privacy

I remember the day I learned what the word "privacy" meant (which means I was too old to be learning it for the first time.)

An older twelve-year-old girl from church was at our house for the afternoon when I was about seven. She wanted to go to the bathroom without me. Shutting the door in my face, she told me she needed some privacy. I pictured some type of electronic device she was going to pull out of her pocket behind the closed door.

With 3 kids running around, the word was not in our household vocabulary. When I asked my mother what it meant, she said she had forgotten because she hadn't had any for years. I think I understand her now.

We no longer close doors in our home either. Using the toilet without my one-year-old launching a toy behind me into the bowl is as relaxing as it gets. My daughter will let me take showers if the glass door is wide open and she can splash in the water that makes it outside the tub. She much prefers getting wet to a closed door.

I wonder, how old she will be when she first learns the meaning of this coveted 3-syllable word? I wonder, how old I will be when I rediscover what it means?