Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site SCIRTP.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!rti-sel!SCIRTP!todd
From: todd@SCIRTP.UUCP (Todd Jones)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Pajamas needed?
Message-ID: <194@SCIRTP.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 14:17:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: SCIRTP.194
Posted: Fri Jun 28 14:17:13 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 03:30:22 EDT
References: <1201@utcsri.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: SCI Systems, Research Triangle Park, NC
Lines: 56

> Hi all,
> My wife and I are about to have our first baby and want the worlds (?)
> opinion on this topic.  We've gotten used to sleeping without anything on
> (i.e. nude).  Is this acceptable with kids?  We plan to wear things to
> wander about the house, but I understand kids will come into their parent's
> room uninvited.  Also, I read that kids get embarrassed by seeing parents
> nude.
> 
> 
> Brad Myers

Living in the south, and being stingy with air conditioning, My wife
and I often sleep nude. Being the parents of a one year old and a four
year old, we often allow them to sleep with us from, say 5:30 a.m. on,
rather than have them scream us awake. 

My experience has shown me a couple of interesting things:

	Parental fears of rolling over while sleeping and smothering
	their kids are so ingrained that, even while sleeping, parents
	avoid excessive movement. This tendency is so extreme that
	parents gradually move to the farthest edges of the bed while
	junior gets to spread out. Result: junior gets a marvelous
	rest while mom and dad feel like they've travelled cross
	country in the back seat of a compact car.

	Junior, on the other hand, thinks nothing of thrashing about
	in mom and dad's bed to achieve maximum comfort. During this
	thrashing, junior's feet inevitably find dad's "tender aone"
	and cause dad to rudely awaken. Dad soon learns to sleep on
	his side when junior is in bed, to avoid gonad-battering.

	The issue of mom and dad being naked is, to our four year old,
	rather silly, but he doesn't find it embarassing. He defines
	the nudity by the nudist: mom and dad are fine in the nude,
	but other people naked are unnacceptable. He feels fine in
	the nude, if mom and dad are the only observers, otherwise
	he gets severly embarassed. I guess he is learning about 
	privacy and exercising his rights to privacy.

My experience indicates it's fine to let your kids sleep with you, 
even if you sleep nude. But, I finally put my foot down when I
realized my sleep was getting severely compromised. Now our kids
get in bed with us from 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. and we wake up together.
This way we have familial closeness and the kids still learn to sleep
by themselves.

Remember however, as a parent you are no longer entitled to normal
sleep habits for several years :-).

    ||||| 
   ||   ||
   [ O-O ]       Todd Jones
    \ ^ /        {decvax,akgua}!mcnc!rti-sel!scirtp!todd      
    | _ |
    |___|