thread: 2013-08-01 : A Guide to the Sauna for Shy Americans
On 2013-08-02, It's vihta, not vasta wrote:
I have kids. They come with me to sauna, when we are among friends, in summer cottages or home saunas. Sometimes people use bathing suites, sometimes not. My kids have seen tens of adults naked (and they have seen them). My boy have had sauna many times with gay men. Talk about taboos, but I think, it gives a good picture about the true spirit of sharing sauna with friends. And I think, that mixed sauna will teach my kids a lot of positive things about adulthood, self-acceptance and healthy relationship with own body. My kids started to have sauna when they were few weeks old, I have nursed them in sauna. Some of my uncles are even been born in sauna (common thing in old days, it was hygiene and warm place).
One of the big signs of teenage in Finland is when kids decide they do not want to go to sauna with the parent of the opposite sex. Then families will usually start to have male and female turns and lot of important things have been discussed in sauna between boy&father; and girl&mother;. Kids see what their genes might bring them in adulthood.
And when teenagers grow up, then they will return to same sauna with the parents. Their kids will have a sauna with grandparents and adults see their parents naked again, see them ageing and gets to know, what to expect (father, you should show that knee to a doctor). Once again children may touch his/her parent, when he/she helps the granny to have a sauna and washes her hair and back. Sharing sauna is a glue to family.
In history, we Finns also washed our dead in sauna before burying them. I think we miss something nowadays.
But to be honest:
All Finns ar not comfortable with naked sauna of both sexes, there are big differences between families and differet parts of the country. Just few weeks ago our main newspaper had a large article about the topic. According their gallup, about half of the Finns think mixed sauna as natural thing.
For some reason, science fiction, fantasy and roleplaying fandoms have always been (in my opininion) for mixed saunas, university students have lot of mixed sauna parties and so on.
