Bare Babies
Posted on July 16th, 2009 – 10:31 AMBy May Chen
Over breakfast this morning, I showed Maya, 3, the picture that accompanied this article in the New York Times: “When do they need a fig leaf?”
She looked at the cute three-year-old in the picture, cavorting joyfully naked through a forest of (dressed) grownup legs, and smiled.
“Look at her hands!” she said.
I loved that. I loved that what struck her was not the lack of clothes, but that the kid was dancing with hands stretched out. I hope she never loses that.
Of course she will.
And it’ll probably be because of me. The story is about kids who like to be bare and their parents’ comfort (discomfort) level with that. Or the grandparents’ comfort level. A naked three-year-old who won’t put on her clothes is cute. But what about a five-year-old? A nine-year-old?
I have to admit that I call away my own five-year-old when, fresh from her bath, she stands by the front door, peering out through the screen door. Yet I’ll blithely change them out of their swimsuits by a public wading pool. Not sure if there’s any real logic there….but there’s always a nagging sense of….something.
I’m less worried about propriety than the fact there may be someone watching whom you don’t want to be watching. Just a slight nagging sense. Not too much but enough to think about.
Cribsheeters? Any little nudists in your home? What do you think is the appropriate upper age limit?
12 Responses to "Bare Babies"
I’m waiting for the adults to out themselves as nudists. Do we ever grow out of the stage where we just want to walk around naked all day?
Hmmmm…seems like NOBODY is willing to out anybody, whether it’s their kids or themselves….
Silence is deafening!
Bueller? Bueller?
The comments on the NYT article are cover a pretty broad spectrum and some border on ridiculous.
I think we here at Cribsheet are typical (overly) polite Minnesotans and no one wants to debate babies’ bottoms.
Okay, well…here’s my two cents, then! I guess I’m kind of waiting for my kids’ “shame” button to kick in, rather than introducing it for them. I figure there will come a time when my 4-year-old is thinking for himself that he doesn’t want anyone to see him naked, vs. my telling him he shouldn’t.
Not that he is much of a nudist anyway…but I’ve got no qualms about changing him out of his swimsuit in public, for example, and he hasn’t protested either. I figure when he’s ready for that to stop, he’ll let me know.
I’m kinda fine with DD running around naked at home, but since she isn’t potty trained yet, it makes for lots of puddles. DH isn’t as comfortable with it and would like clothes on her all the time. If we had a privacy fence in the backyard, I’d also be okay with her being naked out back. I’m just rather protective about creepy people oogling my toddler.
I let a little nudity go in my house, I figure modesty will kick in when it needs to, and at home, who cares. I guess I’m in the “when appropriate” crowd. Why fight it when it doesn’t matter. Time and a place for everything. I’d rather fight the battles worth fighting.
I’m fine with my kids being naked — they’re so little and it’s completely innocent. However, even in our backyard, for hygiene purposes, I generally require a diaper. Dirt just gets way, way up there, you know?
I used to be fine with nudity, until I had two little boys who find nakedness so liberating that they end up peeing on the floor whenever cold air hits their warm parts. Now I encourage covering up purely because my green machine is dying from overuse!
I don’t mind my little not-quite-two year old girl going around the house or the back yard sans clothes. It will be interesting to see how/if this evolves as she gets older.
The other day she was putting on some pants, without a diaper on, and she asked “I have some privacy?” It took a moment for it to click with me what she was saying. I’m not sure she knew exactly what it meant, but I guess I must ask for privacy sometimes when she always wants to come into the bathroom when I’m using it.
Which leads to another topic of discussion–at what age does YOUR modesty and desire for privacy kick in around your babies/toddlers?
Well, my son is 6 years old and he has never been one to want to walk around naked, though I’d probably want him to wear underwear because little kids are not the best at wiping their own behinds. I, however, am naked pretty often at home (if I get home or out of the shower and don’t feel like wearing clothes, I won’t, and he often sees me getting dressed which I don’t care about either) and my son doesn’t care yet. I figure he will let me know if/when it bothers him.
Violet hates clothes. I’ve tried to deal with it and let her run free, but now she likes to take her diaper off, too. she’s just started whipping off her pants and diapers in the crib if you take too long to get her. And she’s been removing her own shirt on an off for a year now (she’s 19 months).
I don’t have any problem changing or showering in front of her, but my husband tries not to let her see him naked. She already can point to my “girls” and knows that it’s what she has (we’ve been trying a little potting — I don’t want to, but since she’s pulling off her diaper I’m kind of stuck). But I think the husband got a little weirded out when she caught him getting out of a towel and pointed at the goods and said “daddy’s girls? funny”
A little sensitive, he is.
My son, who is 2 1/2 years old, is often naked. In fact, once I figured out that being naked was a good way to potty train him, he was potty trained in just a couple of days.
Our neighbors tease us when they see our son riding his bike without clothes on or jumping through the sprinkler, but I figure it’s their deal, not mine.
My one neighbor told us that everyone else considers us the “Bohemians” on the block. This makes me still chuckle..I figure there is nothing more wonderful than being naked and not ashamed and I’ll let him be naked as long as he wants.
Ok, he has to wear clothes to school, but why be uptight about it now, especially when he is just a toddler?
