I have no memories of seeing either of my parents naked, but I do remember sharing public bathroom stalls with my mother (same gender as me). When I was out with my mom and not yet old enough to hang out in the general public bathroom area, I would go in the stall with her, but face the corner while she did her thing. She would wait outside the stall for me.
In the same vein, when is a child too old to kiss their opposite sex parent on the lips? I’m twenty-four and have always kissed my dad on the lips. It’s never seemed weird to me, but my sisters recently told me that they haven’t done that in years. Does the sex or gender of the parent in relation to oneself make a difference with lip kisses?
Well, right up until I moved out at the age of 23, neither of my parents worried about covering up when (say) walking from their bedroom to the bathroom in the morning, and neither did I. I’m male, but I don’t see why that should make a difference. We’re not nudists at all - they would cover their modesty if we had guests - even if the guests were their own parents, interestingly.
I still kiss my mother and father on the lips (occasionally) at 24 - it sounds very odd writing it or reading it, but it seems perfectly normal to occasionally do it as a greeting or farewell.
Exactly. I call the former kind “incidental nudity.” That would include things like walking to the bathroom, changing clothes, etc. My son is almost 8, and we’re both fine with incidental nudity.
If he starts getting icked out, well, I’ll probably make some effort to reduce it on my part, but he’s just going to have to deal with some of it. No way no how am I going to start sleeping with clothes on. And our apartment is set up so that you have to go through the living room to get to the bathroom from either bedroom, and my closet is not in my bedroom, so having to cover up constantly would be pretty annoying.
ETA: I don’t hang out in the buff but the kidlet likes to do that occasionally, which is fine with me.
When the child feels uncomfortable. I was about 4 or 5 and my Dad would be shaving at the sink and I would go in and use the toilet. One day it didn’t feel right so I stopped.
We’re five people in the house when I’m at my parent’s, and when time is an issue in the morning nobody has a problem taking a shower while another person is at the sink - my parents, sister or sister’s boyfriend. It was never an issue, not even during puberty. Hell, I saw my elementary school teacher naked in the sauna when I was nine or so. No big deal.
I’d say there isn’t an age limit. There may be periods in your child’s where they or you feel uncomfortable with the other’s nudity, but it’s not like there’s a time past which it shouldn’t happen. My parents didn’t make a big deal about nudity, neither hiding it or flaunting it. I feel like that was a good choice. It’s not that big a deal, really, and I think it’s best not to treat it as such.
Having said that, if it makes you uncomfortable then by all means don’t allow nudity. I just think that it’s healthier treat nudity as a normal thing, not as something to be ashamed of.
This. kaylasmom and I have pretty much always slept in the nude, and we never made a priority of getting clothed as soon as we get up in the morning. This didn’t change when Michaela was born, thirteen years into our marriage.
There was a time, maybe six years ago, when kaylasauntie (kaylasmom’s older sister) pressured Michaela into telling us that seeing us nekkid around the house made her uncomfortable, and we tried to stop, but that only lasted a couple of weeks. We went back to being indoor nudists intrafamily, and never heard a peep out of her. In fact, it’s only been in the past few months that Michaela herself has made an effort to not be seen nude by her parents* (she’ll be fourteen in May).
*Technically, I suppose instead of “parents,” I should say “father,” seeing as how her mother has no eyeballs. I’m out of town presently, and I don’t really know if Michaela, for instance, put on a robe before making breakfast for kaylasmom this morning. Can’t really think of a smooth way to ask, either.