We seem to have a bit of an issue in our house.
Modesty.
A lack of modesty.
I keep hearing that just one day the kids will want their door closed, they will close the door when they use the restroom and they won't run around naked. I ask Leif if he closes the door to the bathroom at school knowing that it is up to each kid, "sometimes", he tells me, "when someone tells me to."
Typical, oblivious little Leif.
My son is going on 5.5 and it hasn't happened. He desires no privacy.
It isn't like AB and I are hippy parents. Our parents weren't nudists, we weren't raised in the buff.
You may have noticed pictures of my daughter in the blog... she starts out the day in one outfit, changes a few times to suit her mood and then finally mid-afternoon has had it with clothes and runs around in her panties... if we are lucky and can convince her to keep those on.
I leave our bedroom and bathroom door open on weekday mornings since while the kids sleep, I work out and then shower. They come in when they wake up and tell me they are up (me in various states of dress or undress), then they crawl in the bed and watch whatever happens to be on the little TV. I don't lock my door. My son sees me nude, but it's no big deal to him. Will it be at some point? Or will it just become a big deal to me?
Leif is better about keeping his clothes on than his sister, but he is often seen carrying his clothes to a particular place in the house to get dressed - to be near whoever.
Our friends' daughter (age 6) spent the night a few weeks ago while her parents went to a nice wine and food dinner. At one point she told Leif, "I need some privacy". And Leif wasn't joking when he said, "what's that?"
She had her pajamas on when Leif walks in naked, carrying his pajamas to get dressed near everyone else.
Giggles erupted!
I quickly directed him back to his room to get dressed. Oblivious-ness set in again, "I just want to get dressed where I can talk!"
See Leif and Skadi also still bathe together at 5.5 and 3. We have tried for the last six or so months to split them up. We have tried alternating bath nights, we have tried consecutive baths, we have put them in different bathrooms. Somehow they migrate together. If it is Skadi's bath night, then she is begging Leif to get in and play mermaids with her and he is all too willing. If it is Leif's bath night then we are physically restraining Skadi and locking her out so that she doesn't get in with him.
Which is less healthy?
Within a day or so we give up these attempts and let them go back to their baths together where they play and laugh and blow bubbles and see who can float the longest.
I am waiting for that day that Leif requests privacy... though right now I am thinking Skadi might reach that milestone first, given history.
Then again, maybe not, and maybe we are just hippy nudist parents.
(Oh goodness, wonder who is going to be directed to my blog now with keyword searches...)
3 comments:
I was hoping there were comments on this. The downfall of reading you on an rss feed is that I can't see comments here.
Toad as two weeks shy of 7 still doesn't shut the door to the bathroom at home, strips down to her panties the moment she walks in the door from school and brings her clothes to the living room to get dressed in the morning for school.
They too take bathes and showers together (although both of mine are girls). They have seen both me and my husband in various stages of nakedness as they come in and out of the bedroom during the mornings and night. Darren goes through stages of it bothering him and not.
I just wanted you to know you aren't alone in this.
Good to know London that someone else out there has nakey kids!
For us 7 was the age when the p word- privacy, came into play.
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