Nudism: is it okay to be naked in front of your children?

Chances are we all agree that intentional nudity, nudism, is nobody's business when it's practiced behind closed doors (and windows) or on the walls of a strip camp, between consenting adults. In fact, spending time naked can be good for your skin, help you sleep better, and can help you get that much-needed vitamin D when you're outside.
Nudism: is it okay to be naked in front of your children?

But what if parents are routinely naked in front of their children? That's ok? Is it, in any way, harmful to children?

Although it is not difficult to find opinions, it is difficult to find studies on the effects of parental nudism. A study of child welfare and mental health professionals found, however, that a significant number of these professionals maintain that intervention is required in cases where parents engage in behavior considered border crossing, including co-sleeping, exposure to nudity of parents and parents enter the bathroom without knocking while the child is taking a bath. A total of 75 percent of these professionals responded that they would consider intervention if a mother "often" appeared nude in front of her five-year-old son.

The answers, we must admit, say more about Western cultural norms than about the inherent dangers of nudism. While I am quite sure that these same professionals would not consider it appropriate for children to be able to see their mother's breasts as something natural, would they consider organizing an intervention for them among the Himba peoples of South Africa, whose women do not cover their bodies? superiors? I doubt it.

Nudity, then, cannot be considered in a vacuum, but only in the cultural context in which it takes place. In the context of the lives of these mental health professionals, and most likely in your own context, nudity is considered sexual, and that's where the problem with nudism and children comes in.

Scholars have shown that nudists, presumably like the Himba, are not sexually aroused by the sight of naked bodies. Being used to nudity in a non-sexual context, they just see bodies, not potential sex, unless other things pique their interest. The same can easily be said for situations that non-nude parents are likely to find themselves in at some point or another. There is nothing sexual about changing clothes when your child might be watching or your child suddenly needs the bathroom while he is there brushing his teeth.

Our feelings about nudity develop within the society we live in, and if you are a nudist who has children, your children's feelings will too. At some point, what they've grown up seeing as normal becomes something they question, because nudity isn't something everyone participates in. In fact, children may begin to experience parental nudism as shameful, and it could have a detrimental psychological effect on them.

Therefore, I can only say that I believe, in the context of Western society, that parents who wish to practice nudism should never engage their children against their will, and if their children express negative feelings towards parental nudism, or even hint to them, those parents should wear clothes.