“Is what we are doing in regards to nudity inappropriate?”

Hello, welcome to Tips on Teens. This is Kent Toussaint, licensed marriage and family therapist
from Teen Therapy Center in Woodland Hills, California, coming to you live on Facebook to answer
your questions. And also, if you want to be a part of this conversation, you wanna make sure you
get these questions every week in your feed, feel free to join our Facebook group at Tips on Teens.
And if you're a professional who wants to reach out to parents and have really insightful information,
You feel free to join and share your content as well. It'd be great So every week we come to you
live every Wednesday at 12 o 'clock to answer your parenting questions And here is the question
of the day I was hoping to get some reassurance on our views on nudity around the house My wife
and I think it's totally fine for our kids and us to be naked around the house from time to time
But some of our extended family has been giving us a hard time about it. I honestly believe excuse
me I honestly believe it's

important that we as parents don't create shame around our bodies and nudity we have two children
one age 8 and the other 11 is what we are doing in regards to nudity inappropriate and in one word
answer no I don't think so nudity is not necessarily a problem in fact it can be very healthy it's
really more the attitude towards nudity that can be a problem or can be healthy so having a healthy
relationship with nudity around the house gives kids a more nuanced view of body image instead
of having that body image shaped only by what we see on the internet which obviously is not realistic
also having a body image or a relationship with nudity that is not sexual I think is also important
now there's a sexual side to it, of course, but that does not have to be the totality of nudity.
We can have a non -sexual relationship with nudity. I think that's important. I think that helps
create opportunities to talk about relationships and respect, boundaries. There's a lot
of important things with that.

If your kids are comfortable and you're comfortable, I don't think it's a problem. Now if your
11 year old starts getting to 12, 13, 14, starts going through puberty, wants a little more privacy,
that's not unheard of. I think that should be respected. I don't think kids should be forced
to be naked or nude because I think that adds a lot of shame and creates a lot of problems. So if
that 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old is getting a little more uncomfortable about nudity
and they want to close the door more, allow that to happen. Don't shame them. If they start saying,
oh dad put some clothes on and they're getting kind of grossed out by seeing you naked, that can
happen and that's fine. Try to respect that as best you can. but again it's not pushing anything
and again it's there to create conversations and about boundaries it can go into again not only
body image but also safety you know what is appropriate nudity what is not appropriate nudity
in public what is appropriate touching

what is not appropriate touching those are great conversations to have to get involved in more
what's body safety not only body image of a body safety and I think that's a really important
conversation for you to have with your kids now I've seen situations not not seen I've heard
of situations other families I've worked with where nudity goes all the way through teenage
years and you know you got a 15 and a 17 year old teenager and they're fine they're brushing their
teeth walls in the shower and they don't have a problem with it if your kids are having a problem
with it it's fine it's very it's not very likely that your kids are gonna be sexually attracted
to other most likely gonna say oh that's my sister oh that's my brother and a healthy family environment
there's not going to be that going on now it could be that one is comfortable what is not comfortable
again you got to go with what's comfortable to keep people so people feel safe let's see what
else am I forgetting on this I think

that's the gist of what I want to go for with this nudity again is not a problem it's not a bad thing
it's really more about you know what is the attitude do you have a healthy respectful attitude
towards nudity in your house. So that's it. That is our question for today. I will not have one
next week. I'm going to be doing a workshop for a local non -profit. It'll be a training for their
non -licensed, pre -licensed therapists. But we will pick back up on February 20th at 12 o 'clock
that Wednesday. So send your questions. We will answer them in two weeks. And if you have more
questions, you can always call me here. If you want your questions answered, you can email us
at tips on teens at teen therapy center .com and I'll see you guys in two weeks thanks a lot bye
bye