A reader writes:
Dear Jillian,
It’s not a secret I’m very anxious to be socially nude, and I thought for a moment (after seeing a Twitter tweet saying “RT if you like to walk around naked at home”) how much of an exhibitionist I feel being naked at home, but only when the kids are not home. I don’t know how to describe it, but I feel like I’m doing something naughty by waiting for alone time to do what I enjoy. I wonder if it’s something you can discuss in an upcoming Naturist article.
— C
I would like readers here to chime in on this subject, because no doubt some of you experience this sort of thing.
I’m guessing it must be difficult for all naturists who live with people who don’t accept naturism and nudity in the home outside of the bathroom and the bedroom.
Then there is the tricky issue of parents being naked around their children. Many parents teach their children about body acceptance and naturism, and whole families participate in public social nudism events at pools, beaches, campgrounds and the like. But it gets trickier, I think, when it comes to nudity in a home where children are present. There can be legal ramifications.
Our reader is wise, I think, to wait for the kids to be out before peeling off his clothes. I would do the same thing if I had children, even though the family might be naked together at a social event with other naturists.
As for our reader’s feeling of guilt, I suppose that is a remnant of the taboo mindset about nudism so prevalent in society. It probably takes all naturists quite a while to shake it off.
I’ve experienced something similar since the legalization of cannabis in Canada. For decades, cannabis consumers were forced to sneak around and were treated like criminals — for indulging in something we felt was a God-given right, as in Genesis: “I give unto man all green herbs bearing seed.” Suddenly cannabis is legal, and the same governments that made it a taboo and arrested people for using it are now selling it to us. It has taken a while for me to get over the fear of being busted, though I never felt guilty about using it.
Of course, cannabis users in Canada are not out of the proverbial woods yet: we cannot enter the United States if we have consumed it or invested in the industry. Sure, we could lie — and many do — but the legal ramifications are quite serious if U.S. border folks search our social media accounts and discover that we have, indeed, admitted to consuming it or investing in the industry. Which is why I won’t be visiting or moving to California any time soon — at least until the U.S. federal government legalizes cannabis.
Being naked is even more of a God-given right. Naturists know that. But we’re also aware that there are many so-called authorities who overrule that right, to ridiculous extremes in some countries where women are forced to cover up from head to toe.
It is no wonder so many people feel a sense of guilt when they start to explore naturism.
Readers, please share your experiences and advice for our friend C.
— Jillian
Jillian Page 
My main problem is that at home my sister in law, 63 also lives with us, although my wife has stopped stripping in front of my son, 23 long ago although he does strip naked in front of her especially after having a shower!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s not uncommon to see more mature women feeling somewhat self conscious about their bodies and covering up, many at our resort wear shear cover ups a good part of the time. As far as the son being nude in front of her, perfectly normal and I’m sure she thinks nothing of it.
LikeLike
Being, naked in my house full of mirrors is fun AND sexy!
LikeLike
But you mean you live alone?
LikeLike
Home nudity is and should be considered completely normal. It is the safest place one can be possibly nude. It is a shame that many in society still can not accept that freedom on the part of those who embrace it.
LikeLike
It took years for me to absorb the idea of social nudity. Raised Catholic Christian where just the discussion of nudity and sex was taboo, I felt I had to learn everything about it in the confines of my room, basement or attic. As early as a teenager I knew I was comfortable being nude. But being ignorant I, like surely most teens AND adults, thought, and associated nudity with sex.
When my oldest daughter was 5-6 she remarked that daddy was naked. So I stopped being nude at home. My wife didn’t. For years I witnessed my wife being comfortable at home in the nude and it started to bother me to a point where I needed to ‘find’ a way to be naked somewhere; anywhere.
I started doing research, and was amazed at what there was out there.
In the end I made my way to a wonderful oasis in Vermont and have gone there regularly for the last 4 years. I learned a lot about myself.
Last summer I felt it was time to tell my daughters where dad goes every odd weekend in the summer. It was a big step, and I’m glad they accepted it. I think the fact that mom is always naked in front of them helps. But for me, I’m not comfortable yet. Though I’m certain they won’t call the cops if they accidentally see me in the buff, I won’t push the envelope with them just yet.
So for now, until the warm weather comes, I feel imprisoned in my own home, feeling like the exhibitionist I felt all those young adult years ago.
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://tinyurl.com/w79awh3 I dunno, but SDRR(SexDrugs&Rock&Roll), as pointed out, still is in the algorithm. Point is, has society(in general) advanced. We seem to have conquered the “weed”, But, I think the Jury is still out on LGBTQ,SEX. Naturists are still on the leading edges here; big Q, is Porn. Whatever the case maybe, we’re still @it 2020CE %Q@
LikeLike
You mentioned the real fact that many people in our society associate nudity with sex. This has come about because of our entertainment industry, movies and made for TV programing where this is the only time you see people nude unless a nude male is shown for a laugh.
The reality is many many are nude at home when not having sex at all. It’s sad that the entertainment industry does not depict this as it actually occurs. Such as people getting out of bed nude, going to the bathroom, showering, brushing their teeth, applying make up and fixing hair al before getting dressed. In our house going to the kitchen and starting the coffee and getting a cup of coffee to start the day is typically 100% nude, even when we have overnight guest.
My ex wife and I basically raised our family as nudist. We had a nice pool and deck with good privacy so we and our 3 children (2 boys 1 girl) enjoyed it nude, even after they we off to college. We never felt exhibitionistic at all due to educating the kids about nudity and body functions. That included both the wife and daughter seeing me and both boys with erections on several occasions as a normal part of the male function.
In very recent years my two oldest teenage grandsons who are both athletes have stopped by our house on numerous occasions to use our oversized jacuzzi tub. My wife their step grandmother has seen them nude on several occasions. Plus they have a green light to come us it anytime they have come when she was in the shower so they have seen her nude as well, this was all non sexual nudity and nothing is made of it.
So hopefully you get to a point where you can be nude without feelings of guilt or exhibitionism, because it isn’t. It’s all about context.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We raised our daughter in a nudist family, including an occasional day at the local nudist resort. She learned to swim there.
If you want to reintroduce your kids to a nudist environment, tell them that they can go with you and your wife to a skinny dipping pool. No need to use any of the taboo words they learned elsewhere. Words like nude or naked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In Malta we still use the word “bil-patata barra” for naked which literally translated “with a bare bottom”
But I was also told to stay “bil-patata barra” when going for a barium enema test; obviously I did as told and went for the test but I went out naked without putting on my gown!
LikeLiked by 1 person
For me, being nude is not about exibitionism. Rather, it’s about comfort, health, and convenience. I’m most comfortable without the burden and restrictions of clothing, much preferring my natural covering (skin). It’s unhealthy and unnatural to restrict the largest organ on our bodies (our skin) with clothing, which prevents it from “breathing” and absorbing sunlight, which produces vitamin D, as our Creator intended. And, of course, there’s the convenience of not having to get dressed or undressed, and when “answering the call of nature,” there’s nothing to unzip, unbutton, pull up, or pull down. A naked lifestyle just makes sense on many different levels for many different reasons, and I prefer solid reasoning over irrational social phobias.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great response !!
LikeLike
I used to be very shy when asked to strip naked in front of a woman for medical reasons, but I stopped doing so long ago and when two years ago a nutritionist who is also a doctor offered to examine me for testicular and prostate cancer I answered in the affirmative and the same happened when a female dermatologist told me to see my scrotum. Surely she already knows what it is like!
LikeLiked by 1 person
In the early seventies when bathing at Ghajn Tuffieha I used to notice many men with binoculars in hand ascending the clay hill and whenever I asked my parents or some uncle or aunt they always warned me not to go there because it was “dangerous” until one of my cousins told me that most probably they were bird watchers but I tried to find the right time to satisfy my curiosity.
When once everybody was in the water playing ball I realised it was my chance and followed them. I could see some thirty men looking downwards with their binoculars.
One of them offered me his and I could see some 25 “unfeathered birds” in other words in their birthday suit and I realised that one of them was a noted teacher whom many used to send their children to private lessons.
When I told this man about this he answered that the plus-size elderly woman used to be a headmistress who was very strict with students.
After spending some 15 minutes I realised they would be looking for me so I went back and was my father angry.
“Youi’re right”, I told my cousin,”They were watching birds but all of them were featherless!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have plenty of other adventures to relate, but it’s 11.05pm now in Malta!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just imagine going to a doctor who happened to be female and telling her about my problem, excessive itching in my private parts and asking me whether I had any redness, but I immediately showed her.
How could she examine me without seeing the problem? Was she ashamed to ask me to undress?
LikeLike
LOL!!!
A year ago I had a hernia. I had to go to the surgeon my HMO assigned me for an evaluation prior to surgery. It turned out the surgeon was female. One of the policies of the HMO is that one is being examined in a potentially undressed state by someone of a different gender, a second person has to be present. That second person was a female nurse.
When my trousers went down for the exam, the nurse visibly recoiled and worked very hard to look everywhere in the room except where the surgeon was poking and prodding. I was really surprised. The exam didn’t make me uncomfortable but the nurse’s reaction did.
Of course for the surgeon, it was all perfectly normal.
When I told my wife she was surprised that any nurse, particularly on a med-surg floor, would react that way. She’s been an RN for 40 years now.
LikeLike
Ok, so we’ve all been taught that naked is naughty. That teaching bubbles up regularly.
One of the rhetorical techniques people will use on anything that one might be persecuted for is claiming that fact one is concealing something means you “know” what you are doing is wrong. It is nonsense. Of course people doing something wrong would want to hide it. But someone doing something very right might also want to hide it. The author alludes to cannabis in Canada. We had the same situation in California until recently. Much of the rest of the US continues to be in the same situation.
Imagine it is WWII and you are hiding Jews in your closet. Both you and the Jews know that what you are doing is right. The fact of concealment and the insane levels of anxiety this produces are not a sign of bad intent on your part – or theirs. Rather the higher the level of fear, the greater the proof of your goodness. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it is doing the right thing in the presence of fear.
You do what you can where you are. The closet exists because it is needed. In California, I could be nude with my children and there’s no law against it. Once school started that came to an end, not because it was “wrong” but because I wanted them to fit into their peer groups as much as possible. You can’t allow popular opinion to be the arbiter of right and wrong or you’ll send those beautiful people in your closet to horrible deaths. You can, however, have a protective cover.
But you need to keep that closet door cracked open a little bit or you’ll suffocate. So maybe one dances naked around the house and keeps robe by the door in case the doorbell rings. Think of it as being a tree falling in the woods but nobody seeing or hearing it. Whether one wants to push the experience farther to social nudism is a matter of personal inclination.
I know a bit about closets I was in the nudie closet one from my earliest memories until I was 18 and I started to open the door a bit. The first time I posed for a coed art class at university was a hot mess but it has been smooth sailing ever since. I moved to California when I was 22 and left that closet behind forever.
LikeLiked by 1 person