And I was surprised in the other direction–how many "yes"es there were, especially at the beginning of this thread. My parents are socially middle-of-the-road–I just don’t have any living memory of seeing either of them naked. Thank goodness.
Saw my mother once by accident when we were staying in a motel room. I don’t have a clear memory of what she looked like. Saw my stepfather in the shower, when he was teaching me the right way to wash up (I was little). Don’t remember any of those details either, happily.
Yes to both, although not recently; when I was a little kid (up to 5 or so, 20 years ago), I remember taking baths with my father, obviously naked, and coming into the bathroom to ask my mother something while she was taking a bath (she used to take rather long baths while reading, and of course little kids aren’t going to wait that long). The closest since than was walking into the bathroom without knowing there was somebody in there (but only half naked).
Female, late 40s. I would occasionally see my parents and brother naked when I was a kid and teenager in terms of getting dressed or coming out of the shower. It didn’t come across as a big deal. I rarely see my dad naked these days but my mom has no problem getting undressed in front of me or having me around when she’s getting out of the shower because it’s just me to her. Some of that is because she sometimes needs help, but she isn’t overly modest when it comes to me. She also has no problem going to the bathroom in front of me (using the toilet of course). Thanks mom.
Female, born in 1968. I can’t remember having seen my father naked, but he used to hang around in his underwear a lot. I used to sit and chat with my mother when she was taking a bath (which now makes me cringe, but only because bathing is about my only “safe” time to recharge without the kids around - nothing to do with nudity).
Born 1966, graduated high school in the 80’s. My parents were unbothered about nudity. My dad used to be nude from bedroom to bathroom until we were six-ish. (We are boy/girl twins.) My mother is still nude when it suits her even today, though with me not my brother! As kids we were allowed to strip off at home until we didn’t want to any more. We are British but brought up in Germany where bodies are no big thing.
My own kids were nude by default until they were six-ish, when they’d come home and strip down to underpants but keep them on. Still, after baths the 12 year old lolls around starkers till he’s dried out and the rest of us sit about in towels. But now we are in Japan, where family nudity is again totally normal, and the bathroom is downstairs next to the living room in a non-centrally heated house, so you make a flying leap to the stove to heat up!! Parents and kids sleep together till the end of elementary school as a matter of routine, and they all take baths together, parents of either gender, with kids of either gender, until the kids say they don’t want to any more, which is around 11 or 12 on average. Our kids have had their own rooms since they were toddlers but it took until they were about 11 before they stopped coming to our bed every night. The 12 year old still migrates to his dad’s side of the bed three or four nights a week.
Both sons (12 and 16) will barge in on us in the bedroom and if either parent is nude they will just go on with their request for pocket money or rant about homework or whatever without batting an eyelid. No big deal, why should it be?
I remember being utterly shocked on holiday in Hawaii on the beach and my then not quite two year old got a sandy bum and took his swimming trunks off. In seconds a security guard had come down “I’m going to have to ask you to put some clothes on that child, Ma’am.” wtf???
Thank goodness much of the rest of the world isn’t as weird about this, as Americans.
Female, born in Spain in '68. My mother yes, Dad no (although I’ve seen everything short of full frontal); the Bros have seen both.
I was born in 1992, and yes, I’ve seen both my parents naked. Dad slept naked and would sometimes wander around naked in the morning when I was little. I saw Mum naked more often, usually when we were getting changed to go swimming or I was hanging out in her room chatting to her while she got dressed. She’s a nurse, so nudity is no big deal to her, and the same goes for me. Strangely, my little sister (16) has become very sensitive about nudity in recent years - she freaks out if she sees me wearing a towel.
Graduated in 1991. When I was toddler and preschool age, I remember my mom keeping the door open when using the bathroom but that ended as my sister and I became less likely to get into toddler-trouble when left unsupervised. When I was in 6th grade, I walked in on my (divorced) mother having sex with a neighbor, so that was fun.
She would walk around in her underwear often enough while getting ready for work so that was nothing unusual.
Not me! I was C-sectioned to freedom!
I’ve seen my parents in their undies countless times, but I don’t remember ever seeing them completely naked. I’m not sure if it was a conscious “don’t let the kids see us naked” effort, or just that they didn’t like being naked anyway. It’s possible that I have seen them naked, but I just don’t have any memory of it.
I do remember that Dad had these thin shorts made of sweatpants-y material, and I don’t think he wore undies underneath, because sometimes he was… pointy… and it weirded me out. He wasn’t parading around with a boner or anything, but as a pre-teen girl, I was grossed out by any evidence that my father might possess a penis.
ETA: female, born in 1980, Canada
I’m a guy. My mom had Alzheimer’s from around age 75 to her death at 80. In the last few years my sisters and I had to help her shower, etc.
Before that, no, we never saw either of them in the nude.
Male, born 1974, USA. Raised by a single mom (well, single until I was 14 or so). I did see her at least a few times, all on accident. She left for work at around the same time I went to school, so mornings were spent with both of us tripping over each other to do things in the bathroom. The usual thing was to wait until mom was in the shower, then announce that I was coming in to brush teeth/go to the bathroom/whatever. Occasionally, signals would cross or something, and oops!
The one bad thing that ever happened with that was when I was in preschool. Some other preschool kid was trying to draw a naked lady with crayons, and it was really obvious he had no idea what he was doing… so I decided to help out, given my recent experience with seeing my mom on accident. The reaction of the preschool teacher when she walked over and saw the crudely-drawn but anatomically-accurate picture was of utter shock, and I learned the valuable lesson that “nudity is bad.” (Which just makes nakedness with the right person all that more fun these many years later!)
Why “thank goodness”? I mean, does it really make that much difference, one way or the other? I thought this was just a bit of family trivia.
No.
I think I was 6 or 7 the first time I saw a naked male adult. It was in a public restroom at the beach. His testacles seemed to be about a foot long and I was shocked! I stumbled across my mom naked a few times and my sisters quite often and didn’t think too much of it. Public nursing in our family of aunts and so on didn’t attract any attention or thought for that matter.
I never saw my parents naked, nor shudder, would I have wanted to.
The American term is lice (and nits are lice eggs). Cooties are an imaginary thing, though the origin might have roots to parasites like lice or fleas.
The closet I’ve come to seeing either parent completely naked was seeing mom give birth to my little brother.
Born in the 50’s - damn I feel old.
I don’t remember seeing my father nude but I’m sure I did because sometime when I was little a made a remark about my father having a tail, very amusing to all my aunts and uncles. I would talk to him when he was in the tub but he always covered himself with a wash cloth.
My mother would change clothes in front of me.
That all stopped when I got old enough to be uncomfortable with it.
My son saw me nude all the time when he was little. I was a single mom and I had to take him with me everywhere including in the bathroom and shower. I remember him looking at me (when he was a toddler) and being very concerned that I was missing a part. I think he thought the missing part had something to do with the toilet and why he was scared to sit on it. After he got older if he caught me naked he’d cover his eyes and say ‘I’m blind I didn’t need to see that I’m blind’.
LOL that’ll teach him to barge in my bedroom with knocking first.
I’m 40 and I’ve seen both parents naked. My mother I’ve seen off and on as long as I’ve been around her. She’d change in front of me while talking, or whatever. As far as I know I’ve only seen my father once. I was young (maybe 4 or 5?) and he was in the bathroom taking a bath when all hell busted loose in the kitchen. I don’t remember what happened but my mom was screaming at me and hitting me and I was hysterically crying. Next thing I knew my dad was standing in the kitchen doorway in all his glory yelling “What in the fuck is going on?”
I immediately went from hysterical tears to dead silence, and I was mortified. I very clearly remember the internal conflict and embarrassment I felt as a result of not wanting to stare but being unable to pull my eyes away, all underscored by my sudden silence. That was the part where being mortified came in. I felt so obvious.