Is it normal to swim naked with family?
Growing up, my family swam naked together and it was never a big deal. It's just the way it always was for us, so we never really thought much about it. In fact, it wasn't until I was in college that I even realized that it was out-of-the-norm.
It's not like we were a family of nudists-we weren't. Our family had two girls and a boy: I was oldest, my brother was 2 years younger, and my sister was a year younger than him. We had an inground pool in our backyard surrounded by a six-foot high privacy fence.
When we went swimming as a family, we rarely wore our swimsuits. It was no big deal. That's just the way we grew up. And it remains that way right up to the present day.
When there were friends or visitors over you wore your suit, just like any other family. But around each other, we just never felt the need to hide behind a swimsuit. Swimming au naturel just seemed more normal.
The only purpose that a swimsuit really serves is for modesty. And with our family, we never had any false modesty among each other. Never felt the need to hide under a swimsuit. We knew what each other looked like and never thought twice about it.
Never did it seem the least bit weird seeing my brother or father naked in the pool, and never did I feel the least bit uncomfortable being naked in front of them. My brother and I never got any thrills seeing each other, it just seemed so normal and we never knew anything different.
It's not like we HAD to swim naked. There was no rule and nobody ever thought twice about it. But given the choice, it just seemed much more comfortable and much more normal not to wear a suit, so we rarely chose to wear a swimsuit. Swimsuits were for hiding your body and none of us felt we had anything to hide from each other. It was that simple and it seemed that normal.
I do remember the year I started to blossom, about the age of 12. I did wear my bathing suit into the pool the first two or three times that summer. But nobody said anything, nobody asked why, nobody seemed to care. Truth is, I felt more UNcomfortable wearing a suit so after the third time I just returned to swimming naked.
What's funny is that I talked to my mom about this a couple years ago. It dated back to when we were little. We got the pool the year I was 6 and my sibs were 4 and 3. Thats when we still used to take baths together. When it came time to go swimming, my brother didn't like to wear a suit, so they just let us swim in the buff...they thought it was kinda cute. (Mom admits she & Dad liked to skinny dip, too) She says they were waiting for us to outgrow it someday but we never did. Somehow our family managed to grow up without the whole nudity taboo.
Anyway, for the numerous posters who have questions or concerns about their family nudity experiences, that's how it was in our familiy growing up. Although it may be out of the ordinary, it will always seem pretty normal to me. Comments?