Musings about Social Nudity

Hey! Did You Know You Were Naked Just Now?

That time my wife forgot to put her clothes on while helping the children

Seems there are few things more innocuous than sleeping naked, or simply being naked in your own home. Kids today have to rely on unsolicited images on their smartphones to encounter naked adults. Somehow, society finds that strangely acceptable.

I’ve been reading a lot on MEDIUM lately about sleeping naked. Loads of testimonials, along with the occasional, “I would never do that” piece.

“What if there’s a fire or an earthquake and I have to run out of the house with no clothes on?” Seems like modesty is going to be the last thing on your mind when your house is on fire, but we’ll go with that.

My wife Charlotte and I have been sleeping naked since we first started dating, nearly 40 years ago, now! As best I recall, that was something we both enjoyed before we met one another, so it was hardly a question at the time — for all the usual reasons.

Let the body breathe and regulate its own temperature.

Feel the fresh sheets against your skin.

Random moments of skin-to-skin contact during the night.

And oh… just a few years into that, we became full-fledged naturists. This was just another chance to be naked.

I’ve always referred to our children — now fully grown — as situational naturists. That is, they’d get naked on nakation, (Still, will if we’re paying! LOL) and we weren’t especially modest about bathroom doors and the like, even during adolescence. There were never tensions about my wife and I being naked in bed, and rituals around showering and dressing in the mornings were pretty lax as well.

You read about some nudist families where everyone is naked all the time at home. That wasn’t us. We never had a pool. The hot tub was always a naked place but the kids rarely used it. Otherwise, skinny dipping at home simply wasn’t an option.

I’m guessing our daughter Elizabeth was 10 or 11 years old when she had her friend Cassie over for a sleepover one night. We set them up downstairs in the living room with sleeping bags and blankets then tromped off to bed.

I can’t remember if we simply heard a commotion downstairs, or if our daughter came to wake us from a sound sleep, but somehow it came to our attention that Cassie had a bloody nose. My wife rolled out of bed…

“I got this…”

It was all pretty routine. A little blood to be cleaned up. A fresh box of tissues. Maybe even a clean t-shirt for Cassie until we could wash her bed-clothes the next morning.

“How about a glass of water, Cassie?”

“Yes, please.”

It was just another page out of the Parenting 101 book. Crisis averted and we all went back to bed.

I guess I failed to mention that it was a warm summer evening and our bedroom windows were open to provide ventilation for a good night’s sleep.

“Everything OK?” I asked Charlotte.

“Yep. Just a plain ol’ bloody nose. I think they’re tucked in for the night now.”

“Good”

I paused for a moment in my drowsiness.

“Hey Charlotte?”

“Yeah?” She replied.

“Did you know you were naked when you went down to help the girls?”

“Oh sh*t. Yup. I guess I was.”

Too late now. We rolled over and went back to sleep.

Everything seemed right on script the next morning. We debated about recounting the event with Cassie or her mom, but that seemed less than organic. Cassie’s mom was something between an acquaintance and a friend, but she also worked in the theater department at the same university where I taught music.

She’s a theater person, right? She’s probably chill with nudity.

A few weeks later, we took Elizabeth to Cassie’s house for a play date. (Apparently, we hadn’t been banned! Phew.) Over the couch in the living room was a large impressionist print with a vague image of nude women swimming. Who knows, maybe Cassie’s parents slept naked as well.

I’ve wondered over the years if things would have been different had I been the one to run downstairs without a bathrobe. In this particular case, I suspect not, though things are different now than when our children were young.

Too bad, really. Seems there are few things more innocuous than sleeping naked, or simply being naked in your own home. Kids today have to rely on unsolicited images on their smartphones to encounter naked adults. Somehow, society finds that strangely acceptable.

Meanwhile… we still sleep naked.

Enjoy this story? Please take a moment to clap! You can clap up to 50 times, and each time you do that, it helps move naturist stories up the queue in the MEDIUM algorithm.

I write about naturism, travel, and other parts of the human experience simply for the joy of writing. Totally worth it. But every time somebody spends time reading one of my stories, I earn a few cents to help pay the overhead costs of being a blogger.

It’s only a few dollars a month to subscribe to Medium, which gives you access to thousands of authors and their work. And if you subscribe by clicking through the link below, I receive an incentive for that as well. Support naturism and thoughtful writing. Subscribe to MEDIUM… below…

Read more of our naturist musings on our blog…