We are always surprised when we receive the question of whether naturism can be practiced with the whole family. For us, family naturism has always seemed a very normal thing. Although neither of us was born in a naturist family. Yet there seem to be many doubts about this. We are asked whether we find it okay that a child sees nude adults and whether nude kids won’t attract people with wrong intentions. Some adults even seem to feel uncomfortable being naked when there are children around.
It’s all in the mindset of course. And it’s everybody’s right to feel about family nudism the way they do. Nevertheless, we believe that nudist families are a very important part of the naturist community and that it has lots of advantages for both the children as their parents. We’re certainly not the only ones who think so. Naturist federations all over the world see the importance of having families among their members and promote naturism as a very family-oriented lifestyle. In the USA and Canada, we even noticed that many resorts have put their main focus on nudist families and promote themselves as family-oriented. They even put it in their name. A good example is Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park. Even the first naturist venues were often called a family nudist colony.
How is it to grow up in a naturist family?
Children are born nudists and not only in the way that they are obviously born naked. We’ve met a few little kids who prefer to wear pants over no pants at all. And the sight of nude children has also become a widely accepted thing. They or their family don’t have to be nudists for that. On a warm summer day, you’ll see nude kids running around on many textile beaches as well. Until a certain age of course. Sometime between the age of 3 and 6, they lose their clothing-optional status. Suddenly their nudity is not decent anymore. Suddenly they are taught to consider their bodies shameful.
Not in a nudist family of course. Although their kids also have to learn to get dressed when necessary, they also learn that being naked is a natural thing. That the nude body is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. While they can’t be nude everywhere anymore like they used to, family nudity remains common at home or while visiting nudist family camps, resorts, clubs, or nude beaches.
Teaching children that their body is not shameful will often prove helpful when they enter the years of uncertainty and doubt. Also called puberty.
Teaching children that their body is not shameful will often prove helpful when they enter the years of uncertainty and doubt. Also called puberty.
That’s not the only important lesson. Because nudist children are used to seeing nude adults they also have a much better reference to what a/their body is supposed to look than kids who only see nudity on the internet. And we shouldn’t be silly about this, every five-year-old these days knows better how to work a tablet or a smartphone than their grandparents. Did you really think that one day or another they won’t find out about the amount of nudity there is to find online?
Going on a nude vacation with the family
Many people who don’t particularly consider themselves nudists or naturists do enjoy a day at the nude beach or a vacation at a nudist resort. So does the family home nudist as well of course. And then come the concerns. Common family nudity happens in a very safe environment. But how do we know that all those strangers have the same intentions? We understand that those who have never visited a family nudist resort might think that the presence of a bunch of nude children must seem very attractive to pedophiles.
The reality is different of course. The number of reported cases about child abuse at nudist resorts is little to none. Certainly much less than in schools, at playgrounds or in churches. Why is this? First of all people with wrong intentions need to have the upper hand, the power. The vulnerability that comes with being nude makes them reluctant to visit nudist resorts. Another important factor is social control which happens at family nudist resorts. Naturists watch each other’s back and certainly the back of each other’s children. When an adult shows too much interest in the kids, someone will certainly notice this and take action.
All in all, family nudist resorts are a great place for children to spend their holidays. They can run wild and free and get as dirty as they want to be. A minute or two under the shower and they are clean again. And they get used to seeing nude bodies of all ages. So when they enter the confusing years they’ll not only be more confident about themselves but also focus less on the bodies of others.
The advantages are also not only theirs. Many naturist resorts organize family nudist events or activities which are great opportunities to do something fun with the kids. And then we don’t even mention the lack of mountains of dirty laundry.
The advantages are also not only theirs. Many naturist resorts organize family nudist events or activities which are great opportunities to do something fun with the kids. And then we don’t even mention the lack of mountains of dirty laundry.
Nudism without the families
Not everyone appreciates family nudist resorts. If you were planning a relaxed afternoon of nude sunbathing at the pool, those wild and free kids may not be your preferred companions. During our travels, we’ve also met lots of nudist teachers and some of those don’t like to be surrounded by children during their vacation either. Whenever there’s a gap in the market, a solution is just around the corner. That’s why we notice the uprise of adults-only nudist resorts.
In the past, the term “adults only” was enough to trigger a couple of alarm bells. When we notice those words in movies or magazines they often imply that things can be seen which are not for the eyes of minors. “adults only” combined with nudism could only mean one thing… And it’s not that there might be some nudity.
Those days are long gone and also in the textile vacation industry, we notice more and more resorts who prefer to cater only to adults. For different reasons. Some want to guarantee the peace and quiet for their guests, some don’t want to hassle with passports when serving alcohol, and some wish to cater precisely for those who prefer not to be surrounded by children.
The opinions about this differ. While the nudist families are often not that happy that their children are not allowed at a certain nudist resort, those without kids don’t like to be forced to only visit family-friendly nudist resorts either. We believe that there’s nothing wrong with providing options for every kind of nudist.
The opinions about this differ. While the nudist families are often not that happy that their children are not allowed at a certain nudist resort, those without kids don’t like to be forced to only visit family-friendly nudist resorts either. We believe that there’s nothing wrong with providing options for every kind of nudist.
The nudist family photo
More than ever we like to take photos and it has never been easier to do so. Our smartphone alone has two cameras and can store thousands of snapshots. While photography used to be strictly forbidden at nudist places, it’s becoming very difficult to keep enforcing that rule. We’re on a vacation and if we don’t come back with at least several hundreds of selfies it will seem like we had the worst holiday ever.
The general rule at nudist resorts is that you should never take pictures of other people without them knowing. And especially not of other people’s children. Of course, it’s something difficult to avoid, your kid has made a bunch of new friends and asks you to take a photo, what can you say? Chances are high that they’ll make the selfie themselves while you’re having a nap next to the pool.
Whether it’s only you and your family in your vacation snapshots or also other people (who gave their permission for the photo of course), it’s important to handle these photos with care and to know that if you decide to publish them online, you’ll have no idea where they might end up. We’ve said that the nudist resort is a safe place for nude families, the internet certainly is not.
Let’s all get our families nude
We hope that we’ve been able to convince you that family nudism is a safe and fun lifestyle with lots of advantages for both the children and their parents. It even goes a bit further. Family nudism is also a way to protect the future of nudism in general. Although some children tend to turn away from the naturist lifestyle when they enter the awkward years, the memory will last and often they will return when they’re in their twenties or thirties.
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Picture credit: Emmanuel THOMAS. Do not copy any of these images without the photographer’s permission.
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Keep up the great work you guys are doing, nudist families ,singles, young or old can make a difference in getting more people involved.
Thanks a lot for the thumbs up!
Oh no naked people!
Won’t somebody please think of the children! Lol
Interesting one again, tho its a subject that was talked about many times before ,like in general.
Of course, i wont (do i ever? haha) agree with a thing or two about the written, but with some i actually do (u made me change my mind,but im too iu3243s3rdu to say it out loud).
I still dont and cant ever agree with therms changing their meaning over time, it makes no sence then to even have therms to anything ,if today it means this ,tomorrow it means that.
But imma kinda ask something i think i never did… priori to the last part of the blog.. why is it important to have “future” generations to keep nudism alive in the future?
I mean like, u like it, ur doing it, its cool ,but why do u want others to do it (now) or in the future like in 50-100 years , i mean i wont matter to ..any1 of us then ,will it?
Im not sure i understand that.
The answer to that is pretty simple: Because we love the lifestyle and we hope that the generations after us might have the chance to enjoy it as well.
This way of thinking is one of the reasons why many naturist clubs are failing to attract younger members. Some of the board members think that naturism should be exactly the way they want it and if it dies with them so be it. These are often the same people who claim that youth has become prude just because they feel little for laying next to the pool all day, play some petanque and go to bed at 9pm.
It’s a bit like saying “Why should I care about the environment? It’s not like we’re going to run into serious problems during our lifetime”. We do this because we want the generations after us to enjoy living on earth as well.
Ya but the thing is, just cause you/or i love something, doesnt mean others will also in the future.
Its interesting ,since kinda like day 1 (day 1 as ,the 1st time i can recall of that) ,ive always heard stories about how ppl should do something now so the the “future” generations would be this `n that .. (general stuff)
To me thats just stupid.. tbh.
We all live today , and now, we should care about that, not about the future, the future is for someone else to care about, ..those that will live in that future.
Envirnment is something everyone should care about all the time, cause i has to do with now, .. if we`d throw trash all over the place on the streets, pretty soon we`d all die cause of some desease for example.
My point is, you cannot influence what will ppl like or care about in the future ,and well .. forcing one to do something you/i like just cause we want them to like that still after 30 years, is …
..and thats not freedom either in that sence, cause we are already paving a path to others for the future, that doesnt sound like much of a choice for them then.
Maybe im coming form a different world (literally , i think you know what i mean) but ever since i know about my self, we always had to “sacrifice” our selfs or something for a “better and brighter tomorrow” , so i kinda feel it on my own skin that those phrases are crap , to put it nicely.
We completely understand. From how we live our life you can probably also see that we prefer to live today instead of tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t think about tomorrow.
And it’s not that trying to keep the gate open for the future requires a lot of sacrifices for us.
And you’re right, we don’t know whether the next generations will like naturism, whether they’ll think it’s complete nonsense or whether they will make something completely different of it. But we can provide a path and they can choose if they keep building on it or break it down.
You can also see this in a more selfish way. The more people we can convince today to try nudism, the more options there will be for nudists in the future. Something of which we will also benefit of course.
Nono, u didnt understand me .. when i was talking about the future, i didnt say i dont think or care for my future (eventho theres non much really) i said that i dont care about the future of todays 2yos .. or the 2yos from 30 years from now , that was my point.
That will be their time, and they should think about it ,not me.
If the world works like that ,that others before us were non stop thinking about “our future” ,50,100,500 years ago, how come we still have ppl that make 3000$ and 200$ for the same jobs? (in different countries while having same living costs?) ,how come Snickers or Nivea is not the same on the West and on the East? ,how come some ppl have pools on roof of buildings, or in private houses, while some ppl in Africa dont even have drinking water?
I can go on forever .. so all that “for the future” and “better tomorrow” talk , is pure crap to me..and it has nothing to do with being seflish, on the contrary, all those 1% ppl that want the 99% to think for the “future” generations are the ones that are seflish, and the 99% is dumb to buy that sweet talk.
To me, those ppl like to abuse empathy ,cause lets face it… that always works.
Ya i know this might be a slightly different subject of thinking about the future generations thing, but it deffo can be used in every area of any subject that refers to the future of things.
We did understand 🙂
It’s just that when you have a great thing going on, you like to share it with others. And you hope that it will keep existing forever.
But why children? Don’t you think that is gross? Isn’t it just promoting child abuse? Say a man (or woman) is looking to have sex with a kid (making me feel sick just thinking abut it,) just think of the opportunities they have at a nudist beach! Don’t get me wrong I LOVE nudism, but for ADULTS ONLY! Getting children naked is tantamount to child abuse in my eyes.
Quite some research has been done about whether nudist places attract pedophiles, none of them were able to prove this. Also, if you look in the media, you will hardly find any cases of child abuse that’s related to nudism. There’s a very important reason for that: Child abuse is about power. The predators overpower the victim. But since the predators also have to be naked at a nudist place, they are being put in a very vulnerable position which they absolutely don’t like. So you won’t find many pedophiles at nudist venues.
This may be confusing because of the internet. There are quite some “nudist” websites, which mostly show pictures and videos of naked children. These are obviously coverups for pedophile networks who just use the term “naturist”/”nudist” to justify why they show this kind of content. But in these cases, the predator is at home (or in some other place) and does get a sense of power.
On the other hand, other research has shown that nudism is actually great for children. It helps to build their body confidence. Every eight-year-old these days knows how to get access to the internet. There they learn what an adult body looks like. But their brains aren’t developed enough to understand that the bodies that they see in fashion and porn don’t represent reality. At nudist places, they do get to see what real bodies look like.
You can read more about this if you wish here: https://prostasia.org/blog/the-safety-of-children-in-a-world-without-clothes/
“..and it has nothing to do with being seflish”
The misspelling notwithstanding, it seems extremely selfish to me.
“Indian proverb, “Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.” Let the old men plant trees, though they may never expect to eat the fruit of them. Ambition impels men to do that which will not benefit them, except in their own consciousness.”
“why do u want others to do it (now) or in the future like in 50-100 years , i mean i wont matter to ..any1 of us then ,will it? Im not sure i understand that”.
The simple answer to that is that Naturism is not merely a hobby, it is a creed, “a set of beliefs or aims which guide someone’s actions”, according to Oxford Dictionaries. As such, adherents to this creed wish everyone to see the benefits of the principles which guide it, and for them to accept, whether or not they actually adopt, those principles. It does not matter if this is done now, or at any time in the future. Naturists are not all as evangelical as I am, or, I think it is fair to say, the owners of this blog, but a substantial number of us are. Naturism offers many, many, benefits to everybody, including families and young people, and this is an enduring truth.
Allen , to me , unless u life the lifestyle 24/7 , it is a hobby.
I dunno if naturism benefits ppl that do it , or not (i dunno why being naked is a benetifial thing..)
If its a mindset maker, where u can feel better for some reason about ur self, thats more a in-your-head kind of thing, same as ppl that drink to feel more relaxed or get away from problems, or ppl that do weed so they can feel carefree..
Dunno if u know me around here much, but im prolly the only person here that aint a nudie, tho of course, i dont mind it , and i would never understand why would it be good for me if i was one, or even worse, if i would have been nude with some of my fam members lol ..
That’s the thing, many nudists/naturists live the lifestyle 24/7 but that doesn’t mean that they have to be naked all the time. That’s how it goes with lifestyles. They live inside of you. You can be a nature enthousiast and still spend 8 hours a day in an office. You can be a very religious person and never go to church (or any other religious building).
For some naturism/nudism is nothing more than a hobby, for others it’s a lifestyle that’s present in every aspect of their lives.
Oh of course… no1 can do anything 24/7 in the mored world era, thats how “we” shaped the word to be today , and in this case specially cause, .. pps from Bare Oaks for sure cant be naturists 24/7 lol ,unless they want their bare butts to get frozen (amongst other things) ,so ya in that sence of course u cant be 24/7 , but ppl from Hawai can?
In all of that sence, hobbys dont exist then.. cause watching Nascar is a hobby ,i dont do Nascar, nor i cant but i still like it, or F1 ..
One very interesting think i learned about nudism is something that doesnt have anything to do with it, lol and thats that word today, meanings, definitoins, makes no sence at all anymore, nor they have the weight as they used to have it before , when those therms,definitions were invented/written.
We’ve said this many times before and yet we’ll say it again: there are as many types of naturism as there are naturists. And that alone makes it more than a hobby. Because it’s something you can experience in many different ways and many different aspects. During the last several weeks we’ve been talking in this blog about naturism in clubs, in resorts, in a spiritual way or just as something very comfortable. Those are all very different kinds of pretty much the same thing.
Naturism is a way of life and every naturist determines for his/herself how many parts of their life it influences.
Creo bien que el ser nudista-naturista no daña ni perjudica nuestras relaciones de pareja ni de amistad con alguien. Antes bien, al vernos esa persona yo en modo nudista (yo soy de la comunidad gay-lgbti y aunque no tengo novio, pues tengo amigos que están de acuerdo con el nudismo), pues generaremos respeto mutuo y una reciprocidad donde habrá lealtad y honestidad y eso pues, habrá nacido de vernos desnudos pero de no tomar eso con morbosidad ni incitación a abusar del cuerpo del otro. Sé bien, como nudista-naturista que soy (acá en Bogotá Colombia), que en estas actividades hay personas de todas las edades (incluidas personas menores) y que nunca se puede ni debe proponer nada que tenga connotación ni morbosa ni sexual porque algo bueno que el nudismo-naturismo tiene es su lucha en contra de la pornografía y del uso comercial de la desnudez y en contra de la trata de personas. No es fácil esto de ser nudista ni solo ni en pareja o con familiares pero vale la pena, porque nos hace ver que la desnudez invita al respeto mutuo y no a la morbosidad ni al abuso. Por algo: las parejas o amistades nudistas se mantienen mucho más y hay menos separaciones. Buen día.
Desafortunadamente, los nudistas a menudo están solos con estas ideas porque somos una minoría. Pero, por otro lado, también somos una comunidad muy fuerte y bien conectada. Hemos escuchado cosas muy buenas sobre la comunidad nudista de Bogotá, por ejemplo, y hemos pasado un gran momento con la comunidad nudista Otro Quento en Medellín.
Hi Nick & Lins
Very nice article on family nudism. I also advocate and resonate your views. My family is Naturist and we travel together in search of family nudist places. My son, who is nearing teens enjoys it too…in short its a must try for family to stay together…happily.
Cheers
Ashutosh
I really like your attitude. I never had the pleasure while I was raising my children but I have been to a couple of family resorts and beaches. So much fun to see families enjoying the outdoors totally naked. Seems like a very healthy way to raise kids.
Thank you Paul.
This inspires us even more. Social acceptability is more important for safety and fun.
Cheers
It is good to start whole family nudism from the home. Full time naked parents inside home in front of nude teen children are bit challenging in the beginning especially in the case of teen boys, but later it will continue as our life style. More family coming to nudism will definitely encourage the spreading of naturism in the world.
Mă bucur cand vad ca ne este nici-o rușine la noi in România este rușine să te dezbraci fata de copii tai miar place sa fiu si eu acolo dar nu se poate distanța este mare
I have a question this probably gets asked a lot but what if a nudist family goes to a nudist resort and other kids or teens get hard ons or even the girls get aroused
This happens very rarely and if it happens, teenagers do the same as adults and cover up
What is the logic of treating Adults and Teens as same in the naturist world?.
What’s the logic behind treating them differently?
Ashutosh,
I’m so happy to hear that you are inspired! I believe that a nudist or naturist family is closer than the textile ones. They seem to laugh and enjoy life more often. Raising children can be challenging no matter if you are a nudist or not. I would like to chat with you but not sure how to go about it.
Great article! I agree with everything said.
I’m a fellow naturist parent who strongly supports family naturism. However, a challenge that some (maybe many) families face is that only one of the parents is committed to naturism and the other either doesn’t participate or outright object to the idea. It then becomes difficult to raise kids as naturists as there are conflicting messages coming from their parents that provide little reinforcement to passing on the torch. We just returned from a naturist resort and this is echoed by other parents we met there.
Also, I would love to see naturist parents being more open to connecting with other naturist families especially after meeting each other at nude venues or events. I wish to build a network of naturist friends and their kids around us but through the years still waiting for it to come true. I do hope other naturist families have an easier time connecting to each other!
My whole family are naturists, and we have several children. As long as there is a nice, family friendly place near every adult only place, then we are fine with adults only. The issue arises when there arent any (or the family friendly places are in sad shape), then the future of naturism, the kids, feel cut out and unwelcome. This can cause hurt feelings that last for years. We’d love to see a naturist pool like those in the textile world, where one side or area is shallow with play things and water toys, and a separate, lay-out area where you can cool off. Our kids would have no problem playing on one side, and being quiet on the other. Plus, many family friendly places dont have any where specific for kids. No game rooms or snack areas – so it does seem like the kids would get a bit bored and rowdy. The solution? Have a kids area with things they like. You have no idea how many placed call one swing and a very small slide a “playground”! Thanks for the article.
We notice that many naturist clubs/resorts don’t really understand how free market works. Which is not such a surprise. For a long time, naturist places have been completely separated from the outside world. Only during the last decades, naturism has become more mainstream and many places still have to find their place in this.
We’re sure that eventually, this will work out well. Today we see an uprise of adult-only places because there’s a rising request for this. But that doesn’t mean that family resorts will disappear.
I agree free market usually works as you say. However, there are many adults new to naturism (which is great) that unfortunately, wrongly assume mixing kids in is immoral “just because”. I am afraid excluding kids from too many places out of preference, if its misguided, instead of making room for them so they can still have fun without annoying the adults too much, and teaching these new adults why it’s ok to be around children, will further that assumption. That’s what I’m afraid of. Because if my kids are excluded, or there aren’t places for them because someone isn’t sure its “ok”, then I see the chance of them walking away from naturism much greater when they become adults.
We notice indeed that, mostly among Americans and Canadians, it’s often seen as immoral to include children in naturism. We did meet several naturists who go to adult places because they don’t want to see nude children/don’t want to be seen nude by children. For us, Europeans, this seems pretty strange. Europe appears to be much more relaxed about this and people still choose to go to adult places but mostly because they’re afraid to be disturbed by the noise or the cannonballs in the pool.
We partially blame the #metoo movement for this. Although the idea behind it is excellent, it has also created a negative atmosphere in which people became really careful in what they do because from one moment to another you could be sued for something of which you didn’t really see a problem at first.
It needs to be promoted that family naturism is ok. Not just ok, it’s actually great for children’s mental health. We also try to promote this idea via our website.
Agreed. The funny thing is, my kids don’t give nude adults a second thought. Even my teenage boys are just, well…used to it. And as for cannonballs, well…..yes, that ‘could’ happen, although they know they’d be out of the pool if they annoyed someone on purpose with one! But yes, kids can be rowdy, but those rowdy naturist kids will grow up to be “children-accepting” naturist adults too. Thank you for your articles, my whole family enjoys them.
We need more kids and teens getting together to tell their own stories. The best we bloggers, journalists and filmmakers can do is get secondhand info. I know there are some young people out there with a proficiency for storytelling. Let’s hear from them.
We definitely agree! We can write as many blog posts about young people in naturism as we want, kids and teenagers are unlikely to listen to us. Everyone always looks at their peers. We can easily see this in the statistics of our blog, the majority of our readers are more or less from our own generation. We don’t reach many younger than 25 because we don’t speak their language and not use their communication tools.
hi
i like naked people very much
thanks
Hi Nick and Lins
A very well done article. Beautifully written. We know many nudist families and they have shared similar stories. We don’t have children but if we did they would be brought up as nudists with a healthy mind.
It is so important to pass on the torch of our lifestyle to the next generation. Nudism has so many positive things to provide. We are seeing more families now at our club.
This is great to see.
Keep up the great work that you two are doing as ambassadors for nudism.
Jan&Gary
My kids bathe together, daughter is Lisa age 11 and Mark age 9
If I could make the law of the world I would make nudity legal for everyone everywhere.
Very nice pictures, we would like to know about your web page at our nudist club, Lake Bronson. Please keep us informed at lakebronson.com.
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