When Do You Stop Letting Kids See You Nude?

Well, I still remember showering with my grandmother when I was 4 or so. It made me tremendously uncomfortable, which is why I still remember it. I don't think it is teaching kids the body is shameful by covering up - I think it is respecting their privacy, both the privacy of their own body and of their mind by not putting them in an awkward situation. It's okay to teach them the human body is private without suggesting it's shameful.

I always find these questions odd. I have sons and this never occurred to me, much less so at 4 months.

When you feel inappropriate - is when. That's when it's not comfortable.

Isn't your husband a "boy"? If open nudity isn't any big deal in your house how would having a son change that?

I think one teaches respect for privacy very early on. That doesn't mean "shame" over nudity but it does mean gradually adding layers of sensitivity. That means door knocking and waiting for someone to say "Come in" (vs. knock and barge in, which many kids do). It means closing the door when using the bathroom (home or public).

I would think that your 13 year old absolutely doesn't want you to see her nude, so I'm guessing that she doesn't much want to see you that way. Your 9 year old might not care about you seeing her, but that day is rapidly approaching. Also, I think it's very likely that, for some time now, she's commented to her friends about her mom's nudity or what breasts look like after a baby is born or after a woman is 30 or 40 or whatever, and so forth. Then those kids are saying, "You know what? Tiffany said her mom walks around nude all the time. Tee hee, tee hee." So the rule for me is, if I don't want my naked body to be the topic of conversation on the school bus, then I keep it to myself.

A friend also commented on the awkwardness of a kid barging into the bathroom while she was attending to her period - and how she had to answer questions in the midst of what her son had already seen. That's an important conversation that needs to be held over many years and at greater levels of detail, but it should be held at an appropriate time and not because the situation was rushed by someone coming in during the removal of a tampon.

I think it's also a good idea to teach proper discretion so that, if they should live in a house one day in a crowded neighborhood, they are thinking about what's visible to someone walking by. The same thing occurs in a locker room if someone is too near the door and that door happens to swing too wide. Your current home may be isolated, but you do want kids to think about keeping personal things private. The images they see now will dictate their behavior later on.

Usually the kiddo lets you know when it isn't ok anymore. This will partially be determined by how YOUR body language is when he sees you nude. I get where you are coming from - we only had girls (which I changed in front of without thought) and then adopted 3 boys all at the same time. All of a sudden I needed to think a bit about modesty and such, especially since they weren't here since birth and may have been exposed to nudity in a negative way. As it turned out, I was worried about nothing - even as young as they were, if they thought one of the girls might change or whatever, they simply left the room or turned their back (we were camped in a small hotel room for one trip and 6 kids + one bathroom = people were going to have to be changing in the main room, too). I think this is one of those things you will just know when it needs to come to an end (or not, if you are one who believes it is ok at any age).

Good luck!

Pretty much when I stopped breastfeeding is when the occasion for general nudity diminished. So just short of age 3 I suppose. I don't like showering/bathing with people, kids included, so that was never a thing when they were little. I have never had the habit of wandering around the house without clothes on so it isn't like I made a life change. My kids respect closed doors so I don't have to worry about barge-ins when I'm in my bedroom or the bathroom.

I suspect your daughters don't want to see you naked any more than your son will. It is respectful to them to practice modesty in your own actions. It is past overdue, imo.

I definitely wouldn't worry about it at 4 months. Many moms are still breast feeding at that point.

Nah, it's not something I worry about, and I only have sons. They both hit a point in their lives when they wanted privacy. That I definitely try to respect! That's not to say there aren't occasions when I need to look at something or I have to get something for them while they are in the shower. These things just happen, and they've accidentally (and rudely) walked into my bedroom without knocking (hhmmffff). To me, that's just a problem because they should knock before coming into my room ... not because I'm changing.

I try to respect their privacy and teach them to respect other people's privacy. But I don't make a big deal about seeing the human body naked.

I think when they can talk. Seriously, I don't want a kiddo going around saying "I see mom naked" to anyone. I don't want them to have those memories when hormones start kicking in and their minds are going nuts.

About when they are potty trained - definitely before kindergarten.
It varies from family to family - but they are little blabber mouths in preschool and kindergarten.
While waiting for my son to put his toys away when I was picking him up from preschool - a friend of his was chatting with me and felt he needed to tell me his dad has a big peepee.
Yep - too much info! - but they will tell you and everybody else everything.

You should stop when it makes either you or any of your children uncomfortable. My kid is grown, and she and I have never had any issues with one of us seeing the other naked.

We need to stop teaching our kids that the human body is shameful. That said, you stop when either one of you begins to feel uncomfortable about it.

We've never worried about nudity. I changed in the family change rooms at the pool with my sons until they were old enough to go into the mens change rooms themselves (in most cases that is age 5). We do a lot of camping and I don't worry about them seeing me getting dressed in the tent. We often share the washroom in the mornings, so they may see me stepping out of the shower while they are brushing their teeth. We avert or eyes, just as you would in a public change room. We don't parade around naked, but we also don't make nudity strange or wrong.

Around my son I stopped when he entered school. I figured he was growing up and could stay outside the room when I showered or got dressed.

My daughters are 15 and 12 and see me naked and I see them as well. We are all girls no biggie.