My YMCA Story and proposal....

Jerry22 · #1 07-09-2002, 07:10 AM

One day I was swimming at my local YMCA and I realized I was late for an appointment. Jumping from the water I ran into the changing room. Unfortunately, the 10 year old male swim team had just gotten out and every single member was using every single shower, and those who didn't receive a shower were all huddled in the center. What struck me was that everybody was just getting along. Sure everybody has probably looked around created a mental picture of each other boy naked, but they all accepted the nakedness.

My proposal to getting kids into this sort of thing is to create summer camps. I have yet to find a good summer camp for kids that is nude. The first year is single sex (to get used to everything), and returning campers have a separate, co-ed environment.

What does everybody else think?

Jerry22 · #2 07-09-2002, 07:10 AM

One day I was swimming at my local YMCA and I realized I was late for an appointment. Jumping from the water I ran into the changing room. Unfortunately, the 10 year old male swim team had just gotten out and every single member was using every single shower, and those who didn't receive a shower were all huddled in the center. What struck me was that everybody was just getting along. Sure everybody has probably looked around created a mental picture of each other boy naked, but they all accepted the nakedness.

My proposal to getting kids into this sort of thing is to create summer camps. I have yet to find a good summer camp for kids that is nude. The first year is single sex (to get used to everything), and returning campers have a separate, co-ed environment.

What does everybody else think?

triaduw · #3 07-09-2002, 08:23 AM

I think it is a great idea. I have often wondered if anyone would suggest something along those lines. I think it would be good overall in the long run. Less problems later in life when dealing with people.

Gary Naturist · #4 07-09-2002, 12:36 PM

Would be nice, but too dangerous I think, unless the kids come from nudist families or are very young.

Older kids at co-ed camps get into enough trouble as it is now without giving them further encouragement. I can see the owners and staff of such a camp getting sued for any of a number of reasons.

Gary

Dominus Nudo · #5 07-10-2002, 02:31 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Gary Naturist:
[qb]Would be nice, but too dangerous I think, unless the kids come from nudist families or are very young.

Older kids at co-ed camps get into enough trouble as it is now without giving them further encouragement. I can see the owners and staff of such a camp getting sued for any of a number of reasons.

Gary[/qb]

Well, since they are learning that not wearing clothes is completely unrelated to sex, whatever they do is the person who did it's problem (I think I could have worded that better).

Of course, after re-reading your post (I like that little window at the bottom) I understand what you mean. Also, this can be alleviated with release forms, which is ALREADY standard procedure ("Anything that happens here is the attendant's fault" "we will not be held responsible" blah blah)
If you mean it'd hurt the spirit of the thing, that's a (small) possibility.
Also, what "older kids" do that's against the rules, is their fault.
I'm not meaning to be critical, I'm just meantioning my interpretations.
For getting something like this started, there would need to be a pool of money, to buy the land, and whatever things the government needs for a camp environment (The camp will be private property, and will definitely have signs around it, also hopefully in a warm, rural area.
Starting in a divided environment is a good suggestion, You've seen everything that you'll see there, just with some slight differences.

I guess what naturists really need is money.

By the way, does anyone know what kind of "laws" there are for international waters? What if someone made an oil rig which doubled as a town, where clothing was optional? Jobs, homes, could start commercialization, expansion. The best thing though is a state; buy an uninhabited part of some sothwestern state and move in. Indecent exposure laws are state-based, so they would be lax here (but sexual things would still be illegal) oops, getting off topic [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] .

**Bob S.** · #6 07-10-2002, 04:14 AM

I work with children in a day care setting and would love to do a nudist summer camp for kids. I would be the first in line to work at this place; a place that combines my two loves, children and nudism.

I have seen the laws that apply to day care and summer camps in Virginia and believe me, there are a lot. The only thing that it states about opposite genders are that they must have separate bathrooms. But this only applies to school aged children (ages 5 and up) and does not apply to preschool children.

I am not sure what the state would say about a nudist-based summer camp, especially a sleep-over camp. The regulations also do not specifically state that a child care worker must wear clothes, but I am sure that would be an issue.

Bob S.

nakednow... · #7 07-10-2002, 05:40 AM

I would love to work this nude camp for children. I am a teacher and former day care provider that believes nudity and the human body is a beautiful thing! Let me know if this ever comes about!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Trailscout · #8 07-10-2002, 02:48 PM

When I was 11 years old, I went to a coed church camp and although it was not nudist, there should be some common threads to any kind of summer camp:
Each child was assigned to a cabin with about 8 to 10 other children of the same sex. Each cabin group had a counselor (same sex) who closely supervised the boys or girls at the events and during their limited free time.

Sporting events were sex-segregated due to the greater strength of the boys, but we had coed times as well, in social events and worship times. I think we had a happy blend of segregated and coed times.

Our showers were "gang style" all in one big open room. The boys were all carefree and nude. We had not learned body shame at that age. Girls of course, had their own shower.

We were curious about what the girls looked like without clothes and some of the fellows managed to climb up on the roof of the girls shower and peek down the skylight. The couselors caught them and gave them hell for it. It was a dangerous stunt and no one likes a peeping Tom. Still, you can't blame the little fellows for being a wee bit curious.

Our showers were not supervised. If boys and girls were to share a shower, they would need to be supervised to prevent bullying and sexual play. Perhaps separate showers for each sex would be more practical.

I think a coed nudist summer camp for kids would have to operate much the same way as a coed textile summer camp.

PFR · #9 07-12-2002, 04:39 PM

I think that we've all got it backwards. Introducing kids to coed nudity won't work through camps, clubs and even non nudist places that have relaxed rules about things that would enable more exposure.

From the 30's Europe has flourished with public nudity, and I don't believe it is because they are more liberal towards sex. Rather, it is because nudity was in many ways a fact of life in the home as kids grew up. Nudity was a true grass roots thing.

On the other side of the ocean there will never be any kind of wide spread acceptance of nudity (apart from porn) unless nudity is accepted in the home. There is no way you will ever be able to make camps like this successful unless the kids who go there already have nudity in their lives from birth. After a certain age their feelings about body exposure are cemented and very hard to change, unless it is through unsociable things like morbid curiosity on the rooftop.

Just take a look at European lifestyles and see that their relatively lower standard of living over the past 7 decades has greatly contributed to their acceptance of public nudity. They do not have the luxury of privacy like we do.

luvnaturism · #10 07-12-2002, 06:14 PM

quote:
Originally posted by PFR:
[qb]I think that we've all got it backwards. Introducing kids to coed nudity won't work through camps, clubs and even non nudist places that have relaxed rules about things that would enable more exposure.

From the 30's Europe has flourished with public nudity, and I don't believe it is because they are more liberal towards sex. Rather, it is because nudity was in many ways a fact of life in the home as kids grew up. Nudity was a true grass roots thing. . . .

Just take a look at European lifestyles and see that their relatively lower standard of living over the past 7 decades has greatly contributed to their acceptance of public nudity. They do not have the luxury of privacy like we do.

[ July 12, 2002: Message edited by: PFR ][/qb]

The first part of PFR's comment is right on. Many of the kids that are old enough to go away for a week at camp are not going to be comfortable with mixed nudity
if it hasn't been part of their family life. A lot of boys today aren't even comfortable with same sex nudity, let alone the girls.

I don't agree with the second comment about European comfort with the body being related to lower standards of living. The European homes that I've been in have all been able to afford doors for their bathrooms and bedrooms. The Scandinavian countries all have high comfort levels with nudity, and I don't think many of the people would agree that their average standard of living is below ours.

Other cultural factors are at work to produce a saner, healthier attitude toward the human body. My view is that it traces back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, two cultures that considered the well-developed body to be the ultimate expression of beauty. Both of these cultures had huge influences throughout most of Europe, particularly when the Rennaisance rediscovered the beauty of the nude body.

One evidence is their continuing influence on public art, where one finds nude expression in places that would be entirely unexpected in the US. We were just in France, where we visited a cathedral that has a fountain built into one corner of the exterior wall. The fountain "waterworks" consists of several nude little boys peeing. In what church in the US would you find that? Or in what church in the US would there be a Sistine Chapel, with it's altar wall covered with nudes? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]