21 August 2014
On the way to the grocery store today, we passed by a tanning salon that is located right next door to the store. On the windows of the business they have a bright, sunny, LARGE advertisement of a fully naked woman lying on the beach. We had already had a couple discussions with Cooper about this kind of thing (as it is very common in Europe), and told Cooper that whenever he sees an inappropriate picture, to simply look away. Easy enough, right? However, as we walked by the very naked woman, Cooper made a very big deal about it, holding his hands over his eyes and yelling loudly, “Oh! Don’t look! Don’t look! Inappropriate! Don’t look!” Of course, that made the other kids look at what he was referring to, and then a very loud quartet of gasps, giggles, and questions ensued.

Tucker, “Mommy, why is that lady naked?”

Addie, “Oh my goodness! (giggle, giggle) You can see her… he he he…!”

Cooper, “Don’t look! Don’t LOOK!! (dramatically shielding his eyes)

Tucker, “Naky! Naky! She is naky!”

Addie, “Mom, doesn’t she know that that’s immodest?!”

Even Tyler stopped, laughed and pointed at the picture. If we didn’t already stand out as a that “huge American family with four loud kids,” then we did now. Passers-by made faces at my very loud, obviously sheltered children, but I tried to just brush it off. Kids will be kids, and they have no filters, and that’s sometimes just okay. Maybe in time, my children won’t even flinch at advertisements such as these, since they really are everywhere here… but for now, I’m really okay with the fact that they recognize it’s inappropriate. It’s a hard thing to explain that even though it seems “normal” here to see pictures of completely naked people in a business window, that it truly is important to keep our bodies clothed modestly, and keep our thoughts and minds morally clean by never looking at pornography. Sure, it makes for awkward situations now, but hopefully, this is one of the many lessons that my children will learn during our time here in Vienna.