When Should Childhood Nudity Stop?

As mentioned in an earlier post, I attended a family reunion last week and got to be in the presence of the one man in American who knows everything. My brother-in-law, who is a seminary principal, is certain he has everything figured out and he’s more than happy to dispense his wisdom to whoever is within range of his voice. Never mind that his education is from the University of Phoenix and the farthest he’s ever traveled is to West Coast on a mission. When one of my baby’s was undergoing a life threatening surgery, he had the audacity to e-mail that we should do his baby blessing immediately so he wouldn’t die, not something any mother wants to hear at that stressful moment. I don’t think anyone has ever said something to make me angrier, but at my celestial sex partner’s request I kept a lid on my fury.

So, when we saw him at the family reunion it was a given that he’d say something infuriating or just plain stupid. My baby (who remains unblessed, but survived) has been suffering from heat rash and being outside during the family reunion wasn’t helping so I removed all of his clothes except for his diaper while we say in the shade.“Whoa, get some clothes on that baby!” He said and my husband and I laughed thinking he was joking. Problem was, he wasn’t. He went on, “The other day my neighbor’s son, Ezra, was out playing with a hose- they’re Bible freaks, anyway the kid was nude. I mean the kid is two (he holds his fingers up), TWO,” he spits. “So I pulled up and told his dad to get some clothes on that kid. You just can’t let your kids run around naked, there’s gotta be a cut off,” he said.

My CSP and I spoke that unspoken marital language with our eyes and we both agreed he was an idiot. Our silence made him uncomfortable, which I enjoyed. Earlier that week I’d let my four-year-old swim in the backyard kiddie pool naked because the baby was already in it, nude I might add, and I couldn’t leave him alone to go upstairs and get my older child's swimsuit, plus I didn't really care. I’d won't let him go in the front yard like that, but when he was two I saw no problem with it if the occasion arose.

What do you think, are nude kids something to be chastised over? Where do you think the age “cut off” is for public childhood nudity?

Do Families Have To Be Forever?

Forgive me if this reads like a jumble, but I’m exhausted from a week of reuniting with family. Sometimes I wonder why we subject ourselves to the yearly ritual of traveling to meet with obscure relatives only to melt in the sun and hear Uncle Udell tell the same stories he told last year (while wearing a powder blue leisure suit). It seems that Utah family reunions have a pattern of sorts- first, homemade root beer must be served, second, a quilt or some sewing/craft project will be performed, third, undecipherable genealogy sheets or journal copies should be passed around, lastly, someone must say something that launches a dispute that will last until the next family reunion. (More on this tomorrow)


My fraternal grandmother, who may hold the record for most LDS missions served, has not picked up the phone in almost a decade to call me. Instead, she prefers to send yearly notes (sometimes partially photocopied) lamenting how she’s just so busy with the church to fly two hours to visit or even call. I didn’t make it out to my fraternal reunion, but this year my grandmother remarked to my mom that she couldn’t ever connect with me and my sisters because we “like to shop and she doesn’t.” When my mom relayed her words I realized how little she knows us because shopping is not something we’ve ever spent much time doing. I find it ironic that here this woman is serving constant missions/callings so she can teach people what she believes is needed for them to have eternal families, and she's always spouting off about how important her "forever family" is, yet she’s neglected us here on earth for decades.

While family reunions can be fun, there always seems to be those relatives who leave me asking, “Do families have to be forever?”