Friday, September 30, 2005

Live, Nude Girl

My daughter has spent a large percentage of the summer naked. There have been days when she started off with no clothes and eventually put something on. Other days, she would start off clothed and gradually removed every stitch. I haven't been too concerned. I remember my friend Jen's daughter Anna liked being naked around that age and she outgrew it. Baby Girl has only streaked in the front yard once and I caught her before the neighbors could pick up the phone and report us. She is happy to wear clothes to go outside or go shopping, so it isn't as though she has dropped trou at Kroger. If anything, it makes the whole potty training thing easier because I am not wrestling her to get her jeans and diapers off in time for her to go. It is also saving a little bit of laundry which is always a huge help. She loves being naked and I love that she isn't hung up on her body. There will be plenty of time for that.

My husband, however, is another story. I noticed lately that he comes home, sees her naked and tells her to put some clothes on. She always obeys, and she goes back to what she is doing. We have a rule that we don't contradict the other parent in front of the kids, so I keep meaning to talk to him about it, but I forget as there are thousands of other random thoughts swirling around my head at any given moment.

Last night, my husband came home for a half hour before having to go back out for a dinner. Baby Girl had been naked the entire day with the exception of the diaper she wore during her nap. He saw her dancing naked in the front of the television and had a distressed look on his face.

"Hey, will you talk to some of your friends and find out if they have problems with their daughters being naked all the time?"

I just sort of looked at him.

"Honey, kids do this all the time. It's just a phase. She likes wearing dresses as much as she likes being naked. It's no biggie."

He just sort of shook his head and walked away. I wanted to talk more, but Peaches was chewing on an extension cord, so I had to tend to her and he left for his dinner.

I've decided to sit down and talk about it tonight and try to put his fears to rest. At first, I thought he might be grossed out by the thought of her rolling around on furniture naked (which I don't let her do.) But I quickly realized that wasn't the problem because he asked me to find out if our friend's DAUGHTERS do the same thing. He thinks she is going to leave home at 16, work a stint at the Shake Shack and then move on to a career in porn.

It's good that he cares. His concern will come in quite handy when she tries to get away with wearing one of her friend's hoopie outfits when she gets older. But in the meantime, I hope to help him to relax about the whole thing. Besides, it's going to get cold soon--she'll get dressed. We may have a nudist, but she's no dummy.

7 comments:

Homestead said...

I read the first sentence of the second paragraph and thought, "Your husband wanders around naked too???" hee-hee.

Let me know how you convince him it is truly not a big deal because I see this same sort of issue in our future with Sweet Boy and "dress up" clothes.

Susan said...

You are such a great mom. I worry about teaching my boys NOW that all kinds of work are valuable; your girls are fortunate that you are thinking about the body issues now, when it's not about how big their boobs or butts are but just about being happy in their skin. Would you be my mom for a while?

I'm with Homestead on this one--as the mommy of boys, dress up clothes are MUCH more of an issue (you know, the tiara!). I'm not ENCOURAGING the tiara, but I'm not putting it away where they can't find it either.

And someday, Baby Girl will be stripping and Gay Charlie will be designing footwear. But at least they won't be living in our houses any more.

Pinterest Failures said...

Now, I am just disgusted. Someone actually found my blog today by googling the words "Shit stained underwear." WTF?!" Also, 3 other perverts found it by googling the word "Nude". I think I will be removing the photos of my children from the site.

Jenette said...

Ok, ewww to the pervs who are looking up stuff like that.

Next, all kids like Nakey time. That's what we call it around here. All of my friends with kids laugh about the nakedness of thier children. We have so many stories of thildren who have stripped naked just because! :) Heck, our kid moons people, cause he wants them to see his white and shiny hiney. (His words).

Nakey time rocks!

Susan said...

I've been getting lots of hits from people looking for things like 'big ass' and 'small boobs' and (believe it or not) 'bunions".

And while it freaks me out, I like to imagine their dismay when they actually GET to my site and find no boobs or ass, just shoes. Ha ha ha.

But it is unsettling.

Anonymous said...

Julie is totally stripping all the time too, so we are in this together!! We are hoping that this doesn't lead to a life of poll-dancing as well, but I am confident that this is just a faze to go along with all of the others!!

LoryKC said...

My daughter was very happy to be very naked for what seemed like a very long time. She's 7 now and wears her clothes but now her brother likes to be naked. They both find this hilarious. I try to get clothes on him so my daughter doesn't spend too much time comparing or staring but there is really no worry---he is more of a streaker. I can't catch that kid!