Teach your children that the naked body is beautiful and natural

By Dr. Nancy Alvarez

Many ask me if they should bathe with their children, let themselves be seen naked, until what age should this happen... and a great deal etcetera.

During childhood, children learn to see nudity as beautiful and natural. This is very important, since a sexually healthy person must have a natural feeling before a naked body. Sadly, it is not common. Most of them are excessively shy when it comes to nudity and that obviously inhibits their sexuality.

What causes this exaggerated inhibition?

Sexologists believe that most of them have hardly seen nudes in their family, and in past generations this was identified with “lack of shame”. Nudity has been seen as unnatural for years. In fact, currently it is criticized that young women show their navels, their tummy, their legs. It is associated with responsibility for rape and sexual abuse.This fake. Everyone is responsible for her sexual conduct.

Pornography is often the only access to the nude, somewhat distorted, as it is a caricature of sexuality.They may infer that nudity is only allowed in young people with perfect bodies, which is not true, nor real, nor healthy.

It is up to parents to teach their children that the naked body is beautiful and something natural. Letting our children go without clothes in infancy, when appropriate, is part of well-directed sex education. It helps if parents undress and dress in front of them, for example, during bath time.

Personally, I think that nudity should disappear as the child grows. For example, during adolescence, young people have their hormones mixed up and tend to get excited easily. It can generate guilt if they get turned on by a naked parent. Before reaching this stage, they themselves begin not to let themselves be seen naked by their parents. That must be respected.

The first years are the perfect age to bathe with them and answer their questions about the body, as long as the parents feel comfortable. If they are going to convey a feeling of shame, then it is better to do it with an older sibling, or any of the immediate family. Children are experts at reading nonverbal language, that is, facial gestures and expressions. The worst sexual education is to transmit that sex, the body and the genitals are something bad.

There are three fundamental things:

-Girls should be told that, although they do not have a penis, they do have “a little bag” inside, where a child can grow, something that boys cannot do. This means that they do not feel inferior to them and begin to value their bodies and the differences between men and women.

-They should know that, when they are older, their genital organs will be as big as mom and dad.

-They should not be allowed to caress mom’s breasts. For example, in the case of a man, we must warn him that, when he grows up, he can responsibly do it with his partner.

If you don’t like the subject, I think you as a parent need urgent sex education. No one can give what they don’t have.