So true Rob. There were so many families in Montalivet last week, but sadly very few of them were British. We saw two families from the UK while there and one of them are Polish who live in the UK. Yet there were countless families from other European countries. 

It isn't just at resorts. Beaches in France and Spain are also embraced by families. Accept for the family of RnR we have not seen a single family on a British beach in the last 5 years, although we have encouraged a few families to strip off thanks to our own influence. And that is what is lacking, families encouraging other families, and it does appear that our national body has no want to encourage families to go to beaches and inspire others. 

What we have to consider is that no one is going to book a £700 plus holiday at a naturist campsite like Montalivet without first trying naturism and in Europe families are trying it out on beaches etc but in the UK it is not happening. Event organisers may be very proud of selling out evening watching drag artists or weekends of late night discos but they are not considering how this encourages new people to try naturism and in particular families. Not all of the children at Monta last week will be naturists when they grow, but it may be safe to assume that many will. There were many young adults there too. In fact there were so many men and women in their late teens and 20s that it is hard to understand why anyone could suggest that naturism is an aging population. Surely lots of these youngsters so at home at Montalivet were introduced by their parents on beaches and holidays only when they were babies.  

Families encouraging families is the cornerstone to the successful flourishing of naturism - the kind of naturism that is about a right way to live, not an experience of the exotic.

Back in the 70s and 80s when family naturism was embraced by most narutist resorts, people were drawn to them as family destinations.  Parents brought their kids there because they saw that both adults and kids could have a good time at a fraction of the costs other vacation spots would charge.  As many documentaries attested, it's the dads who drove everyone there the first time and the moms kept the family going back time after time, after knowing the other moms there.

Nudity was not a consideration.  It was a benefit because it simplified packing and laundry.  It also created that shared identity and community among naturist families, who looked after each other's children, helped organized activities for all, and knew how to raise their kids the right way.  It's just plain clean fun for everyone.

This is perhaps why naturist resorts don't work anymore.  People want luxury and glamour.  They consider those old resorts too rustic, too few amenities, too little thrill.  Hence, they just focus on the aspect of nudity, and that steered the whole idea towards the wrong avenue.  When the resorts need to survive, they inevitably have to bow to the new clientele, and this group certainly don't want any kids around them because of the things they do.

I do believe there's a younger generation of naturist families who subscribe to the same ideals those families in the 70s and 80s did.  They need spaces to call their own, where the families encouraging families happen again, and hopefully they don't always have to go to France to find them!

Thanks for that A. It can feel that we have to go to mainland Europe to find the naturist family experience and it shouldn't. The atmosphere at Montalivet was wonderful for children and there was a lot to do, lots of activities, lots of sport, the wonderful pool area and importantly lots of other children and families. There was live music come evening, restaurants selling alcohol, but even in the evenings it felt much more peaceful and family orientated than the evenings and even the days felt in a national family camping event felt in the UK. Despite the security and the head of our national body being there with other members of his team there was drunken behaviour during the day and in the evenings emotions and language escalated from certain people staying there and there was a sexualised feel. Our boys heard things that they should not have been hearing and it may have been partly due to the idea that naturism in the UK has to put an emphasis on sexual orientation being important and hugely relevant. Men talking about other men coming to their tents in the night is not naturist talk. Naturism should welcome people of every age, gender, creed etc, but we should be attempting to sell it to a specific age, sexual orientation or gender. This leads to segregation, unreal high ratios of some people and unreal low ratios of others.  Montalivet felt like a real cross section of society, because it was aimed at any one but all fellow humans.  

Here is a thought when we investigated booking into Euronat or Montalivet earlier this year they were already sold out during various weeks and bookings became hard. Bare in mind these venues are enormous! they are also not cheap. When we were looking I couldn't help compare the facilities, activities and accommodation at some other campsites in France which were also on beaches, and were easier to travel to. They were considerably cheaper, not just a few pounds but around half the price. Half the price for bigger, newer, better and more. I wanted to book a non-naturist place but Anna said no we should go naturist. She was right it was delightful to be back in a naturist environment for a few nights.  But these families are filling these campsites because they want naturism. Is it wrong that they charge so much more? Maybe the fact that they sell out shows they can afford to because of  supply and demand. But is this not proof that if you offer a true family environment to naturists then it will positive encourage families, singles, couples, all genders and all ages to come in their hundreds/thousands and relish in the simplicity and reality of genuine naturism. This is the heart of naturism. This is where naturism flourishes. It doesn't need to be aimed at adults only, women, LGBQT,  or anyone else. Places like Montalivet show, to quote Field of Dreams, If you build it they will come. As well as families, retirees and everyone else.  

I was an officer in a non-landed club in the USA and found there were quite a few different attitudes about children.  We, out of necessity, held events in individual homes which included nudity.  It turned out that only a few of our members could hold events and about half of them refused to have children attend.  I was trying to grow our membership numbers and was curious as to why the kids would not be welcomed.  Risk was the major reason.  Some hosts did not want anyone reporting them to the authorities because children attended nudist events.  Also one person feared that her ex-husband could use that as a reason to regain custody of her son.  So, all of our events were adult only.  Members did not bring their own children nor would some hosts volunteer to have events.  Personally, I expressed that when I hosted an event any and all were welcome including kids, single people and any sexual persuasion as well as couples.  My reasoning was that to grow we had to become more inclusive and accepting of all.

It can be understandable that people carry these fears, and in fact society seems to encourage such fears, and while these fears exist it does make naturism that little bit harder for families and everyone. But we do have to find a way around it and work against the idea when we can. 

Once again it seems that these fears are more prolific in some countries than others. It is more likely in the UK than mainland Europe for example, and more likely in the USA than the UK I would say. 

The fear is that the more we pander to these fears the more prolific they become and as these fears are voiced on social media, the more they travel to countries that currently don't carry such concerns.