For kids? Totally normal. I do get feeling weird about it though, OP. I both think it’s normal and feel weird about my kids running around anything less than fully dressed. (The grandparents who I trust absolutely and who have been babysitting since their infancy were over this weekend and it felt weird that my 3yo ran around in her bath towel before bed. My American raised modesty expectations are what they are.)

It’s absolutely fine. Most western countries outside the US wouldn’t bat an eye to this. These are the fun, spontaneous, carefree memories that make childhood.

Anonymous wrote:When I was about 7 or 8 we went to someone's house and same thing, kids were allowed to swim in their underwear. I recall being quite embarrassed that it was difficult to keep my underwear up while swimming. Underwear are not made to stay up like a swimsuit is. I would not encourage my own children to expose themselves in someone else's yard at a party, not appropriate.

NP here. We don't have a pool. But do have a pond that the kids swim in. My boys swim in their underwear all the time. Although they usually wear the under armor boxer brief kind. So quite snug fitting. Never had a problem with someone losing their undies in the pond.
As far as the OP's concern? It sounds like the problem isn't that the kids were wearing undies at all, but your own weird hang ups over what sounds like a non-event.

When I was about 7 or 8 we went to someone's house and same thing, kids were allowed to swim in their underwear. I recall being quite embarrassed that it was difficult to keep my underwear up while swimming. Underwear are not made to stay up like a swimsuit is. I would not encourage my own children to expose themselves in someone else's yard at a party, not appropriate.

There is very little functional difference between a bathing suit and underwear from a modesty perspective. It's fine.

Since it already happened and is unlikely to ever happen again, what exactly do you want from the peanut gallery here? Really hard to say if in retrospect it was a bad idea or good idea without several pages of details on each person there. You made a judgment based on the info you had, nothing bad happened, and now it's done.

At that age I wouldn’t give it a second thought. Now, if some of the aunts and uncles did it, I’d be a bit surprised but each to their own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Random question that came up this weekend, while at a spontaneous family/friends sort of gettogether. Completely unplanned, everyone just sort of showed up with food last second, due to the nice weather.

I suppose no one expected 1.) the weather to be so nice. and-- 2.) The host's outdoor pool to be opened already (and heated!). So no one really came with swimsuits packed at all. Somewhere along the way, someone in another family told their kids they could swim in their underwear as an alternative. Twenty minutes later, half of them were in the pool.

DS is my first, and only kid, so please forgive my ignorance here. But...

Do folks around here care, one way or the other? I'd say we're generally a pretty private family, when it comes to clothing. HUGE family, and although there were certainly some family members there I wouldn't bat an eye at DS (7 yrs old) being in underwear around. But, there are a couple that I had second thoughts on. I ended up allowing him to join the rest of the kids anyways. But, am I wrong for being a bit hesitant?

That is your issue. Not kids in underwear. Why would you even bring your child to a large group event with people that you feel icky around? That’s pretty messed up.

I don't mean to say I feel 'icky' about anyone necessarily. Perhaps I worded it poorly, my fault.

It's more just a case of we have a very, VERY large family. Like, 10-11 aunts and uncles on ONE side sort of large. I have cousins/family that we either have never seen before, or see them maybe once or twice a year, and that's it.

On the flip side, I also have family that I'd trust with anything (the majority of them really). For some reason though, I just felt odd sending DS running out there in just his underwear. I figured I was being silly, so just tried to ignore it. It's the first time we've ever ran into something like this, so I guess I just kind of semi-panicked, in the moment. Idk. I suppose it was a dumb thing to be nervous about, given I (I think?) was the only one at all phased by it.

Regardless, I guess going forward I'll be keeping a travel bag of swimsuits etc and spare clothes in the car going forward.

Anonymous wrote:Random question that came up this weekend, while at a spontaneous family/friends sort of gettogether. Completely unplanned, everyone just sort of showed up with food last second, due to the nice weather.

I suppose no one expected 1.) the weather to be so nice. and-- 2.) The host's outdoor pool to be opened already (and heated!). So no one really came with swimsuits packed at all. Somewhere along the way, someone in another family told their kids they could swim in their underwear as an alternative. Twenty minutes later, half of them were in the pool.

DS is my first, and only kid, so please forgive my ignorance here. But...

Do folks around here care, one way or the other? I'd say we're generally a pretty private family, when it comes to clothing. HUGE family, and although there were certainly some family members there I wouldn't bat an eye at DS (7 yrs old) being in underwear around. But, there are a couple that I had second thoughts on. I ended up allowing him to join the rest of the kids anyways. But, am I wrong for being a bit hesitant?

That is your issue. Not kids in underwear. Why would you even bring your child to a large group event with people that you feel icky around? That’s pretty messed up.

Yes, kids can swim in underwear. Not a big deal.

No for a public pool. But for a spontaneous dip in a friend’s private pool would be no big deal to me.

Anonymous wrote:It’s unsanitary.

Oh, stop! The pool has chlorine.

Anonymous wrote:It’s unsanitary.

How so? It's no different from a swim suit.

It’s unsanitary.

Random question that came up this weekend, while at a spontaneous family/friends sort of gettogether. Completely unplanned, everyone just sort of showed up with food last second, due to the nice weather.

I suppose no one expected 1.) the weather to be so nice. and-- 2.) The host's outdoor pool to be opened already (and heated!). So no one really came with swimsuits packed at all. Somewhere along the way, someone in another family told their kids they could swim in their underwear as an alternative. Twenty minutes later, half of them were in the pool.

DS is my first, and only kid, so please forgive my ignorance here. But...

Do folks around here care, one way or the other? I'd say we're generally a pretty private family, when it comes to clothing. HUGE family, and although there were certainly some family members there I wouldn't bat an eye at DS (7 yrs old) being in underwear around. But, there are a couple that I had second thoughts on. I ended up allowing him to join the rest of the kids anyways. But, am I wrong for being a bit hesitant?