree.
Throw the swimsuit away 🙂
Yeah. I hate that friggen swimsuit. It makes no sense to me. Sitting in a wet swimsuit at the beach. It's lunacy gone mainstream.
What an awfully sad story!