My husband is European. His folks still parade around naked in front of us (they even shocked my parents with their skinny dipping photos). They're not nudists. Nudity is just not a big deal to them. I was not that comfortable with that, but I got used to it. My husband has a very healthy attitude toward sex. He is surprised that anyone would be ashamed to see their parents naked. He really doesn't get it. He keeps saying, "but they're your parents". I lived in Europe for a while and I've seen women lying completely nude in a city park. Completely nude! No one looked, they were sunbathing-in the city. And there is a really positive side to that. Very few men look at your cleavage. They really couldn't care less (so unlike here). It's a cultural thing and trust me, your kids will be fine. Or most European nations are doomed.

Oh well I guess they're probably heard what you think anyway. It will make parent teacher conferences interesting though when little Kaylie or Kyle start scribbling swastikas and such.

Yes, it is predictable. It is predictable because it's true (and lots of real cases prove this double standard). Now, I am going to bed, but tomorrow I can give some examples.

Besides that, I think being naked in front of your teen son (as opposed to a little child) is a really bad idea. But saying this is being a prude.

Really??? ALL the time? Is dad naked too? Is there a dad involved? Would it be OK for dad to be naked in front of a 10-year old daughter? Should a 10-year old son and a 10-year old daughter see each other naked ALL THE TME? I'm just trying to figure out the geography of this house such that it's necessary for mom to be constantly naked in front of her tween son...methinks she doth protest too much.

Anyway, this is all way too Running with Scissors for me....Why don't we just let Britney's gift to the human race be a hard-earned lesson to moms like this one ... BUY A DAMN BATHROBE!!!

I'm not sure what being "angelical" IS, so maybe I'm misreading your post... Oh, wait... did you mean "angelic"? OH! Now it makes sense. You're making the wild assumption that we're giving a woman a free pass where a man would get nailed to the wall. How predictable.

...

If LW was a man and said the same things, would he receive the same kind of understanding and support this woman is receiving by the other letter writers? I really doubt it.

Imagine something along the lines the "I am a man and my son and daughter see me naked on a daily basis. And when my son or daughter become teen, I'll say them that, if they are not comfortable, they can leave the room".

Well I can almost read the innuendos about dark intentions, the fact that the father is being authoritarian (a male characteristic, of course, because of all this testosterone) trying to force his nudity to their children in a difficult age. Furthermore, he is being selfish, unconsiderate and not empathetic with their children (because only females are empathetic) and so on and so on (imagine your favorite kind of male-bashing).

But, hey, this would be a man, and everybody knows that every man is a potential sexual molester. On the contrary, every woman is angelical and unable of any bad feeling, so she must have all our support and understanding (this is why female child molesters get such soft sentences).

All throughout my childhood my father used to walk around the house in jean cut-off shorts, flip flops, and no shirt. That's it, nothing else, VERY usual. I'm pretty confident that Gordon (my dad's name) raised a well adjusted, normal kid. I think he dressed like this when he was at home for comfort and practicality because he was always puttering around cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. I watched him move about the house once. I swear he hardly stopped, even after putting me to bed. If Dad wore any more than he did, I think the poor man would have keeled over from being overheated. A child seeing their parent nude/partially clothed is fine, as long as they're not making dinner in the buff. A lot of commenters here pointed out that the body exposed isn't always a sexual thing. They're right. Seeing my dad's bare skinny chest and chicken legs on a daily basis (he was only fully dressed when he went to work) was completely innocent.

There have been quite a few letters that say something like, "My parents never walked around naked, I only saw them naked a few times, and those few times were absolutely traumatic".

There have also been quite a few letters that say, "My parents treated nudity like no big deal, and when I saw them naked I didn't think it was a big deal either".

Anyone else making the same connection that I am?

Of COURSE it was traumatic to see your parents naked if they normally hid themselves away. They had taught you that the body was shameful, so when you DID see a body, you felt shame and disgust.

I believe that teaching such bodily shame is wrong and immoral. I believe that equating nakedness with sexuality hurts children more by making the inevitable moments when they see you naked (and it will happen eventually if you are living in the same house) traumatic.

And there are plenty of people in the US who are naked in their homes, its not just something that those durn furrin folk like the Japanese and Europeans do. And given that the US is a country of immigrants, I think it is safe to assume there are a fair amount of those durn furriners here. Just because YOU are from a family of non-nudity doesn't mean all Americans are. There's nothing inherently American about walking around your house clothed.

Also, being naked doesn't mean you don't believe in privacy. It's not like you're reading the kids diary or barging into their room when the door is locked. Being naked also doesn't mean that you don't have bounderies. It doesn't mean you are parading yourself. It just means you don't have clothes on. It really is no big deal.