In my recent swimming classes, I am being exposed ! to the public shower. Having never used a public shower in my life (other than in temple ponds and the like) I was quite shocked to see that 90% of the guys walk in naked ! My wife confirmed that the same thing was true in the ladies shower room.
My daughter, who has so far been protected from having to see naked adults walking freely was naturally curious in that shower. When my wife and daughter had come to watch my first swimming lesson, my daughter wanted to go to the restroom. My wife took her to the ladies restroom and came back with a glum look on her face. My daughter was staring at the other ladies in there who were walking around.
It is going to get worse when I take my kid to the "parents and tots" class. I am sure she will stare longer when she sees a bunch of naked guys walking around, unless my wife agrees to come to every lesson with us. This brings me to the fundamental question..
How do you tell a kid that it is not okay to get naked in front of others when so many people around us are immune to it ? Even if I shower with my trunks on and use a towel when I change, I cannot expect the other people in the shower to do the same thing. In fact the two other guys in the shower were looking at me like there was somthing wrong with me. I am pretty sure I am no homophobe, but it is something in the way that I was raised that makes me uneasy about this whole shower business. But teaching my kid what accepted levels of nudity in front of others (shower or otherwise) is going to be a challenge. Lets see how my engineering brain deals with this one !