Daddy's home. Let's get naked!!!

I would have difficulty believing this one were it not for Mrs. J’s total reliability as an observer.

She was watching MSNBC Friday as they did live coverage of the carrier Abraham Lincoln’s return from the Gulf to San Diego.
A reporter decided to interview a 7-year-old boy whose father was coming home on the ship. The exchange went like this:

*Ms. Reporter: “So what are you going to do with your daddy when he gets home?”

Little Boy: “We’re going to play The Naked Game!”

Ms. Reporter, unfazed: “What’s that?”

Little Boy: “That’s when we get naked and wrestle!!”*

:eek:

The boy’s relatives did some groaning and fidgeting when he began talking about The Naked Game.

Can’t understand why they’d be uneasy about what is probably just some innocent horseplay. :rolleyes:

And speaking of great moments in reporting, I must thank the Cincinnati Enquirer for enlivening my day. I especially enjoyed the story about Ray Tanner, who beheaded his wife in Fairfield, Ohio on Valentine’s Day in 1990, was found not guilty by reason of insanity, released in '96, and now wants an end to his court-ordered psychological visits. Opposing this request is the victim’s mother, who is named Shirley Cleaver.

Really.

On the next page, there is a story headlined “Butler leaders sharpen budget axes”.

I think the Metro section editor must have been on a crack binge.

Finally, a front page story from their Louisville correspondent focuses on the woman jockey who’ll be riding a horse in the Kentucky Derby. Speaking of the opposition among trainers to picking women as jockeys, jockey Patricia Cooksey said, “There’s a lot of (male) trainers that will flat not ride a girl”.

I love the Enquirer.

Wow…the Naked Game is truly a frightening insight into their family life. I wonder if social services had a long interview with both son and father before Daddy could come home.

Any of y’all have small kids? Naked is their normal, desired state, and it’s very likely there was nothing wrong at all with the Naked Game. I don’t consider it “frightening” at all, and I hope they didn’t get bothered by social services and all the crap that can bring just on the strength of that. Sheesh.

Yeah, little kids prefer to be naked, but few non-scary adults prefer to be naked when wrestling with small, naked children. The phrase “when we get naked” is what’s skeeving people out, here.

That vaguely creeps me out, but it’s probably very harmless. Equally creepy (to me) is when children ages 5, 6, 7 take showers with mom or dad. I’m positive that nothing bad usually goes on, but why can’t they take showers on their own? I know families who do this regularly, and it never fails to slightly skeeve me out.

Well cultures and dispositions differ. I would also feel a bit oogy about bathing with my kids say past age 2-3 or so, but I also remember when I watched the delightful Japanese anime film “My Friend Totoro” with my kids, and the dad is bathing in one big tub with his daughters who were 4 and 10 years old respectively with no hint of anything sexual or abusive.

The Japanese have a different attitude towards nudity than we do. Nudity in a bathing situation is not sexual, you’re just naked.

This family’s game does sound a bit weird, but I expect it’s harmless. I don’t think I EVER saw my dad naked, though.

astro, very true! I loved that movie, and remember not thinking anything of the bath scene. However, since I never bathed with my parents and didn’t know if anyone I knew ever had, I think I was predisposed to think it was something only people in other parts of the world did. Quite ignorant, but it was something that took a while to warm up to, especially since I know many people who were molested at a young age. I babysit two girls (aged 3 and 5) who bathe with their parents, and I’m good friends with both parents and am fine with it because I know that they would never do anything bad to their children.

whiterabbit, I never saw my father naked, either (thank goodness). I’ve never seen my mother naked, either. And I rarely wanted to get naked as a child. I was raised with the belief that nudity is a private thing, nothing to be ashamed of, but something that you shouldn’t necessarily flaunt in front of everyone. My parents never did more than a very brief, chaste kiss in front of me, and were never very touchy-feely with me (no wrestling, physical games, etc). I, by no means, grew up in a loveless home. I’m very loved, and know it well! :slight_smile: However, my parents just chose not to do those things. I suspect that has a lot to do with my inherent sense of discomfort at families who seem overly physical with their children or let them run around naked constantly. I know there’s nothing wrong with it and I certainly don’t think badly of the parents and kids, but it just seems so alien to me that it’s taken some time to get used to.

A true story. My sister was visiting and her six year old girls were playing in the kiddie pool. Our cousin came over with her two year old son. She stripped down her boy and put him in the pool naked. The girls were scandalized as only six year olds can be.

“He’s naked. That’s gross.”

My cousin tried to be reasonable, “Everyone is naked once in a while. Is it gross when you’re naked?”

“Sometimes.”

[quote]
Daddy’s home. Lets get naked

[quote]

Mommys here lets get started :smiley:

I’ve seen my MOM naked on occasion. That isn’t a big deal; we’re both women, we know what we look like.

I have been known to risk life and limb by telling my brother I saw him naked – as a BABY! :smiley: He doesn’t like that much, for some reason.

Perhaps it is owing to my former work in a hospital, but nakedness is not a big deal, IMHO.

I’ve seen my Mother and Father in the buff, and although I don’t want my daughter running through the mall in her birthday suit, won’t get crazy about it.

Europeans seem to have a much more healthy attitude regarding nudity.

I don’t suppose that anyone else here thinks that perhaps this small boy has a sibling, and that when he said “we” he was saying the children get naked and wrestle with the father? My nephews did this all the time with my Brother-in-law. As soon as he came home it was “naked time”!

That may be true in some regards (topless and nudist beaches come to mind), but to this European, there is something creepy about a 7 year old boy getting naked with his father to wrestle, and the practice being common enough they have invented a name for it. I don’t know, hard to put a finger on it. It could be completely innocent, but I understand the OP’s “WTF?”-feeling.

It creeps me out when dopers tell anecdotes about going to the toilet in the same room as their kids (for instance).

But then again I am British.

I echo Vixenation’s comments to the letter.

I don’t think I’ve read any such anecdotes, but if I had, I know this American would have been totally skeeved out. Ick.

Hmm. Count me in on the “no big deal” side. I’m another Doper who never saw the big uproar about being naked/others being naked/nudity. I do understand that other people were raised differently, however, and they might be uncomfortable with it, but I’ve never really understood being squicked, icked or grossed out. Just my two coppers, though.

:slight_smile:

My parents were pretty reserved. I happen to be more physical with my kids. I am not sure but I believe I NEVER took a bath with the Fem-Bot. I took a few with the Man-Cub when he was maybe…18 months? 2? By the time they were both 5, they were using the shower. It was messy, but for a year or two in there we’d turn on the water and get it safe temperature wise, and they’d bathe, while the parent left the bathroom.

As for the O.P. , I amfairly skeeved out if in fact this game involves an adult getting naked and wrestling around with his children. As was mentioned, bathing in Japan is viewed differently than in other cultures, it is done communally sometimes and is not considered a sexual thing. However, I doubt that the Japanese wrestle with their offspring while naked and bathing.

This guy’s kid just blew the lid off his family’s Greco-Roman little secret… :rolleyes:

Cartooniverse

Maybe it’s innocent and he isn’t a molester. On the point of thinking it weird to shower with a 5, 6 or 7 year old, well, that’s just silly. My wife showers with our 6 year old daughter at times and it’s a shower, nothing else. It’s easier to wash her hair and save on water at times…I wouldn’t shower with her, however. My son is 9 months and I occasionaly shower with him.

I hope to show him that nudity is nothing to be ashamed of, not to flaunt it, yet not to be so bashful either.