We talked before about the nudist women, the nudist men, and the nudist couples, but what with the kids? Well, we don’t have any of those, so sorry, we can’t help you.
End of the shortest blog post ever.
No, really, we get a lot of questions about family nudism and we’ve done a lot of research about having nudist children. We also had the opportunity to talk with plenty of nudist families about how they integrate the kids into the lifestyle. They have given us lots of valuable information.
So even though there aren’t any little Nick’s or Lins’ running around, for now, we do believe that we might give you a tip or two about family nudism and nudism with kids. We can give you even nine.
End of the shortest blog post ever.
No, really, we get a lot of questions about family nudism and we’ve done a lot of research about having nudist children. We also had the opportunity to talk with plenty of nudist families about how they integrate the kids into the lifestyle. They have given us lots of valuable information.
So even though there aren’t any little Nick’s or Lins’ running around, for now, we do believe that we might give you a tip or two about family nudism and nudism with kids. We can give you even nine.
1. Start early with family nudism
Children are born nudists, even in the textile world we haven’t met a single kid younger than 3-4 years old that preferred to wear clothes over running around butt naked on a sunny afternoon. If you have the chance to integrate your children into the nudist lifestyle from the moment they are born, you’ll be able to skip an awkward situation and possibly several discussions. Children who have never known anything else will not question their nudity, or yours.
2. Start with being naked at home
Of course, it’s not always possible to take your kids to nudist places day after day, so if you’d like them to get used to the lifestyle from a younger age, it’s important to include nudity in your daily life. Make sure to spend a reasonable amount naked together around the home so the little ones recognize this as a normal way of being. By doing so, they’ll also recognise it as a real lifestyle rather than something you do on vacation once in a while. How far you’re going with this is completely up to you and up to the way you experience nudism. It’s certainly not necessary to spend every second naked just to make sure that your kids follow your example, just by not making a deal about nudity you’ll often accomplish enough.
3. Do you keep it a secret or not?
When you don’t want something to be kept a secret, tell your kids. Yes, they are all little tattletales, and chances that they are going to tell everybody who likes to hear that you’re a nudist family are pretty large. This could go from a “Mommy why aren’t we naked like at home” in the queue at the supermarket to telling grandma that they can be naked around their own house to drawing a bunch of nude sunbathers when the teacher asks them to illustrate their last holiday. Just keep this in mind. If you’re still in the closet as nudists, it’s probably not the best idea to start including the kids.
A solution could be to ask your kids not to tell anyone about the nudity at home, but we would advise against this. First of all because as we said before, it’s hard for a kid to keep a secret and also because by doing so you’re giving the signal that you’re doing something wrong, that nudity is wrong. We don’t want that.
4. Find some nudist friends for the kids
Yes, we know how much you like that little silent campground where you used to go every summer, but now that there’s more of you, you might want to consider finding a new place to spend your naked time. Not only is a place without other kids extremely boring for yours, but places with other nudie kids will also add to their acceptance of the lifestyle when they grow older.
Everyone who reaches puberty wants to belong, pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you at that age is finding out that there’s not really anyone like yourself, at least not anyone you know of and although you’d love that your kids end up seeing yourself as their reference, they will not. Nobody wants to be like mom and dad when they’re fifteen years old. By making sure that your kids have nudist friends, chances are smaller that they’ll turn away from the lifestyle sooner or later.
5. Don’t be too scared of people with bad intentions
We don’t like the idea that perverts can see us naked and we certainly don’t like that they could be looking at our children. Although this is an issue we shouldn’t treat lightly, you have to know that a nudist environment is very protective. Just because we’re all vulnerable when we are naked, we do watch each other’s backs and if somebody would have too much attention in your kids, people will notice and warn you or get over there and ask the person for an explanation. We would even dare to say that nudist environments are safer when it comes to protecting your children than many textile environments.
6. The story of the birds and the bees
Some people think that by exposing their kids to nudity this will turn them into little perverts or that it might result in child pregnancy. There is certainly no proof for this and we seriously beg to differ. Because they will be used to seeing nudity, they are not going to sexualize the naked body like textile teenagers do. This will give them more confidence about their own bodies and more respect for the body of their future partners. It’s pretty much an all-win situation. And just like in the textile world there will be a time that they’ll figure out about the birds and the bees or that you’ll have to tell them about it, but we have no reason at all to believe that this time will come earlier if they are nudists.
7. What if your kids don’t want to be nudists anymore?
No matter how hard you tried, no matter how many nudist friends you’ve found for your kids, chances are that sooner or later they will turn away from the lifestyle. There are many different ways for them to do so, sometimes it’s pure rebellion, sometimes they get body issues and sometimes they just want to explore other paths. Let them go. There’s no help in forcing your kid to remain a nudist because you’ll probably only make it worse. Tell them that you understand their choice even though you regret it. Tell them that it’s not a big deal if they want to remain clothed, but that you are not going to change your lifestyle for them. You’re nudies and you will remain so, whatever they want to do.
8. What if they have non-nudist friends coming over?
Ha… this is a tricky one and another reason to put some effort in point 4. If the friends are nudist kids, there’s nothing to worry about. Your kids can be naked, the friends can and so can you. But what if textile friends are coming over?
Unfortunately, there’s no answer to this that will cover every situation and you may want to be careful with this because being naked around kids that are not your own could get you in big trouble. The best thing would be to check with the parents if they’re okay with it and if not or if you’re not sure, we would advise you to cover up a bit when the friends are around. You don’t want to chase your kids out of the house whenever they want to hang out with their friends.
Unfortunately, there’s no answer to this that will cover every situation and you may want to be careful with this because being naked around kids that are not your own could get you in big trouble. The best thing would be to check with the parents if they’re okay with it and if not or if you’re not sure, we would advise you to cover up a bit when the friends are around. You don’t want to chase your kids out of the house whenever they want to hang out with their friends.
9. Sunscreen, a towel and a good book
Sunscreen is probably the most important of them all. If you manage to get your own behind burned, well, that’s your own fault and you’ll have to sit through it (although sitting might not really be an option). But a least try not to get your kids burned. Not only is it unhealthy but they won’t be the best company anymore.
From kids, it’s more accepted when they place their naked bodies on some kind of furniture without first putting a towel, but we want them to remain nudist, right? So it’s better to teach them from the start to use their towel.
And yeah, they’re playing so many video games, this might be a good time as well to introduce them to the world of books, or at least to the world of playing outside.
From kids, it’s more accepted when they place their naked bodies on some kind of furniture without first putting a towel, but we want them to remain nudist, right? So it’s better to teach them from the start to use their towel.
And yeah, they’re playing so many video games, this might be a good time as well to introduce them to the world of books, or at least to the world of playing outside.
Picture credit: Emmanuel THOMAS. Do not copy any of these images without the photographer’s permission.
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Hey guys whats good?
Just wanted to state out that , i dont like calling out.. like in no5 u mentioned perverts.
I got this theory that ppl that wanna be accepted by wider audience or “society” (i hate that word) ,usually tend do bash something/one, for to be accepted as like .. hey we`re on the same side.
It looks to be the best thing to do when u wanna be accepted .. i dont like the idea of “steping” on someone/s for leverage.
If you say that if someone is watching u is a pervert, doesnt that mean that every1 thats watching porn is one? Doesnt it mean then the exibicionists are? Eventho when u were covering that subject u basicly said that every1 is an exib in a way ,and if i recal u even said theres nothing really wrong with being one?
I dont know.. i noticed things like these in all aspects of life, non nudist matters ,rather with reading or in person.
As for no6 , i dunno where, but i read on an actual nudist portal that nudist kids do actually engage in sexual acts before textiles,not that its important ,good or bad or that it matters, just stating out what i read.
no7 ,”…but that you are not going to change your lifestyle for them. You’re nudies and you will remain so, whatever they want to do.”
This sounds a bit disrespectfull ,i dont know .. but i always wondered why is it that teens turn away from nudism even tho they have been nude ALL thier life, seen tons of naked from babies to 80yos .. and they still stop when they become teens ,at least most of them from what ive read.. is it posibile that even tho u been nude for 12 13 15 years, you know all about it and the point of it, and yet u still decide to be shamefull about it? I cant accept that one just simply doesnt like it anymore for no reason, its like .. ive been eating pizza for 30 years and all of a sudden i start to hate it? Na.. cant happen lol
ps sorry i always sound negative, but actually thats just an inpression, depends on what side ur looking at things
We don’t agree with your comparison with watching porn. Porn was made to entertain people, we don’t go to a nude beach for the pleasure of others.
We’ve researched the whole nudism with children topic quite heavily and couldn’t find any proof that nudist kids engage sooner in sex than clothed kids. It all has to do with the link people make between nudity and sex. If you’re raised without this link, there’s no reason why one would influence the other.
About number 7, suppose your kid becomes a vegetarian, will the whole family stop eating meat? Same thing.
It’s quite common that teenagers turn away from nudism for a couple of reasons: 1. They struggle with their body during puberty, 2. They want to be like everyone else and certainly not a minority and 3. Rebellion against the lifestyle of their parents.
Even if my porn comparison maybe wasnt good its still not ok to callout any1 else as a perv ,just so that would make the person who doing the calling out ,look better in the eyes of ppl they wanna be accepted by.
And the comparison it self isnt the point but the meaning of the word pervert, and how its used and for what.
And as i said about that sex part, i read that on a nudist portal ,made by nudists.
Tho even if what i read is true , why would u ,or Kindrak(he commented here) consider that as a bad thing? I wasnt hinting it out as good or a bad thing that they have sex more eraier, but just something that i saw on a nudist site.
Well .. being a vegy and having parents nude that u dont really like , is not the same thing.. one wont affect ur kid, the other can/will.
As for the teen part, well .. why do they struggle with their body if they have been nude all their life and they`ve seen tons of others nude of every shape and age? And whats the difference for having a little speedo that will barely cover up ur butt and ur D ,with having non on?
I dont think it has anything to do with body image.
Why would they rebell againts their lifestyle when they them selfs were living it all their life till that point?.. that kinda makes no sence to me.And just to quote u ..
“It all has to do with the link people make between nudity and sex. If you’re raised without this link, there’s no reason why one would influence the other.”
Same can be said about being nude.. and they still mind it heh..
I skipped/missed this in part 1.
“Children who have never known anything else will not question their nudity, or yours.”
This can be applied to literally anything ,and in a way it can be called grooming?
First thing that comes to my mind are these protests in the USA, where they have lil kids like 5yo.. with anti-gun signs, 5yos that dont even know what is written on the sign.. or to refer to the other side, u a have 5 or i dunno 10 12yos, with a shotgun in their hands where the “proud” dad is showing how good it is to own a gun .. or having kids at Pride(s) ,nowadays Prides are more sexual then the point of the Pride it self, like i seen Leather Fetish groups marching with like i dunno ..how to explain that thing, ..where they are walking each other like dogs horses..
Or having some ppl explaining their 5yo that they can be nonbinary if “they want” ..like a 5yo even knows what that is and why..
So isnt all of this grooming? I dont mind it either way, but it either is , or it isnt ,it cant be yes or no ,depending if i like the situation or not.
Iceman: You have valid questions, and I respect your directness in stating your comments. I’d take a different view on a few concerns:
1) All parents, by intent or accident, set an example of behavior and model their beliefs. This is not grooming, a term which in the context of sexual behavior does indeed refer to intentional manipulation of another person in order to achieve the sexual desires of the manipulator. It is clearly wrong, and not at all condoned in the naturist community, much less by parents. Even the law typically not forbid simple nudity by young children, recognizing the innocence of that, although common practice at schools is to follow social norms, hence requiring clothing, outside locker rooms.
2) There is little scholarly research on nudism in general, so I’d like to see what you read in regards to nudist children being sexually active earlier than textile kids. I grew up in a strict religious home, and know from my friends’ experience and from community health nurses that religious kids have plenty of sexual activity. I also figured out that kids lie, both understating(shame) and overstating(false bravado) about sexual exploits, depending on who’s asking and many factors. So I’d be very skeptical of surveys in that area of behavior unless I see the methodology.
3) I didn’t ask my parents anything about sex, ever, as a child, and not even as an adult until I became a healthcare provider and my parents were senior citizens. I am much more open about the topic with my children, and while conversations are age appropriate, I want my kids to get facts from reliable sources, not hearsay from friends. Being open about simple nudity, starting at home keeps an open relationship where they are free to ask questions.
Just my thoughts.
Regards,
Trust me we don’t consider everyone that looks at us and our kids / grandkids to be a “pervert”.
But you pretty quickly which ones are.
Cheers Nick and Lins – we are in this position with our two kids who we recently took along to a naturist family camping festival.
I let the oldest (who is six) get undressed as his own pace and sure enough in a short while he ended up making friends and playing nude most of the weekend without thinking too much about it.
We still take him along to a naturist club on sunny weekends and he just gets on with enjoying himself. I don’t think he’s told his friends at school but if he did so what?
I don’t want him to think it’s shameful or a secret – it isn’t at all. It’s joyous and lovely and I want him to enjoy it freely.
All my personal experience and research agrees with and supports everything in this article; as does general human behaviour and psychology. You can switch out nudist with most any behaviour or psychology you wish to imprint or introduce to your children and it will work. Tips #5 and #6 would require some wibbily-wabbably application but can still be made to apply somehow.
I must also, in particularly, agree with Tips #5 and #6 as they both completely mesh with everything I have read and experienced with the application of naturism in my life. I am a student of the mind, body and nature; I am both a Naturalist as well as a Naturist. My work focuses primarily on animal science and behaviour but they transition very easily to parallel human behaviour. When I first became interested in naturism I approached it from an intellectual perspective as opposed to a purely emotionally based one. I already knew I like being nude in nature so just accepted that and moved on to finding out why people would want to be naked in social situations and get to the root of why people have so may hang up on clothing; no pun intended.
In doing my research on Naturism I read many articles and actual studies done on the effects of non sexual nudity on children. Some were surprised at their own results but many were not; that children exposed to nudity grew up to have a healthier body image, less likely to struggle with body issues, far less likely to engage in experimental sexual activity at early ages, far lower teen pregnancy rates as a result, and even lower divorce rates. Children exposed to non-sexual nudity were also far more likely to report abuse of all kinds, than there textile counterparts.
I have also witnessed how protective naturists are of each other and in particularly of children. In anyone sees any behaviour that they deem as inappropriate, it is reported and dealt with ASAP. Naturist are mellow and laid back for the most part and willing to give people the benefit of the doubt the fist time but the are not naive. If you cross the line once and you will walk a fine line for the rest of your stay or until you prove you are not a threat to the community. Evey Naturist event or venue I have been too has taken rule breaking very seriously and will prosecute offenders to the full extent of the law. Do not anger the Bares.
There’s one issue you didn’t raise regarding what you tell your kids. Of course you don’t know about it until you get “The call”
Ours came from our daughter “I just got called to the school because Kai (number 2 grandson) won’t put his clothes back on! Apparently it’s a hot day and Nanny and Poppy say it’s OK!”.
Oh well if we’re going to be a bad influence on our grandkids then I guess we owe it to them to be the best bad influence we can be.
There are definitely worse ways to be a bad influence on your grandkids than this. If that is as bad as it gets, I say… bring it on.
Yay to you for bringing up your family in the nudist lifestyle. Kai absolutely has the right idea and the right spirit.
I would urge just a bit more caution in that regard. It’s one thing when it is taken lightly by the teacher or administration; it’s another thing when you are threatened with a CPS intervention.
I nearly had a heart attack one day when I came home from work and found my wife on the phone chatting with my daughter’s daycare, delivering profuse apologies. She turned to me with a bewildered expression and proceeded to recount the events that had just transpired at the daycare center. It involved my daughter not only “outing” us a nudist family; but also proceeding to go into detail about it. This got back to some of the children’s parents, who proceeded to call the daycare center and complain. The daycare center then proceeded to warn us that if my daughter wasn’t more discreet, “further action” would be taken. So we decided to have “the talk” with our daughter, stressing the importance of not telling “everyone.”
This situation breaks my heart. CPS has been breaking apart families for decades now, posturing themselves to be experts. They lie to an in-house family court which considers parents guilty until proven innocent. Read at medicalkidnap.com how horribly unethical they are. By government statistics, only 17% of child removals are done with substantiation of reported or alleged abuse. In one case which I heard the defending lawyer relate, CPS conducted an “emergency removal” of an early teen boy from his parents for the sole reason that the boy didn’t want to go to church with them on a given weeknight. Emergency removals are supposed to be used only when life is under imminent threat. It’s very sad indeed that parents today have to fear our runaway government more than non-government crime.
I totally agree with your nine tips above. My children are older now, but I wish that we had raised them in a more open lifestyle. My late wife and I never associated nudity with shame, but we pretty much followed the textile lifestyle. I regret this choice to simply follow the conventional American lifestyle because it allowed the culture to influence their views, especially with regard to the sexualization of women. I totally agree with your statement in Tip 6: “Because they will be used to seeing nudity, they are not going to sexualise the naked body like textile teenagers do.” Fortunately, my children have turned out to be fairly open-minded, even if they did not experience a naturist lifestyle.
Regarding your Tip 3, there are many people in our lives who do not understand a naturist lifestyle. I would advise telling children that there is nothing wrong or shameful about naturism, but other people may not see things the way we do, so we have to be careful about who we tell. I don’t like the idea of keeping secrets, and I wish that we could be totally open with everyone, but American society is very conformist. Other examples of things that we probably wouldn’t want our kids to talk about are (legal) marijuana use by the parents or even political or religious views of the parents.
Great article, and I wish that all kids could experience the freedom of a naturist lifestyle. Of course, when they get older, they can make their own choice whether they want to continue to pursue a naturist lifestyle.
People unfortunately seem to get social credit by accusing others without understanding. It’s called prejudice, pre-judging (typically negatively). God, our creator made man and woman naked and without shame. Then they were beguiled by sophistry, something not of God. Then they disregarded God’s instruction and pursued knowledge of evil by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good AND evil (they knew only of good before that). In the word “sophisticated”, we have captured that moment in Eden, when we became adulterated (no longer pure, as at birth) by worldly knowledge. Then we, like Adam and Eve, hide from God, self-shamed for reasons not clear. If you look at the etymology of the word “perversion”, you’ll find it to be a religious term, speaking of a deviation from God’s truth. It’s application to sexual thoughts is relatively recent, late 1800s as I recall. Rejoice in the good body God gave you. Modesty is an attitude, not an attire. I appreciate the modesty gained by losing the disguise of textiles. Conversely, fashion can be very seductive or provocative. Teach your children well.
We raised two kids as naturists from birth (they’re now 18 and 21) and we think they’re better for it. We had no problems because of naturism. Just the usual challenges with raising kids.
Here is a good resource for people who have questions or concerns about children and naturism: http://www.BareOaks.ca/kids
We have been to a few nude vacations in Florida. We have for the most part had no problem. Most of the family’s are older. Dad like 68 mom 54 son 38 and his wife. Few children. We went on one sponsored by a nudist camp that was scary. Sponsors were infatuated with our party. Me 36 girlfriend 26, her cousin and husband both 35 kids 12 and 11, and girlfriends teen sister. The sponsor and their family would not leave us alone, singling out teens and introducing us to friends that were foster parents with 11 family members.
If people started out as nudist then let them choice at 18 if they want to stay that way for good. Society would be better for it. Alot as you say body issues steam from basicly not seeing naked people in person. If you see someone just like you but naked and that thought they are naked dont care about that fact. Sooner or lster you will try it to. When i have a family i want nudity not to be a feared thing or a forbidden thing in my household
Thanks for the sensitive but good information on children concerning nudity as its so natural and loving
Hi Nick and Lins:
Hope you are both well.
Gary and I see your post on the 9 tips for a successful nudie family , come up often during reposts. And that is great to see. These tips are so useful to nudist parents-to-be. Often when we meet other nudists couples and nudist families, this discussion comes up. It’s not as much of an issue with nudists who socialize with others at clubs, as these children are brought up in a nudist world, unashamed. However we do see some families grappling with young teen children feeling, as there bodies change, not to want to pursue the lifestyle. That’s a difficult one as it dampens the togetherness of family nudism. Sometimes we see the teens return later in their teenage years.
As far as nudism and children around non-nudists, we find it takes a honesty and patience in trying to inform your children about the lifestyle without sending the wrong message out to your own children about the wholesomeness of nudism. But with time it works.
We don’t have children. But we are nudist god parents to some of our nudist friends families and we have shared in their upbringings.
Thank you again for this important message.
Cheers
Jan&Gary
zou het mogelijk zijn om deze blog ook in het Nederlands weer te geven aub
Dag Patrick, aangezien we twee blog posts per week publiceren is het helaas te veel werk om dit in verschillende talen te doen. Als je onze blog liever in het Nederlands leest raden we je aan om met de Google Chrome browser te werken, deze kan de website voor jou vertalen.
And then they get to a certain age they don’t want to be Naturists anymore. And since naturism is a choice I have to respect that. But it means no more nude vacations. You cannot imagine how it saddens me…
BTW, you guys rock!
The most important tip is: start early. Are the pictures made at Sabliere and La Genese in France.
Indeed! The river pictures are taken in the Cèze river at La Genèse/Sabliere
I would caution against anyone using statistics and published articles to determine the behavior of naturist children and teenagers. I used to do just that and got refuted each time I visited a nudist camp, club or resort.
Children have a wide variety of experiences and their moral compass will be determined by their parents and their environment. So I tend to doubt numbers and hearsay.
My naturist friend at 19 at Olive Dell said it best. “I wouldn’t say nudist kids are any more mature than textile kids. Kids will be kids.”
There’s definitely some truth in that!