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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
When to exercise modesty at the Y?
Does it matter if a 4-year-old boy changes in front of a 6-year-old girl?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When we finished our swimming lessons last week, we walked into the women’s family locker room with another 6-year-old girl and her mother. We were chatting with them while the girls were getting changed. My 6-year-old daughter, who is not particular shy about changing in front of others, just stripped right down. The other little girl’s mother held a towel around her daughter while she changed.
I wondered if she did it because she didn’t want my 4-year-old son seeing her naked and then I wondered if she wouldn’t want her daughter seeing my son undress? So to be safe, I took him around the corner to another area to change him. When I came back her mother offered up that her daughter was just shy about it — she wasn’t worried about my son on either count.
But it made me wonder at what age is it inappropriate for my son to see other little girls change and vice versa?
The Y has a women’s family dressing room and a men’s family dressing room. It is intended for parents to be able to keep their children with them and dress them. I’m usually the one to take the kids so my son usually ends up in the ladies’ dressing room. I guess if my husband were to take them, I wouldn’t want my daughter at this age changing in front of men or older boys or her seeing men getting dressed. I might let my daughter change alone in the women’s dressing room but I sure as heck wouldn’t let my son change alone in the men’s (and I don’t think I would for a long time).
There is a little area by the pool where you can pull the curtains and they could change without showering. That might be a stop-gap solution.
At what age should children exercise modesty when changing clothes?
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