Today I want to talk about two things. They may sound unrelated, but I promise you they totally are. I want to talk about body confidence and boys nudie runs.

When I was growing up I remember how the local boys at parties used to get around, be silly, and do nudie runs. Oh what bogans, I thought, without realising at the time that I was a bit of a Queen Bogan myself.

I didn’t reeeeeeeeally think much else of it, until I met my (now) Hairy Husband in 2004.

He ALSO loved himself a bit of getting round in the nude. In fact sometimes he would parade around the house in all of his glory stating that if anyone peered in the windows and saw him… well it would just be their bad luck wouldn’t it? Or their good luck, depending on how you were looking at it hehehe.

After meeting this body confident, self-loving man, I started to experience a bit of a shift in my own thoughts about my body. I started to think that if someone else loved it, then maybe I should try loving it too. However it wasn’t until I had my kids however that the shift in my thinking was (relatively) complete.

Let me explain.

** By the way – Read the birth story for my son here and daughter here!

Before I had my kids, I had quite frankly been a bit uptight. I didn’t like my body at all, and growing up it wasn’t really the done thing to be nude if anyone else could see you. I wasn’t comfortable with getting nude in front of others, other than my now husband of course – but even then it comes with an element of self-consciousness… Which is ridiculous because the husband loves me and the body that I am in regardless. Sigh.

After having kids, I kinda felt transformed. Maybe it’s because of how many people looked at/over/inside my body whilst I was pregnant, but I kinda stopped caring what people thought of me. I realised there was something so much more important than how my body looked (which in the end was totally insignificant).  Yep, what was WAY more important was what my body had DONE – what it had grown, what it had nurtured to life, and how it took care of me.

And from here I started to realise that I HAD to show our kids how much they must love their bodies as well as respect them, which I had never done prior to having them.

I didn’t want them to grow up thinking they were anything less than absolutely perfect, coz its a sad way to live.

To do this, I knew that they needed to see a mumma who was kind to herself and who loved herself from her head to her toes. A mumma who was happy in her own skin. A mumma who moved her body to feel good, and not to lose weight. And although I am still working hard on this every day, I want them also to see a mumma who has a good relationship with food.

So, one of the ways that I facilitate this is to make sure that we do more things in the nude.

I know, I know – that sounds weird AF, but what I mean is that we take a little extra time everyday to show the kids that we have body confidence and are comfortable in our own skin.

They hang out with me in the shower, or we have chats together whilst I shower and they play in the bathroom. They kiss my tummy which is wobbly as hell since having them but I love and appreciate it so much and I tell them just how amazing that tummy is, and how incredible our bodies are. And sometimes they even come and kiss me right on my bum while I do my hair in the mornings. It’s not weird, just sweet, I swear.

We dance in the nude, and sometimes after my morning shoer while I moisturise my body, I list what I love about that particular part of my body, what it has done for me, and I thank it. For example – “I love these arms because they are strong and helped me hold you when you were sad and give you both cuddles.  Thank you arms… “

And I suspect that this is rubbing off on them, because my kids already get naked at every opportunity they find. Sigh. Yup, you heard me. Every. Single. Opportunity. Possible.

Whenever we have guests over, his clothing randomly disappears, never to be seen again. He is like the Flash in that his friends have barely even stepped through our front door before his clothes are off and he is running around, free as a bird.

His friends usually join him fairly quickly. They have the same body confidence as my son, and the lot of them doing rudey-nudey runs up and down the back yard before I can yell “put your clothes back on, it’s only 14 bloody degrees out there”. Which I seem to do over and over again until my lips feel like they are about to fall off my actual face, sigh.

But I love that about kids. Although there is a time and place for getting nude and feeling sick AF in your skin (which by the way doesn’t include the doctors office when your sister is getting her vaccinations – cough…my son, I am looking at you buddy… double cough), I love that they are comfortable enough in their own skin to do this.

And maybe, just maybe we should learn a little something from them. Kids are free. And they don’t give two hoots about anyone else. What a way to live, right??

Do you feel completely at ease in your own skin? What things do you do to show your kids about body confidence and how to love themselves more? Leave a comment below and tell me all about it! xxx