Why Nudists Lose Battles and Wars

Our puggle (son) is old enough to drive.  Yet he is still active in a certain well-known civic organization.  So it was that this Sunday afternoon following church my wife and I found ourselves at the civic group leader's community association swimming pool. We were there for swim tests as the group will be doing a river trip in a couple of weeks.

Shortly after we arrived another member and his mom pulled up in their car. The mom got the boy's younger brother out of his car seat.  The group leader smiled at the younger kid and asked how old he was.  "Three.  But he'll be four in another few weeks," mom answered.

Soon the leader had her charges rounded up at the water's edge. "Who wants to test first in the pool? " (It was a beautiful day.)

"I do!" came a small voice and we all laughed seeing the near-four year old with his hand raised.  The leader explained that the young one could swim on the steps of the shallow end. That's when his mom had to break the news: they had not brought a bathing suit for him so he couldn't go in the pool.  The boy was crestfallen. (We have discussed this motherly treatment in happy-moms-day-now-forget-what-she-told.html .)

There was no one else in the pool except an elderly couple on  the far end and I thought to myself,  "he is only three... he could swim in his birthday suit. "  But you can bet I didn't actually say anything.  It would have been too weird.  Not my pool,  not my kid.

My wife and I turned our attention to our own son taking the test.  Later we saw the little one allowed to put his feet in the pool. But it got me thinking.  At less than four he has already learned a lesson: You don't get to swim without that bathing suit.  If mom had let him,  someone would have probably teased him about it. So in another 20 years or so when he is a dad his puggle will hear the same rules.

We would like to think nude beach closures are purely about some official with an agenda.  Or that success is just another 100 dollar donation away to some nudist organization. Such things play a part of course. But as long as life lessons about nudity are doled out like this and even Platypuses are at a loss to intervene it will be a long time before there's real change.

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Bare Platypus now offers products with Platypus artwork at the Bare Platypus Souvenir Shop .  You can get a tote bag or a coffee mug, a t-shirt, or all three!  Plus there's more to come.

These designs are one-of-a-kinds that you won't find elsewhere.  Tasteful enough that you can show or serve them to all guests, but unusual enough (and always bare) that they can help you get a conversation going.

You're invited to visit!