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Original poster

Naked kids on the beach - would you let them?

388 replies

ssd · 30/05/2005 17:52

I mean would you let your say 6 year old play naked on the beach?

Today thanks to the sun at last we went to the beach, it was fairly busy. A family next to us let their approx. 6 year old boy play around the waters edge naked for a while before the cold got to him and he put on pants as in underpants. The other kids ages about 3 - 9 years old were playing in their underpants (all boys).

Now I'm not prudish but I don't think its acceptable to let a child play on a beach naked, nor would I want an older child playing in his pants. My ds1 would never play and run around in front of strangers in only his pants and he's 7, the other kids I mean were older than him.

I don't care what anyone does at home or in their garden, but I'd want them dressed more appropriately at a beach.

What do you think?

OP posts:
stitch · 30/05/2005 22:27

i am soo sorry.
im just so thick sometimes.......

JustThinking · 30/05/2005 22:28

Message withdrawn

stitch · 30/05/2005 22:28

{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}

JustThinking · 30/05/2005 22:29

Message withdrawn

LGJ · 30/05/2005 22:30

JT

You are a good person and a good mother, don't even go there.

Wake up tomorrow and promise me you will be strong and will see this through.

huggybear · 30/05/2005 22:45

we were on the beach last week and i wouldnt let my boys go naked, to many cameras around iykwim. its a sad fact of life that you automatically assume every one is up to no good...

rickman · 30/05/2005 23:20

Message withdrawn

morocco · 30/05/2005 23:28

just a quick reply to blossomhill
sorry if you felt my remarks were addressed to you personally for some reason but in fact they were addressed to anyone who changes their behaviour with their kids based on their fear that lurkers with mobile phones might be trying to take pictures of their children.
A couple of points (this is my first spat I think on mumsnet after over 2 years - how exciting)
I thought I had made it clear that I was incredulous ie found it hard to believe. I certainly did not mean to be mocking in my tone or I would have written sarcastic but perhaps you thought I was being sarcastic. It quite simply has never ever occured to me before to even think about it. I waas amazed that several people posted independently this fear and wanted to know if other people also changed their behaviour because of the same fear.
I am very sorry you had this scare about lurkers in bushes. I would also be worried about men lurking in bushes but not because they had mobile phones in their hands. Again, I am not being sarcastic - I would be worried about kidnap, assault, indecent exposure (of adult to child not vice versa)or that the photo would be being taken for a later kidnap attempt etc. Anyway, I'm sorry if it touched a raw nerve.
I don't remember asking you, or anyone else, to justify their behaviour on the issue or to apologize for it either - explain, elucidate perhaps

I notice someone else has just posted a similar worry - it seems to be a very Anglo American obsession - do people from other countries have similar worries about photos of children does anyone know?

Blossomhill · 30/05/2005 23:34

Morocco - the reason I believed it was being directed at me is that I was the only person that mentioned camera phones.
I really would rather not get into a slanging match with you about this.
I don't want my children's bits on show and that's, that! I don't think it will affect them at all when they are older and tbh neither of them (especially ds who is 7) would want to anyway!

morocco · 30/05/2005 23:44

I'm glad you posted again blossomhill, it's not usually my style to get into rows and I can understand how you would have strong feelings about it given what's just happened at your school.
(btw, soupie posted a couple of times about it too, honest, )

Blossomhill · 30/05/2005 23:48

No hard feelings
I can't believe you have been on mumsnet for 2 years (longer than me as I have only been on for about a year) and have never ever seen your name ever, unless you have changed it????

morocco · 30/05/2005 23:52

I'm a lurker too
no, I'm not around all that much, although it still seems to take up an unreasonable amount of my time
usually I just post my piece and then wander off (probably there's hundreds of mumsnetters dying to have a fight with me but I just never realised) I'm kind of shortsighted like that in real life too

bobbybob · 31/05/2005 03:24

I would want as much as possible covered, but that's only for sun protection.

jollymum · 31/05/2005 08:14

To the gym issue, they need cubicles and family areas. I took my daughter, who's nearly ten swimming and someone had their two boys in the changing rooms. One was about 7 and the other was about 10/11. I think that's not right, especiially as my daughter refused to undress and there were no cubicles. I'm not prudish, I strip off and don't really mind but these two boys were sitting down on the bench, six inches from my enormous bum and REALLY staring. The mum didn't say a word, I would have said something and my daughter ended up changing "in a towel" like I used to on the beach years ago with my mum and dad. BTW, anyone old enough to remember those changing towels with elastic in the top, like a tent?! Anyway, I was a bit uncomfortable at being stared at so closely and so was my daughter. I think the mum should have said something. Just my opinion.

tamula · 31/05/2005 08:39

Not sure about this one, I'd probably want them to wear at least pants for 'my' sense of decency and worry about paedo's.

However why should my child know about 'my' concerns? they are innocent and without fault, so up until a certain age I would allow them to run about naked (I suppose) but i would be very vigilant and sadly, suspicious of probably everyone nearby!

tamula · 31/05/2005 08:41

Can I re-phrase, Why should my child have to maybe compromise their fun due to 'my' concerns? As obviously they wont 'know'!! I certainly wont tell them!!

LottieG · 31/05/2005 08:48

This thread really saddens me.

Why should children not be allowed to be innocent? And why should anyone have to cover their body?

We all have bodies, most of them are not the media perception of beauty, but they are ALL beautiful in their own way.

As for paedophiles - in southern european countries where so many people are topless and naked at the beach or swimming pool, this is so much less of a problem. Coincidence??

suzywong · 31/05/2005 08:54

I haven't read all this thread, but over here in Perth, Western Australia, beach is so spacious and uncrowded for the most part that parents would notice in a heartbeat any ome with a camera, phone or otherwise, getting dodgy with kids.

However I would not do it on a crowded beach or in any kind of park. Well actually that's not true sometimes it gets so hot here you juts have to let them strip off but I would make eyecontact with everyone who could see them... lord knows what that would do but you get my drift.

SHOCKING about your gym NG

nutcracker · 31/05/2005 08:59

Just wanted to add cos dp reminded me last night that in the street where his ex wife lives a man was convicted a couple of years ago of taking pictures of the children playing naked in their paddling pool, next door but one.

I would like to think I would be comfortable letting my kids strip off in their own back garden but we are over looked by two tower blocks, one of which houses some very strange people.
In our last flat we had to report someone in the block opoosite who had a video camera set up in their window, which was pointing into our flat.

On the beach I would definatly say no after about age 5.

oliveoil · 31/05/2005 09:04

Not read all of these but I don't think there is anything more beautiful than a toddlers little bum and fat legs wobbling innocently in the sun. How on earth could anything in that image offend?

We live in a sad world when we have to start analysing about things like this.

LottieG · 31/05/2005 09:05

Been thinking about this some more....

I would be MUCH more wary of letting children play naked in the UK than elsewhere in Europe. In the same way I will walk alone in the forests here but never would in UK.

Isn't that a sad state of affairs.

Mud · 31/05/2005 09:17

why do those of you who don't let your kids strip off because of fear of paedophiles allow this fear and the existence of sick people rule your actions in this way

I find it incredibly sad and it feels to me that it is going well along the lines of women having to cover up from head to toe because the sight of their foot or hand or elbow will drive a man insane with desire.. yashmak anyone?? Taliban anyone??

handlemecarefully · 31/05/2005 09:20

If there was no such things as paedophiles then yes I would let my child run around naked - but since there are some perverts around they are not going to get their rocks off at my child's expense.

I don't buy the argument that "paedo's will look at your child whether they are clothed or un clothed" - actually I find that argument rather fatuous. Of course they will look if the child is clothed, but I doubt that their level of sexual arousal would be as acute.

All this "it's a sad world we live in...isn't a shame" - of course it is, but we can't change it.

My children are allowed to run around naked as much as they like at home and have no complexes about nudity / their bodies.

handlemecarefully · 31/05/2005 09:21

Just seen you've posted below Mud! - no going to row with you on this one

Join me in the sandpit?

Caligula · 31/05/2005 09:21

Is it because crime against children is higher in the UK than other countries? (I've no idea of the comparative figures?)