Outfit Of The Week 8/10/25 – 8/16/25
This is FS’s 300th article!
This week’s edition of “OOTW” is a little different than my usual entries simply because this week’s outfit consists of only one piece of clothing: a bathing suit.
Recently, my wife and I took our kids to the beach. As all parents know, beach days with little kids can be pretty stressful.
You need to make sure they are sufficiently fed and hydrated beforehand. You need to make sure they have adequate sunblock (or protective clothing) on so they don’t get burned. You also need to make sure you are always within arm’s reach of them when they are in the water so that you can fish them out if they’re knocked over by a particularly large wave.
In past years, when the kids were smaller and less stable on their feet, my wife and I would hold their hands the entire time they were playing in the water to keep them safe. Now, they are a little older (eight and five) so we feel a little more comfortable giving them a bit more freedom to play on the beach.
We still keep them as close as reasonably possible and position ourselves right in front of the lifeguards’ chair for extra safety.
Because the kids are a little older and enjoy spending a lot of time playing in the sand as opposed to spending the whole time in the water, my wife and I have discovered that we actually enjoy beach days a bit more because we can do some of the things that WE want to do (what a novel idea!). My wife can relax in a chair while the boys play. I can actually do a little swimming for a few minutes when the kids aren’t actually in the water.
All of this highlights the fact that activities you regularly engage in with your kids will change and evolve over time. You might find that you enjoy those activities more as your kids progress into new stages of life.
Beach days used to be just a headache (an enjoyable headache, if that’s such a thing, but a headache, nonetheless) but now they actually feel kinda-sorta like a fun thing for my wife and me, too.
Dealing with children is stressful a lot of the time. Everywhere you go requires bags and snacks and changes of clothes and water bottles and toys and meticulous pre-planning. That stuff doesn’t really go away as kids get older, but the activities themselves start to look and feel a little different.
A couple years ago “beach day” meant standing for three hours in ankle deep water while constantly bending over and telling crying children that I didn’t have a towel on me to wipe their wet faces. There is still some of that now, but it’s mixed with things like sitting in a chair watching the kids putter in the sand or bobbing around in the surf by myself for ten minutes.
When kids become more capable, days like “beach day” become more enjoyable for the parents.
The bathing suit I wore that day, which is the only bathing suit I own, is a pair of blue trunks from Fair Harbor. My wife got them for me a few years ago and I really like them a lot. I am not sure of the inseam length. Seven or eight inches, maybe? They are short enough to not look like long board shorts (which aren’t all that comfortable when they get wet, I find) but not so short that they will embarrass the children as they get older.
Basically, the length of the trunks is perfectly middle-of-the-road. They aren’t trendy but they also will never look outdated.
The thing I like most about this bathing suit is the fact that is has soft compression shorts underneath it as opposed to the awful white mesh underwear that most other men’s bathing suits have. This makes the suit very comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. It also doesn’t chafe when I walk even if the suit is wet.
Here’s another reason I wanted to highlight my family’s day at the beach… I think it’s important for men to sometimes be shirtless around their kids, or at least not be afraid of taking their shirt off around their kids. That might sound a little weird, but when a dad removes his shirt at the beach it signals to his children that he is not ashamed or embarrassed of his body. The willingness to be bare-chested suggests a physical ease and comfort within one’s own skin.
That’s a profound message for children, especially children who are approaching puberty. Those kids might be consuming media content that makes them feel self-conscious, so it’s important that those kids can look to Dad for confidence.
This doesn’t mean that you need to look like a model. In fact it’s probably better if you don’t, for this purpose, since it will show your kids that there isn’t one particular way for bodies to look.
If a dad is self-conscious and feels uncomfortable being shirtless at the beach, it’s won’t be a surprise if his kids carry on that fear about their own bodies.
Now, if you’re wearing a shirt because it’s protecting you from the sun, that’s a whole different story! I sometimes pop my shirt back on if it’s a particularly hot, bright day because my skin burns easily, sometimes even with sunblock. But the difference is that my kids know I am wearing my shirt for sun-protection, NOT because I am embarrassed to be seen without my shirt.
So, even if you don’t necessarily feel in great shape (especially then!), know that you are doing right by your kids if you confidently doff your shirt at the beach.
Have a wonderful weekend!
