"Being natural and matter-of-fact about nudity prevents your
children from developing an attitude of shame or disgust about the
human body. If parents are very secretive about their bodies and go to
great lengths to prevent their children from ever seeing a buttock or
breast, children will wonder what is so unusual, and even alarming,
about human nudity."--Dr. Lee
Salk, Psychiatrist (from an article in McCall's Magazine, June,
1976)
Is This OK for Our Kids
To Be Naked?
Imagine two young boys. One has
visited a Nude club many times with his family, the other may have
only rarely seen a parent unclothed, and they may have seemed
embarrassed when that happened. The non-Nude boy says to his friend,
"Look what I've found!" as he shows the Nude kid a copy of Playboy
or some similar magazine, which he found somewhere.
As they look at the pictures of
scantily clothed, erotically posed women, the boy who has seen
hundreds of people of all ages and body types, will probably think,
"I've seen lots of naked people before. Why does he want to sneak
looks at this?" He might also think, "This isn't even what most people
look like."
Growing Up Without
Shame of Nudity
Puberty can be a very difficult time
for adolescents; their bodies are growing rapidly, their genitals are
changing, body hair is developing. Some kids feel clumsy. Many are
embarrassed by the changes that are taking place. They can become VERY
body-conscious. At that time, a wise parent will try to keep lines of
honest communication open but still give them privacy and time to be
alone in their room or with their friends. Most adolescents would
rather be ANYWHERE except where their parents are.
All these things happen to Nude
kids, too. The one big difference for kids who were lucky enough to
grow up in a Nude environment is that those kids have literally seen
those changes take place, as their older friends and/or siblings went
through that difficult time. Because of that experience, they are
better prepared for it themselves.
SAFETY When In Public
Nude
We read in the papers almost daily of
some teacher, youth leader, church official or some other trusted
individual who took advantage of a child in a sexual way. With
hundreds of Nude clubs in North America, that problem almost never
takes place at our nudists facilities.
A family which is open enough to have
experienced nudism, just like a healthy non-Nude family, is also
open enough to have discussed sex abuse with their children. These
children know that they can tell their parents immediately if they
ever suspect that something is wrong.
Been told by authorities that the
reason Nude clubs have a very low incidence of sex offenders is that
we have the reputation of prosecuting those individuals, while until
recent years, many other organizations have "swept those problems
under a rug", more concerned with their public image than with the
safety of the people they should have been protecting.
Historically, sex abusers have felt
much safer committing their misdeeds within organizations which have
tried to cover up their problems with molesters.
You may find it encouraging to know
that many Nude clubs, have a very good relationship with law
enforcement agencies. Some of their officers are members of our club.
You can be certain that if Nude clubs were doing anything illegal or
immoral, they wouldn't join. Instead, they would very quickly close
the club down!
Another fact to ponder: Almost all
sex offenders are males. At a Nude club, it would be very easy to
tell if a man were to become sexually excited.
Interesting Facts
About Nude Families
Surveys show that overall, adults who
were reared as nudists think of their childhoods as having been
stable. They also find that nudists tend to be very slightly better
educated than their non-Nude peers.
The divorce rate is lower among
Nude families, and their children tend to make better grades than
similar children in non-Nude families. I don't think that this is
BECAUSE the families are nudists; it's more likely that the marriages
are more stable AND their kids make good grades AND the families are
nudists because the family members tend to communicate a little more
openly with each other in their daily lives.
Learning to Accept &
Respect All Bodies
In spite of what Madison Avenue would
have us think, human bodies really do come in all sizes, shapes, and
conditions. Few are "beautiful" using Hollywood's standards. We think
it's helpful for kids to learn this early on; you may be aware that in
those parts of the world where nudity is acceptable at places like the
beach and public saunas, there is a much lower rate of eating
disorders and suicides among youth.
In those cultures, where kids see all
types and ages unclothed, they learn acceptance of the maturing and
aging processes; they don't think they have to have face lifts, boob
jobs and collagen injections to become socially acceptable; they don't
grow up thinking "You are what you wear".
Short Reading About Nude Culture
Being a Christian, I naturally had been taught the body shame and disgrace of being nude, especially in front of others. But for some reason, while I was about 12-13 years old, I was on a farm and found out that running in the pastures and woods was fun naked. Over the years, I would find places alone to be nude. But something was just not right. First, I was alone in my feelings and couldn't talk to anyone about it, and two, my religious teachings still gave me a guilty feeling.
When my wife and I were in our 4th-5th (in my late 30's) year of marriage, I started to look into naturism a lot more seriously, but my wife was against the idea. Not that she was against being nude with each other since we did that a lot around the house anyway, but was afraid of the social idea. She thought I was going to some sex crazed wierdo bunch. And of course she doubted that there were any more than a couple of real nudists in the whole state anyway. So that would make me stand out even more.
I found a magazine called Nude and Natural Issue 16.1 I believe. It was the issue that published the "205 Arguments and Observations of Naturism". I took that home and read it through. Then a few days later I showed it to my wife. We discussed it, prayed about it, studied it and decided to give it a try. She wanted to talk to our pastor about it at first, but I told her that we can't always depend on what they say on this. I already know what they will say, "No". So our beliefs are in vain. Either it is between us and God or it's not. So we decided to keep it between us two and we've been at it now for about four years. Keep in mind, we are not just sneaking around our church to do something "sneaky and underhanded", but doing this on our own because of our beliefs. Later we hope to tell our pastor and church. There is a couple we may tell fairly soon.
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