askye, everyone else has already said some great things about how you handled this. I'm just going to say they are right, and that I'm glad you'll be able to really relax. Also, yay SLNRLBF, for reminding her of how great she's doing.

I don't like blood oranges. Too sweet.

Much dental~ma for Squeak, so that he can soon be reunited with Sophie.

Nora, I'm glad the pain has backed down a bit.

There are so many wise women and men here who are so generous with their encouragement to me and to others - I just don't know where to begin to say thank you. And not just thank you for all the support you give me, but also for the lovely things you say to people that I care about.

I know she's 14, but really? Joking about liking Nazis?

ChiKat, my high school physics teacher used to joke that his role model was Ghengis Khan because Shaka Zulu wasn't ruthless enough.

Then again, maybe he wasn't joking.

But yeah, kid needs to be called on it.

Teppy is wise.

Steph, I am like you with the cavalier attitude about exposed boobage. I'm a lot more shy about someone seeing my belly than my boobs.

Oh fuck yeah, me too.

*sigh* I remember a time when it was rare to be in a group where no one had seen me naked. Good times.

Yeah. Weird. I sometimes forget that everyone I know now has not seen me naked.

The Boy is excessively cavalier about being naked around people, to the point where, when we were on vacation at the beach with his family, when he came up on the back porch from the beach -- there was an outdoor shower in a wooden enclosure out on the porch, to get sand off -- he actually started to just drop trou (well, grabbed the waistband of his swimsuit in preparation for yanking them downward) before he (fortunately) remembered that THIS WAS HIS FAMILY.

And they are not that kind of a family.

askye, I'm so proud of you. and I cry all the time for things like that . Next time you need help it will be easier to ask.

and yes, the girl needed to be called out. Some jokes are always out of line. and if it isn't a joke...bigger problems

Every so often I feel like I'm breaking some rule by being naked around Emeline after a shower or what have you. Like I honestly feel like someone is going to come into my home and take her. It's very disheartening the naughtiness we put on nakedness as a society. I think if there were more nakedness there would be less body image demons. Like, I wonder how body consciousness in the Mediterranean (where, I've been told nakedness is not so taboo) compares to that in US (where naked = naughty)?

I am also sure that this conversation has been had before? In some incarnation?

askye, Teppy is right. The remarkable thing isn't that you're still affected by something done to you 25 years ago as a child, the remarkable thing is that you've grown to the point where you're tougher than that scar.

You've gained so much in the years I've known you. Soon the scar will be a memory.

It's very disheartening the naughtiness we put on nakedness as a society.

Especially when graphic violence is A-okay, but the nude body is somehow completely scandalous. Janet Jackson has nipples! OH MY GOD. It's ridiculous.

I lost a lot of modesty thanks to childbirth. Jake's birth was at a teaching hospital, and there was a freaking army of people in the room at various stages. When it comes to medical professionals, even the massage therapist I went to recently, I just can't be bothered to get worked up about it.

Every so often I feel like I'm breaking some rule by being naked around Emeline after a shower or what have you.

I think it's fine. My mom was very casual about it with me, in a private way -- she didn't walk around the house naked, but we had discussions about bodies, I saw her going to the bathroom, etc. I've been the same way with Sara, and I think it's one of the only ways to make it seem as natural as it is, especially when they have questions (which they always do when they're little).

My parents, fine, upstanding Lutherans, would often be naked around us. The last time when I was about 12 when my mom and I were in a sauna.

eta: And when I was about 4, I saw my mom bleeding on the toilet, so she explained that to me....

Gerard Way. Adam Lambert. Johnny Weir.

I just wanted to look at it again.