Teenagers Reaction

[travisg]

I need some input from younger naturists. I'm a 42 year old dad -- sons are 16 and 12. I told them earlier today that during a recent vacation, I enjoyed relaxing around the house my wife and I rented in the nude. Asked them if I did the same at home, would they mind or be uncomfortable. Both seemed positive, and to some degree supportive. I think their reactions were straightforward. Do others in this forum think I did the right thing? What would you think if (you weren't into naturism now) and your dad told you the same?

I don't think I hit them out of the blue. Both saw me naked in the family room watching TV with their Mom last night.

Trav

[travisg]

I need some input from younger naturists. I'm a 42 year old dad -- sons are 16 and 12. I told them earlier today that during a recent vacation, I enjoyed relaxing around the house my wife and I rented in the nude. Asked them if I did the same at home, would they mind or be uncomfortable. Both seemed positive, and to some degree supportive. I think their reactions were straightforward. Do others in this forum think I did the right thing? What would you think if (you weren't into naturism now) and your dad told you the same?

I don't think I hit them out of the blue. Both saw me naked in the family room watching TV with their Mom last night.

Trav

[nudeM]

travisg: Just a little warning: When I first walked nude in front of my boys, 14 and 17, they, both said they were alright with my nudity. But comes to find out, the older one was much more bothered by it than the younger. He has since enrolled in the Navy and is no longer around. But the younger one still has reservations about my nudity. Sure, he goes along with it, but I can still see he is still not comfortable with it. That is why I still stay covered while indoors, but outside, I am nude at all times. I have noticed he does not come outside when I am naked. I will try to accept his non-acceptance while indoors, but he also has to accept MY acceptane while outdoors. Just my little input. I like to be nude outside, but I will bend a little while inside. My wife, still, doesn't like me to be nude at all, but for the last couple of days, I have worked in the backyard totally naked. I think she has finally seen the fact, while there are no kids around, I will be naked both inside and outside of the house.

[Bob S.]

Let's see, you talked with your children about your beliefs and asked them if it would be all right if you practiced said belief. Lines of communication are open. Yup, you did the right thing.

Their reaction to seeing you naked was tempered by the fact that you did the considerate thing by talking to them and asking their feelings on the subject, which they supposedly agreed with. You might want to keep these lines of communication open and ask them after they see you naked again if they are really fine with it and let them know that you will be available if they ever want to talk with you about your nakedness.

As for my reaction if I were in your son's shoes, I am not sure. My parents were never ardently modest about their nudity, however I rarely saw them naked save for the occasional instance when their bedroom door was open and I happened to be passing by as they were dressing.

For me, I can't even imagine being naked in front of my parents or seeing them naked either. That may sound odd coming from a nudist, but it has to do with the relationship that we have.

Bob S.

[turkishnudes]

This may be a bit radical ( and from your post I am not sure if your wife is also naked in the house that you rent), but why not have a special dinner at home, with all the trimmings, eerybody's favourite food etc. and have all the family be naked too.
If they settle to this, I guess you've cracked it!
(Maybe if you don't want to be naked at the start, then a "fun" way to get everybody undressed could be to remove items of clothing after each course, so by the time the coffee arrives you are all naked).
Just a suggestion?

[Xen]

If your son has joined the navy he will surely have had to overcome any inhibitions about nudity that he had, afterall you did not ask him to come to a naturist club with you.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I think that the best starting point for naturism is nudity and making sure that someone is entirely happy with their own nudity before moving onto naturism. Why not go to a nude YMCA swim with your sons, or go a gym that has a steam and sauna in the changing rooms. That way you can get them used to being naked, to being naked with you and also naked around others - who are naked too. Thereafter they will hopefully be far more relaxed with you naked at home, may at times (outdoors perhaps) be naked themsleves and may even be persuaded to join you in visiting a naturist club.

[nudeM]

Xen: Excellent point and well taken. I have never even thought about that idea. Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll give that a try in the future. We both went to the doctor a couple of months ago, different problems, and I had to drop my pants in front of him. He never said anything about that episode, but I know he got an eye-full. I had a male-problem, and the doctor performed his examination in front of him. I'm sure he will come around and get used to my nudity around the house soon. Thanks for the great idea.

[Trojan]

NOTE TO XEN (8/31)

Xen, if you know of a YMCA that has nede swimming for men, please post the location. The YMCA discontinued this activity years ago. Are they starting it up again? Thanks for any info you may have!

[Trojan]

Correction to above: nude swimming, not nede swimming!

I'm not a teen, or even young any longer, but please allow me to add my 2 cents worth, if it's even worth that much.

As I was growing up I saw my dad nude a lot. We weren't nudists, but he didn't care who saw him. I suspect he was an exibitionist.

I have no sons, but I have 2 grown daughters. When they were little I went nude in front of them, but before they reached their teens that ended because they were no longer comfortable with it. Since most people aren't nudists and think there's something wrong with it, the world has a big influence on how young people think and believe, or am I wrong?
/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif /infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

[Dude in Nor Cal]

Some people have complained that their children do not accept or have reservations about their nudity. Then, they mention that their spouses (usually their wives) don't like it either.

First of all, that is totally wierd that someone's spouse wouldn't want them to be naked, unless they were afraid of what the neighbors or kids think. Second, how can you expect your kids to partake in the naturist lifestyle if one of their parents does not?

I think the various ideas of getting kids to open up to nudity with their parents suggested, such as taking them to the pool and then changing in the locker room, are overly contrived. As a former teenager myself (I'm 21) I can tell you that the contrived things really don't work. The best policy, in my belief and experience, is open communication. Ask them what they think about nudity. You can ask them if they've ever tried being naked in the privacy of their room, or if they've ever gone skinny dipping.

Don't try to force them into this. They will try it if and when they want to. Also, be prepared to accept the fact that they may not like seeing their parents naked. They are more likely to accept social nudity if their friends are into it, because let's face it, friends have much more impact on teenagers, and people my age in fact, than parents do.

Instead of forcing your beliefs on the kids by choosing to be naked always, work out a mutually acceptable compromise about when it's cool for you to be naked. It is probably not reasonable that they demand you are always clothed and that they never want to see you naked; neither is reasonable that you should have free reign of nudity whenever they want. They may be embarassed to bring friends over. Families need to compromise.

[Bob S.]

Dude, I disagree with part of your statement,
"They are more likely to accept social nudity if their friends are into it, because let's face it, friends have much more impact on teenagers, and people my age in fact, than parents do."

Now, I do agree that teens will more likely to stay nudists if they have nudist friends that they visit and with whom they can practice nudism on a consistent basis. But I disagree with your statement that the parents' impact is so much less.

We are talking about two separate influences, parents vs. friends. The good teens, the ones who have strong morals and rarely get into any serious trouble are the ones who respect their parents and have open communiation with them.

So, friends can only have influence up to the point at which the parents' influence starts.

Bob S.

[Craig26]

I have two sons, one 16, and the other 13. We have a pool and they have been raised as nudist. We go to resorts and go nude at home much of the time. They have always been ok with being nude in fact the first thing they do when they come in the door is strip naked. We had always said if they were uncomfortable we would be clothed in their presence. When they have friends over we dress for sure. They both have nudist friends and have them over for pool parties. When puberty set in both boys were very easy to ask questions much more so than I would have been in my clothed family I grew up in. My sons both have said their friends go crazy over porn magizines which they hate. Both say that being nude has given them a real appreciate for the human body. My niece who is 18 has said that meeting guys at a resort naked was so much easier. She has told us that the clothed ones (non-naturalist) basicly want to make out or try and get her naked but the nude guys are very polite and respectful. I have no advice but can just say that nudity works for my family.

Craig

[Dude in Nor Cal]

Bob,

The thing is, when adolescence hits, teens have a biological imperative to seek opinions other than their parents. They begin to see the world outside what their parents showed them; in this case, kids who have been raised naturist may start to think that since none of their friends are nudists, then being naked is weird.

I'm not defending their actions, but they're part of growing up. Everyone breaks away from their parents at some point in normal development, and eventually the parents and teenagers come to a new understanding.

I kind of object to your words "good teens" and "bad teens". I don't think anyone thinks of their kids as "bad". Some parents communicate more with their kids. In our case, this doesn't mean the kids are going to remain naturists.

All kids are "good" in some way, even if they have a tough relationship with their 'rents. Craig, I thought your story was awesome, but not all families are as lucky to have teenagers that think that way. The other teens' parents aren't necessarily doing anything wrong.

[RT]

Hi all, RT from Down Under putting my penny's worth in again.

I grew up in a naturist family. I'm 22 and a twin and have a younger sister (19). Casey (my twin bro) and I have naturist friends and non naturist friends. They respect our lifestyle, we hang around together because we have the same group of friends both naturist and non naturist. Going through pubity was cool because I had a twin bro growing through the same.

I don't come home and strip off immediatley, but I do when it's hot. Casey and I live together and we both do the same thing when it's hot.

Last Saturday I went to the local nude beach with a non naturist friend, it was his forth time to a naturist beach but this was only the second time he actually stripped off and joined in volleyball and usual beach stuff totally naked.

RT