To have a healthy relationship with their bodies, the Danes have a very special ritual they teach children very early. But it can shock some …
When you are small, undress to change, shower or just because it is hot seems natural, without discomfort or ulterior motives. But growing up, any child becomes a little more modest. The gaze of others suddenly takes importance, comparisons are made naturally, remarks can be heard. Growing up, the body even ends up being associated with a sensitive subject, sometimes a source of discomfort, especially when it moves away from the idealized “standards” disseminated everywhere, whether in advertisements, media or social networks. So what to do to reverse this trend and allow children to accept their bodies as it is?
The Danes may have found the solution. And for good reason, the Danish population has “A very natural relationship to the body, a relationship marked by self -respect and others”, underline Léa Johansen Bjarrum and Jonathan Vallantin in their book “Scandinavian parenting: the secrets of the happiest children in the world“(Editions of Boeck Higher). Indeed, the Danes have a healthy and peaceful relationship to nudity, from childhood. For this, they set up a very specific ritual in a place that many can fear: the swimming pool. “Here, before putting a foot in the pool, everyone, children and adults, does not escape the shower ritual in the simplest device”, By being completely naked.
An instruction that can shock more than one, especially in France, but in Denmark, it is accepted by all. It’s like a habit. “In the showers, it is not uncommon to see panels recalling that it is” dirty to wash in a jersey “. This basic hygiene rule dramatizes the bare body, whether one is young, old, thin, well bearing, pregnant or adolescent”, explain the authors.
Danish children thus grow, by learning that nudity is natural. “”In municipal swimming pools, they accompany their opposite sex parent in common showers up to 7 years “can we read. And it goes even beyond. “From 6 years old, after sports lessons, they wash together in common showers, girls and boys separated. The bare body is normalized and desexualized very early.” This releases them in a certain way complexes and stereotypes.
