My Guilty Pleasure

One of my guilty pleasures are showers.

As a toddler, only grown ups had showers, kids had baths. Until one day, probably sick of leaning over the edge of the bath to wash my hair, or maybe at my persistent requests, my Mum decided I could have showers too.

As a kid I remember being rushed out of the shower so I didn’t waste the hot water. We had 6 people in our house before the plus ones (because we always seemed to have extra people at our house) so I can in hindsight see that this was justified. It was push and shove to get in the bathroom first, before the hot water ran out. And when someone threatened to flush the toilet you knew your time was up because you didn’t want to be doused in cold water. I longed for the days that my older brothers would move out because it meant I could have first dibs in the bathroom without being muscled out of the way and there was no one waiting in line ready to flush the loo. This meant I could have an uninterrupted hot shower. I was no longer last in line having a quick cold wash. My guilty pleasure grew into HOT showers.

In the not so distant past we had a severe drought and the local council limited everyone to 2minute showers. They even distributed a timer to stick on the wall so you wouldn’t go over your limit. I remember having super quick showers and saving up my allocated minutes, and using up any leftover minutes from my husband to enjoy one longer shower once a week. My love of LONG hot showers was instilled.

Now my desire for a long hot shower has developed an extra requirement – to be ALONE. Now I know there are people out there who are thinking – why alone, I wouldn’t mind sharing a steamy shower with someone. But I know that there are fellow readers out there who understand me. Most days I have company in the shower. A little person who sneaks in the door behind me and takes up all the room, a baby who just needs a quick wash, or an audience as one or both of them sit on the floor and stare at me through the glass door. If they are in the shower it means it can only be lukewarm, I am tripping over the toys that they simply must bring with them, I sometimes end up using baby wash on myself if I even remember to wash me or get the chance in all the chaos. And if they are on the other side of the door it is usually a rush to get out as one decides it is craft time and I know the craft box is on top of a very high set of shelves and I can just hear the scrap of a chair across the tiles over the sound of the shower; and the other who is now crawling is getting into all sorts of fun mischief that any baby in a bathroom can.

My guilty pleasure is a long hot solitary shower. What’s yours? Do you love long hot showers too?