Young children, say those under 5 or 6 years old, can just be taken. For young, easy-going kids a simple "right, we're off to the swimming pool now" could well be all that's required.

We did not bother telling the kids , they were used to us and them being nude around the house and seemed to accept others doing the same. (they told nearly everyone, you can not stop that). Our kids were quite young, I suppose if they were older you would have to explain, maybe the easiest way to introduce them to naturism is to go to swims first as it is more natural (to them) to undress to swim, but less so to socialise nude. Make sure where you are going has other children as this will help a lot.

Primary age children should have it explained to them before going that people will not be wearing swim suits and they will not need to wear one either. Any initial reticence about going will disappear very quickly once they start to have fun.

For adolescents, broach the outing in advance, making it clear that the swim is naturist, and that there will be no obligation on the child to go or to be nude if they do go.

It is advisable to check whether the venue is nudity compulsory as it is best to give children the choice. I have been told that this is the CCBN Child Protection recommendation. Some of the contributors advised avoiding child nudity compulsory venues because of the child protection implications. The under fives couldn't care less what they are, or are not, wearing.

Putting pressure on children to remove costumes is likely to be counter productive. If no big deal is made about it, they do normally dispense with them in their own time.

One respondent felt that children should always be fully consulted and given the choice, but others felt that they should do as their parents decided.

I coaxed a friend into going. We discussed it one morning, her 8-9 y/o daughter was with us at the time. The daughter didn't want to go because of the nudity. That evening, we all went. The daughter was in tears. The daughter gladly went again and again and again - and got her elder sister to go too.

So, would it have been right to let her back out ?

However, many consider that to be a high risk strategy.

Obviously, there shouldn't be pressure. If it's clear that a child doesn't want to go, or wouldn't be happy, then it's totally pointless dragging them along. OK, so they just might "love it when they got there", but most kids like to prove that their presumptions were the right ones. "I told you this museum would be Bore-RING!" As regards naturism, in my opinion a key factor in making it OK for kids of particular ages/attitudes to come along is to make it clear that costumes are optional (actually seems to be desirable for adults - eg the success of the MADNAT taster sessions and ladies-only pre-sessions). Unless the kids are confirmed naturists themselves, even if they've experienced beach/holiday naturism they may feel uncomfortable at the idea of going to a local swimming pool without a costume. So any swim with an absolute no cozzies policy should be avoided.

Peer and sibling influences can be funny things:

Kids are funny concerning choice. We have a family at MADNAT, two girls (one of his and one of hers) and a baby (one of theirs). One of the girls will invariably wear her costume if her step-sister is present and invariably be naked if her step-sister is not there.

Try browsing other nudist websites and you would still come back to PureNudism.com! We are the leader in everything nudism has to offer.

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