Jason's weekday mornings follow a fairly predictable routine. He wakes up, which wakes me up, and I go into his room and greet him. I change his diaper, then bring him to the living room, where he plays for a few minutes while I assemble his breakfast. He eats while I make my own breakfast, and then we sit and take our breakfast together. (I eat much more quickly than he does, so even though he gets a head start, I still usually finish first.) After that, I take him back to my and Juliette's bedroom and put him in our bed, where he sits and watches Sesame Street while I take a shower and get dressed. Once I'm done, I get him dressed, we let the dog out, and then it's off to day care. This is how it usually goes, though there's obviously some deviation from this routine, as Jason is often irritable and stubborn in the mornings. I have no idea where he gets that from.

So, earlier this week, I had just stepped out of the shower when I heard Jason calling me. I wrapped a towel around my waist to keep from dripping all over the floor, then stepped into the doorway. It turned out that he wanted to tell me about something that had just happened on the TV; I don't remember what, exactly. I acknowledged him, then proceeded to dry myself off more thoroughly.

"What that?" I heard him ask.

"What?"

"That Daddy penis."

"Oh, yeah. That's my penis."

Jason laughed uproariously in response, and then the two of us continued on with the business at hand: I with my grooming and he with his television.

Neither Juliette nor I are particularly shy about being in various states of undress around Jason. At first it was mainly because we knew he wasn't processing it at all, and it wasn't any different than being naked around the dog. Now, though, he's really starting to notice, and I'm finding myself wondering at what point I'm going to have to pay attention to my state of dress when he's around.

Obviously, neither Juliette nor I walk around in our underwear or in the nude when we have company, or when we're visiting other people's houses. That's just not how we grew up. My stepdad has always had a habit of roaming the house with no pants on, but that's always been something that we've just considered one of his eccentricities. And, anyway, even he doesn't do it except around my mom, my brother, and me.

In our own home, though, both Juliette and I feel pretty free to be undressed when it's just us, other than in areas where we might be seen out the front window. Not that we're nudists or anything, but we leave the doors open when we're showering, and if we happen to need something from another room before we're all the way dressed, we don't cover up before going to get it. That's how it's been since before Jason joined us, and it hasn't changed now that he has.

It's a tricky thing, though. I don't want Jason to grow up being ashamed of his body, or feeling weird about appropriate nudity (whatever that might be). But on the other hand, the idea of me being naked in front of him when he's a teenager seems a little uncomfortable. And on the flip side, I don't want to make him uncomfortable. Though, it may never be weird for him unless we make it that way.

For now I guess it's not really an issue. Jason is neither aware of any stigma attached to nudity nor inclined to take his clothes off in inappropriate situations, so there isn't a problem. Not yet, anyway. But it is something to think about for the future.