WHY NOT BEING NAKED IN FRONT OF YOUR KIDS IS WEIRD

[Danee]

From: http://www.findcatharsis.com/2013/04/being-naked-around-kids-not-wrong/#.UWGe8MB7PAQ.wordpress



Last night, my sister-in-law was telling me about a radio interview she heard on the way to work the other day.  The guest, a single father, recently found himself under Child Protective Services investigation after some mothers of his 6-year-old son’s friends reported him for showering with his child.


These mothers apparently think because the dad showers with his son, he’s a pedophile.  NOT because the kid reported his dad touched him inappropriately or because the kid reported his dad demanded to be touched inappropriately by his son.


Simply because the dad showered with his 6-year-old son.  Period.


You know what I think about that?  I think that’s bullshit.  And I think anyone who takes an innocent act like being naked around a child to the level of pedophilia ought to be absolutely ashamed of themselves.



There are real cases of sexual abuse out there — cases of children being seriously harmed by the adults around them.  THERE ARE REAL PREDATORY ABUSERS OUT THERE SCARRING CHILDREN PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY.  Simply because a parent is naked in front of his children does NOT make him an abuser, and threatening a parent’s custody of his child with no evidence of such activity is both negligent and irresponsible.
What message are we sending our kids about their bodies if we tell them being naked isn’t right?  I’ll tell you what message.  That the body is something to be ashamed of.  That it’s unnatural and perverse and wrong.


Well, I say that’s wrong.


My husband and I don’t have qualms about being naked in front of our kids.  We dress and undress and help them dress and undress all in the vicinity of one another.  Sometimes, my husband even showers with Big A, who’s — GASP — 4.  Sometimes, I bring Little E, 2, in the bath with me.  And we do this to save time.  We have to help the kids anyway, so this is the most efficient way to do so on occasion.
[/size]Neither of us is a pedophile.  Neither of our children is scarred by this at all.[/color]
[/size]I remember my parents being the same way.  They never sent the message that we should be humiliated by our bodies.  They never made us feel like something as natural as the human body was imprudent.  And they never sexualized anything about innocent activities like dressing or showering.[/color]
[/size]And guess what?  I don’t need therapy for that.  I don’t feel somehow violated or abused or defiled in any way.[/color]
[/size]I think people who treat nakedness like some sort of mortal sin are the weird ones.  They’re the ones instilling negative body images in their children.  They’re the ones sexualizing everything associated with the human body.  And they’re the ones whose children will suffer the most.[/color]
[/size]My sister-in-law, who grew up in Canada and Switzerland, said it best when she said Americans still carry around a Puritanical view of themselves and the world.  They still find shame in the most harmless of activities.  And they still feel the need to persecute those whom they feel violate their ideals.[/color]
[/size]I am outraged for this father and for all other parents and children who are badgered without warrant for raising their children in homes where openness and lack of shame prevail.  Most of all, though, I am outraged for true victims of sexual abuse whose needs remain unfulfilled while citizens and agencies waste their time harassing the innocent without any evidence of wrongdoing.[/color]
[/size][/color]
[/size][/color]

[mikeisnude]

I don't have words strong enough to convey how pathetic a situation like this is.   You know that someone came and interviewed the son and that was the damaging thing NOT  seeing his dad nude.   I just today heard that a news personality on MSNBC said that parents need to get over the idea that kids are theirs.. that kids belong to everyone ie the state.  Parents are rapidly losing the most cherished thing they have and that's their own kids.  This is beyond frightening.  We have to get government OUT  of our lives, period.   

[N.M.S.]

I feel horrible for that father and son. So much unneeded attention is being drawn to them it's not even funny. It's their business and no one else's. A normal father does not need to be exploited as  some sick pedophile when he clearly isn't. There is no harm whatsoever in a kid showering with his parents. The harm comes from teaching kids that their bodies are disgusting and shameful things that need to be hidden away behind a cloth constantly. When are people going to open their eyes and see that being nude is harmless?

[AElf]

I don't have words strong enough to convey how pathetic a situation like this is.   You know that someone came and interviewed the son and that was the damaging thing NOT  seeing his dad nude.   I just today heard that a news personality on MSNBC said that parents need to get over the idea that kids are theirs.. that kids belong to everyone ie the state.  Parents are rapidly losing the most cherished thing they have and that's their own kids.  This is beyond frightening.  We have to get government OUT  of our lives, period.   

I'm sitting here staring at the screen, trying to figure out what to say about this situation without sounding too judgmental about U.S. society in general.  I find that I can't do the former without doing the latter.  It is an asylum run by the lunatics.  How do the rest of you, all the millions of good people, live with that?

So now MSNBC is calling for children to be treated as property of the state -- as the U.S. mass media goes, so go the passions of the U.S. public.   Does this mean the state is going to pay for children's education?  . . . for their medical care?  . . . for proper nutrition? . . . for decent housing for everyone?  No!  No it won't. 

The state will simply keep intruding on the lives and liberties of the American people, forever adding layers of laws and police, until the only liberty left is to make the hollow claim that liberty exists.  The tax money that should be spent on education, medical care, nutrition and housing assistance is instead spent on police, the courts and ever-increasing numbers of prisons.  One of the most vibrant industries in the U.S. is the manufacture of criminals.  The U.S. has a staggeringly higher percentage of its population behind bars than does any other country of the western world.  It seems they would like to put more parents there too.

A world gone mad!  I'll retire to Bedlam.

[hemingway]

I doubt I know anyone who's never showered with their parents in childhood, and I'd say the same for the people making the complaint.

Do they think children magically learn how to clean themselves adequately? Or that they will actually bother to clean themselves without supervision? I was too busy playing with toys, peeing down the drain, or turning the showerhead upside down.

[Waytwofast]

 

As a hopeful future attorney, I would take his case any day of the week and twice on Sunday!!!

[seamus]

I'm also curious if there would have been the same reaction with a mother and daughter or even a mother and son. It seems socially that single fathers (or single men in general) fall under more suspicion of sexual misconduct. People are terrible.

[Waytwofast]

NOT YELLING OR ANYTHING... BUT THIS IS WHY I'M GOING TO LAW SCHOOL SO I CAN DEFEND PEOPLE WHO ARE HARASSED LIKE THIS!!!!!