While this little ritual is not necessarily good for my own body image, research has found that children who see their parents naked tend to become adults who are more relaxed about their bodies, about nudity and about sexuality. Nudity is accepted as natural in many countries. In Europe, parents routinely bath and undress with their children, and in Japan, the family bath is a communal ritual. In Israel, children romp in the nude at the beach, in France women bare their breasts à la plage and in South Africa, little boys are frequently seen dropping their pants and peeing in the bushes. But in the United States, nudity is equated with sexuality, and nudity between parents and children is frowned upon, as is nudity between children themselves. In a country where many children are sexually abused, people are alert to any act that might imply sexual misconduct.

But with normal exposure to nudity, says American parent coach and child development teacher Barb Grady on www.parenting-plus.com, children can place their bodies within a continuum of development – from budding breasts to voluptuous ones; from a taut tummy to a rounded pregnant one; from a small, hairless penis to an elongated one springing from a crop of curly hair.

'If the only naked bodies children see are the exaggerated, eroticised forms in the media, children are more likely to perceive the human body as a forbidden and erotic object and see their own body as inadequate or even dirty, and to experience anxiety as it develops,' Grady points out.

Our goal as parents, then, should be to help our children feel good about their bodies while still establishing healthy boundaries in the home. All children go through stages of awareness of the body. It starts when they are, literally, still babes in arms: they gaze at their hands in delight, kick their feet and even touch themselves to feel pleasurable sensations, says American therapist Meri Wallace, author of Birth Order Blues (Owl Books) and Keys to Parenting Your Four Year Old (Barron's Educational Series, Inc).

While an infant might smack her lips at the sight of her mother's breasts, there is nothing untoward about this – her interest in her mother's private parts is no less wholesome than her interest in her nose or ears. Up until about 24 months of age, she's unlikely to be fazed by her parents being nude in the home – often she will be completely oblivious to it. And she will welcome her own nakedness because it provides an exhilarating sense of freedom. She may like nothing more than to splash around in a warm bubble bath until she has granny fingers, or strip off her clothes as soon as she gets home and sprint through the house.

But from around age two, awareness starts to creep in.