We don’t make a big deal about nudity in my family. Although I’m not the kind of person to parade around the house naked, I’m also not the sort of person who clutches her clothes and screams if my child walks in the room while I’m changing. I firmly believe that our children’s feelings about beauty, about nature, and about confidence are influenced by the way they learn about human bodies early in life, so I don’t treat the human body as something shameful or embarrassing—just as something that isn’t generally shown in public.
That’s why, when my three-year-old toddled into the bathroom as I was getting out of the shower, I didn’t say much, just grabbed a towel and continued talking. But, since she was a kid, she had some things to say.
“Why are you so skinny?”
“Because everyone’s body is shaped differently, and mine is skinny.”
“Why do ladies have breasts?”
“To feed babies, just like you were fed when you were a baby.”
“Why don’t mans have breasts?”
“Because you usually have to be pregnant to make breast milk, and men can’t be pregnant.”
Most of these were good questions that had good answers, until she decided to point out that she had seen my tan lines. It was mid-summer and I’d been spending a lot of time at the pool, so most of my body was the color of cocoa, while the part of my body covered by a bikini bottom was my normal olive hue. It was a curiosity to my daughter, so she just had to know how such a thing could happen.
I did the only thing I knew how to do and explained what a tan is and why a butt doesn’t usually get tanned… Although, to be honest, I wish she had never asked. Self-consciousness about conspicuous tan lines (combined with increasing concern about the invisible effects that the UV rays could be having on my skin) kept me from going to the pool without sunscreen ever since then!
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