To be a Good Dad, one shouldn’t be afraid of a little nudity. I mean, you know, depending on the time and place.
There is a pool I often frequent here in Uganda where the female massage therapists, to get to their treatment room, have to walk through the men’s change room. For the most part, I’ve been able to hold a towel just here or there to avoid what you might imagine could happen. But if your timing is even a bit off, or if you have nothing in hand … I mean there was one time … You just have to stand there and smile.
Yes, attitudes differ on this sort of thing from place to place. Back at the pool I’d go to in Yemen, a country where the guys run around in those long robes to be extra modest, there was a sign in the change area – ‘No nudity allowed.’
This, of course, made showering rather tricky.
But on this day of Single Daddin’ It, I’m talking about your children’s nudity. Don’t let it bother you. Especially when you’re bathing them.
I thought of this when just bathing Liz. I was lathering up her back and we were talking and I, well, I apologized. Liz, I said. I have to say that I’m sorry. I really am so very sorry. Will you forgive me?
This, naturally, got Liz quite excited, and she immediately ran through a list of things she knew I must have been apologizing for.
I said, no, I’m just sorry for not bathing you more often. I know that I won’t get the chance many more times. And I just haven’t done this very often. And then I held her close and warm in her wrapped towel.
Yes, Liz is now 9 and, you know, even Good Dads have to stop bathing their daughters at a certain point. I’d say, for sure, well before college years. In fact, even to manage this particular bathing moment, I took the bathroom key out of the door and put it in my pocket.
Where’s the bathroom key? Liz yelled out when she went to give herself a bath. I put it in my pocket, I said. Why? she said, knowing very well what was happening. Because I knew you’d lock me out, I said.
So there you have it. For all You Dads, bathe your kids. Not only do you keep the house from smelling to high heaven. You avoid some later regrets.