Question: Our son, a recent college graduate, is living and working at home—naked much of the time. He works on his computer in his bedroom, designing computer programs for customers, and puts on clothes only when he has to attend an online meeting or go out to meet a customer. He dresses for meals and put on clothes if we have guests in the house. But he may come out to the kitchen for a snack and wander around the house naked like when doing his laundry.
He says being naked is healthy, and a lot of people took up nudism at home during the pandemic because it gave them a sense of freedom during a time of social restrictions. I guess his mother and I have accepted it, but we wonder how normal it is to have a young adult male being naked around the house. Up to puberty, yes. But as an adult? What do you think?
Answer: your son is right that people have taken the opportunity to exercise personal freedom by being naked during the time of the pandemic. They discovered early on that there was no need to get dressed up if they weren’t going to the office or wherever they used to work.
Being naked at home may have been a form of protest against imposed restrictions. Nudity is a better form of social protest than refusing to wear a mask or get vaccinated, which puts other people at risk because of their assertion of personal freedom. Some people may have started being naked at home just because they saw no reason to get dressed if they weren’t leaving their house or apartment. Their number has apparently increased even since society has opened up again because many people are still working from home, at least on some days. Cities like Chicago are complaining that no one comes to work on Mondays and Fridays and the downtown is a ghost town on those days!
Your son says that being naked is healthy. I wonder if he sleeps naked. He probably does. Health experts say that you sleep better if your body is kept at a cool temperature. Men especially need to air out their genitals, since they are external to the body. Unconstricted by briefs or boxers or even pajamas, blood flows to and circulates more freely, including in the genital area.
“Another day. What’s on the schedule? Do I need to go anywhere? I guess I had better get up and face the day. I’ve got work to do at home. No need to get dressed up for it.”
After checking a number of newspapers online in the U.S. and the U.K., I can tell you that there was more nakedness at home during COVID-19. Two independent surveys found that between 11 percent and 29 percent of people like being naked when working from home. Coupon Follow surveyed 1,000 people working from home and found that 29% of them preferred working naked. Kaspersky Security Cloud surveyed 8,000 employees of small and medium enterprises and found that 11% of them preferred working naked at home.
These reports were published at the end of 2020. All indications are that the trend has continued and may have increased as more people thought about the possibility of being undressed at home and acted on it. I also note that surveys report less of a sense of burn-out among workers who can work at home, and less of a desire to seek other employment. Perhaps the experience of naked freedom helps keep workers loyal.
Nudity shouldn’t be identified only with sex. But there was a greater use of social platforms to send nude photos during the pandemic. In fact, virtual sex was recommended by health departments and even the Mayo Clinic as a way of maintaining social distancing. Since sexual intimacy was discouraged, many young people took up the recommendation of sexting (which had begun even before the pandemic) and continue to do so now. So this is an additional indication that young people are comfortable with nudity at home. If they can send nude images of themselves on social media, they can sit nude at a computer to do their work.
There’s no doubt that many people working at home have decided to dispense with clothing. This became a symbol of the whole idea that one didn’t have to get dressed and commute to an office in order to do one’s job. So your son is not an outliner in this practice that has continued beyond the pandemic. Working naked at home became especially popular among high tech people who, if they didn’t shed all their clothing, at least wore lounge clothing.
And, obviously, if people are naked while in front of their computer, they may be naked doing other household chores, like the laundry.
With a job that requires a lot of sitting, your son must use a gym to exercise. But some exercise can be done during breaks at home, and a naked boy is likely to exercise naked.
Your son is also right that being naked is healthy. It gives the skin a chance to breathe. Even without being naked at lot of the time, it is healthy to get out of restrictive clothing at least once a day and to be stretching periodically — especially if you’re spending many hours at a computer.
My hunch is that many of those who work naked at home are single or a couple, not so much young adults living with their parents. So I think you and your wife are to be commended for accepting your son’s expression of naked freedom. If you’re not totally comfortable having a 20-something young man naked at home, you would be within your rights to ask him to slip into a pair of sweat pants or something when he comes to the dinner table or emerges from his den to watch TV with his parents.
I can’t give a definitive answer as to how normal it is to have a young adult being naked around his parents’ house. What about older youths being openly naked at home? I heard of a family situation in which the older sister was accepting of her younger brother’s propensity for being naked around the house, even past puberty. Apparently she gave him flattering comments about his emerging “manhood,” which built up his adolescent confidence about his body.
Several years ago I met a college student from Finland who said that in his home in Finland the family was often naked with each other in the sauna, in the lake, and sometimes around the house. He also had a younger sister, and he would often come to the breakfast table naked after taking his morning shower, and his parents and sister accepted this. The family also used a sauna together. Of course, that is Finland.
What about the whole family practicing nudism? Many American families are installing saunas in their basements. In the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, using the sauna is a family event, sometimes with guests invited. I experienced being an invited guest in a family sauna on one of my earlier trips to Sweden.
How normal is it for an older adult to be naked around the house? I’ve known some. For myself, even since before the pandemic I remained naked after my morning shower to make the bed or change the bedding and throw laundry into in the washing machine. I may then exercise naked in my study using a stability ball and hand weights.
A friend who is from the Caribbean told me that when he was a boy and it rained, all the boys took off their clothes and enjoyed being naked in the rain. Now he enjoys going naked into his back yard to enjoy a rain shower. A high fence around his back yard shields him from the view of his neighbors. “But if they look over the fence, it’s their problem if they don’t like what they see,” he told me.
I wonder how many others of my readers engaged in naked freedom during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to do so now.
Did you step out onto the balcony wrapped in a towel after your shower for your morning coffee?
Have you continued to work at home after the pandemic since many companies don’t require their employees to come into the office every day? But, like our questioner’s son, remember to put on some clothes (at least a shirt) for Zoom teleconferences. If you are working naked at home, enjoy your naked freedom. But be respectful of others, since we live in a clothed society.
I don’t know how long the desire to be naked at home will last. My hunch is that it will last as long as the opportunities for working at home last. There are times and places for being clothed, even in one’s home. But being home alone with oneself, one’s spouse, and even one’s family is not one of them.
Pastor Frank
Comment
James
I sometimes work from home naked in my room. Unfortunately, I share an apartment with a shy guy and can’t venture outside of my room or the bathroom naked unless he is gone.
04/30/2023
